Baltimore Mayor Jack Young Floats a ‘Boxing Ring’ as Potential Solution for City Violence

Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young responded to the city’s wave of weekend violence by floating a “boxing ring” as a potential solution.

Baltimore City just suffered a particularly violent weekend. Authorities responded to a number of shootings and one deadly stabbing.

According to the Baltimore Sun, three separate shootings rocked the city Saturday, which resulted in five injuries. The violence only continued to leak into the night.

There were four additional shootings Saturday night into Sunday morning. One left a 17-year-old boy dead and a woman recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. Four other men were shot in separate shootings.

With that in mind, Young made an unconventional suggestion at “Bmore United,” the city’s anti-gun violence event.

According to Young, if people really want to settle up, they should refrain from picking up a gun and “box it out” instead. That way, the “best man” would win, and the “beef” would be over.

“Gun violence has been plaguing this city for the last 10 years,” Young said. “The murder rate in this city and non-fatal shootings have increased. I’m not happy with it and neither should the citizens of Baltimore.”

“If they want to really settle them, we can have them down at the Civic Center, put a boxing ring up, let them go and box it out, those kind of things,” Young continued. “[May] the best man win, and the beef should be over.”

“Those are some kinds of things I’m thinking about, and hoping that we can get these people to put these guns down,” he added.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby also spoke at the event.

“It’s going to take all of us to change what’s happening and we can’t just count on the police,” Mosby told the crowd. “We can’t just look to my office. We can’t just look to leadership in City Hall. The biggest and most important stakeholder in all of this is the community.”