Posted on 02/14/2013 8:29:42 AM PST by EXCH54FE
When Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s controversial gun-control bill came up last week in the state Senate, lawmakers held an open hearing that drew more than 1,000 people and lasted more than eight hours.
But so far, members of the House have considered the proposal in secret, with the speaker and other key lawmakers meeting with lobbyists, experts and state officials in a closed-door conference room that has been off-limits to the public.
The 16 members of the group — dubbed the House Working Group on Gun Safety — were assembled by House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) to consider what could be some of the nation’s strictest gun-control measures.
On Tuesday, they spent two hours with a top National Rifle Association lobbyist. On Wednesday, they spent two hours hearing from gun dealers. Previously, they spent two hours each with sheriffs, gun-control advocates, O’Malley’s secretary of health and the state superintendent of schools. They plan to meet Thursday with prosecutors and Friday with police.
All of that will have taken place before the House holds its first public hearing, scheduled for March 1.
The group’s 14 Democrats and two Republicans were chosen mostly from the two House committees expected to vote first on O’Malley’s bill. And a number of them said in interviews that what they’ve heard in the closed-door sessions has influenced their opinions.
The governor’s proposal would require licensing and fingerprinting of gun buyers; ban assault weapons; and increase the number of mental health patients precluded from owning firearms in Maryland.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Politicians cutting deals behind closed doors . . . ain’t it grand?
Closed doors and at midnight is how they did it here in New York against state law on the method of passage of bills.
Closed doors or not, those who impose further restrictions on the people’s rights will not survive reelection. They are picking on the wrong bull on this fight.
Abraham Lincoln's heart would break if he saw this and how far it is from the positive ideals in his Gettysburg Address: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . . that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Sadly, government of the people, by the people, and for the people is now dead. The rule of law is now dead. We are a nation of men, not a nation of laws, and unfortunately those men with power are small-minded, petty men.
Same as with OblameAcare
Amazing how that happens, isn’t it?
And in the “Most Transparent Administration evah!”
Just like the “Most ethical congress evah!”
Right?
On a serious note.....crap like this really pisses me off.
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