Posted on 02/28/2007 10:58:23 AM PST by neverdem
With the support of a new Democratic governor, advocates for a state assault weapons ban said yesterday that they have the legislative backing and momentum to pass a bill this session.
"We are hopeful that the new political landscape will make a difference this year," said Sen. Michael G. Lenett, the Montgomery County Democrat sponsoring the proposal.
Gov. Martin O'Malley and state Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler are behind a proposal that would forbid the transport, sale, possession or purchase of military-style assault weapons. The 11-member Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, which heard hours of testimony yesterday on the proposal, appears split on the matter. If the bill were defeated in committee, it would take 16 senators to petition the initiative to the floor; the bill has 21 co-sponsors.
A proposed state ban died last year in...
--snip--
"Assault weapons are so frequently used in crime that one assault rifle is traced back to a Maryland crime every 48 hours.
--snip--
In addition to the ban, the bill would impose a registration requirement and give gun owners a 60-day period, effective Oct. 1, to file the required information with the secretary of the state police.
Opponents, who packed the committee room and adjoining lounge wearing buttons with a slash through the bill number, testified yesterday that their Second Amendment rights would be violated should the bill be passed.
"We as abiding citizens will not be controlled by criminals," said John Hutchinson, a Montgomery County hunter and competitive marksman.
Clyde Lutter, a Gaithersburg engineer, said the proposed ban would "make us all less safe."
"The Second Amendment is not about hunting. It's not about sport. ... It's about self-defense," he said.
--snip--
A spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police lobbied against it, however, arguing that it would be difficult to enforce.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
I wonder which grabber came up with that tripe?
Easy. To them everything is an assault weapon.
"Assault weapons are so frequently used in crime that one assault rifle is traced back to a Maryland crime every 48 hours."
Is it the same gun? Maybe they should get rid of it. Its probably that evil black gun I've heard about.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The authors of the constitution didn't make the bill of rights 2A contingent future crime rates, even if this tripe were true.
"Assault weapons are so frequently used in crime that one assault rifle is traced back to a Maryland crime every 48 hours."
Even if this was true, which it is not, that is about 180 weapons state wide a year, or perhaps .01% of the weapons used in crime in the state.
it is a solution in search of a problem.
I call BS on this statement.
It's also a poorly contructed sentence. Are we talking about "assault weapons" or "assault rifles"? A car can be an assault weapon. Are the firearms equipped with selective-fire capability? If not, they're not real assault rifles, but semi-autos that look like real assault rifles.
As a MD resident I am disgusted with O'Malley and his pretty boy left wing agenda. He had an absolutely horrible record in Baltimore as mayor on crime and education and the fools in this state elected him anyway. Between sections of Baltimore City who vote Democratic no matter how bad the candidate is and the far left fringe in Montgomery county we have one of the most incompetent politicians in office out there in power now.
Baltimore's per capita murder rate is higher than Baghdad's.
He is intent on raising taxes, doing away with the death penalty and going after business with increased regulation. Oh, and he wants to change our emission standards to be in line with CA's. Guess I'll be moving to NC sooner than I planned.
He wants a higher office as well.
Can someone explain how a ban would have stopped Malvo and Mohammed from bringing their Bushmaster AR from Washington state?
Would they have stopped at the state line and said, "ooh, wait! Assualt weapons are illegal in Maryland, we must take our private Jihad to Virginia!"
This gives me a small amount of hope. In 2003 I was one of the many people who were outside in the adjoining lounge. That bill (2003) never made it out of the committee. This year's bill is essentially the same, probably worse.
If this bill makes it out of the committee, we in the Peoples Republic of MD are SCREWED and can kiss our Second Amendment rights good bye.
Here is the "study" that they site:
They "trace" guns by if the gun was involved in any crime, even if the gun never fired. IE the gun itself was stolen, or a drug dealer busted but the gun was in the closet. That's how they got "every 48 hours"
Their shooting examples didn't happen in Maryland (closest was the DC snipers) and they used high profile crimes as examples.
It's a completely bogus study.
A spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police lobbied against it, however, arguing that it would be difficult to enforce.
Confiscating arms from freemen can be dangerous to your health. They should stick to the occasional criminal.
Same old crap.
Written in 1993. Excerpts:
Assault Weapons: Police Data Shows BATF Traces to overestimate Criminal use by 1000%
nearly 80% of BATF gun traces do not involve guns used in violent crime; the traces are for technical violation of gun control laws, such as possession of a firearm without a license.
Yeah, right.
A "trace" means LEO ran a serial number check and traced it back to the dealer. It happens during traffic stops, means nothing/zero/zip/zlich/zed/nada in a crime context.
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