Rodricks: Baltimore’s new Lexington Market will test our civic spirit and City Hall

Which comes first: safe streets or more people? More people or safe streets? The question would seem to have an obvious answer, but I don’t think there is one — at least not in this age of endless guns, with some 400 million of them in civilian hands. By one estimate, the United States, with about 4.25% of the world’s population, has 46% of all the civilian-held guns in the world. We have so many guns, so many mass shootings and so much daily violence that my which-comes-first question seems quaint and probably irrelevant. But let’s walk through it.