1. How many carjackings and home invasions have there been? If there have only been one or two or a small handful, then it may not reflect overall crime trends. People have a tendency to make faulty judgments about overall facts based on one case.
As for the home invasions, did they occur when the homeowner opened the door to a stranger (as happened in at least one case)? If so, don’t do that and the chance of it occurring to you are very low. Home invasions are relatively rare. If there were home invasions on my block every week, I would certainly get a gun, but if the risk is far less than that, the risks may outweigh the benefits.
Overall, statistics show that people with guns in the home are far more likely to die from suicide or being shot by others in the house than to shoot an intruder. Think about it — even if you had a gun, how likely would it be that you had time to grab it during a home invasion, unless you wore it on a holster at all times (not recommended!) or had several guns planted in various locations throughout the house (not recommended!)?
2. Think about moving elsewhere — there are many frum communities with far less crime than Baltimore. Anyway, you can check the block by block crime stats — perhaps you’re already in a safe area of Baltimore.
3. Take normal precautions applicable everywhere, like always leaving your house and car doors locked, avoiding dangerous areas, not going out late at night, not getting in disputes with people in public such as while driving, staying away from places with people who are drunk or on drugs, etc.