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MD Lawmakers Hope to Create Gun Offender Registry
guns.com ^ | 4 May, 2012 | dabneybailey

Posted on 05/06/2012 7:20:52 AM PDT by marktwain

Legislators from a Maryland county are planning to introduce a law that will create a gun offender registry in a fashion similar to the sex offender registry.

This new law would not create something quite as extensive as Family Watchdog, the national sex offender registry, but it would still keep constant records of the whereabouts of gun offenders. Under this plan, gun offenders would be required to personally report to the police every six months and provide an update of any crimes committed, aliases, current residence, and recent employment.

The type of crimes that would make someone qualify for constant government monitoring include anything from scratching off a gun's serial number to committing a crime with a handgun. Anybody who doesn't report within the specified window is subject to a $1,000 fine or 12 months in prison for each day that they are late.

Listen, all jokes aside, we understand what the lawmakers are trying to do here. They figure that a bad egg with a gun is someone who is a danger to public safety, and to an extent they may be right. On the one hand, these records will help the police keep track of gun offenders so that they can prevent or solve crimes more quickly. Nonetheless, just because something is helpful for the police doesn't make it right. Starting a gun registry that will put gun offenders on the same level as pedophiles is probably going overboard, and will undoubtedly cause quite a bit of public outcry.

This law was sponsored by Councilwoman Karen Toles, who has been pushing for improved public safety since entering office. She is already responsible for enhancing public safety regulations for nightclubs and businesses, and has helped to establish firmer security requirements.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: banglist; constitution; gunoffender; md
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This seems like an extension of probation. I wonder how you get off the list, and how likely the list would expand to anyone who was in violation of the numerous and growing list of non-violent "gun crimes", such as owning a BB gun that is not registered, when you are a resident of New Jersey.
1 posted on 05/06/2012 7:20:55 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

While we are at it, let’s have a government offender registry.

I’m sure that would fill up a few terabytes of disk space.


2 posted on 05/06/2012 7:22:52 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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To: marktwain

And, of course, because of the need to reduce the size of the overall data group, somewhere in the bill would require that ALL guns in Maryland be registered, purely as an economical data reduction effort....nope, no plan to register all guns here, folks. No plans whatever.


3 posted on 05/06/2012 7:26:24 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: unixfox

Great idea. Government offenders are more dangerous to our country than gun owners. These people seem to want to make more and more laws. Don’t we have enough laws on the books? Just enforce the ones we have.


4 posted on 05/06/2012 7:30:23 AM PDT by RC2 (Buy American and support the Wounded Warrior Project whenever possible.)
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To: marktwain

I think we need registries on:
1) People that beat up other people they outweigh by 75 lbs or more.
2) People that beat up other people in groups of 3 or more
3) Home invaders
4) Persons convicted of more than 3 serious crimes in a 3 year time period


5 posted on 05/06/2012 7:31:00 AM PDT by expat1000
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To: marktwain

People caught pissing in an alley (indecent exposure) can be charged with a sex crime, making the sex registry somewhat meaningless. This effort too will probably be no different between violent criminals and folks who violated any obscure gun control law.


6 posted on 05/06/2012 7:32:45 AM PDT by umgud (No Rats, No Rino's)
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To: marktwain
Starting a gun registry that will put gun offenders on the same level as pedophiles is probably going overboard, and will undoubtedly cause quite a bit of public outcry.

Not to mention starting a run on claw hammers and baseball bats.

7 posted on 05/06/2012 7:33:12 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: marktwain
provide an update of any crimes committed

Yeah I'm just checking in. I shot a couple of folks and robbed a few banks and liquor stores in the last 6 months. Oh and I jaywalked a bit./sarc

8 posted on 05/06/2012 7:37:27 AM PDT by xp38
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To: marktwain

—another example of legislators / legislatrices with too much time on their hands, with the opportunity to grab a headline ever-present-—


9 posted on 05/06/2012 7:39:43 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the media or government says about firearms or explosives--)
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To: unixfox
While we are at it, let’s have a government offender registry.

How about a knife, bow and arrow, and (shudder), an SUV registry.

Seriously, these people are so stupid you wonder how they even survive or reproduce.

10 posted on 05/06/2012 7:41:24 AM PDT by OldCorps
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To: marktwain

Just wait till 90 percent of all the photos are of black people. Discrimination!!!


11 posted on 05/06/2012 7:41:49 AM PDT by rabidralph
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To: rabidralph

Can anyone please explain exactly, what is a “gun offender”?

I have never ever “offended” any guns in my entire life time. I treat each one with a high degree of respect, care for them regularly, feed them as needed and keep them ready for use when called upon. Guess that should keep me off their list.


12 posted on 05/06/2012 7:48:26 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: rabidralph

Can anyone please explain exactly, what is a “gun offender”?

I have never ever “offended” any guns in my entire life time. I treat each one with a high degree of respect, care for them regularly, feed them as needed and keep them ready for use when called upon. Guess that should keep me off their list.


13 posted on 05/06/2012 7:49:35 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: marktwain
Under this plan, gun offenders would be required to personally report to the police every six months and provide an update of any crimes committed, aliases, current residence, and recent employment.

So basically you'll be on supervised probation for the rest of your life.
14 posted on 05/06/2012 8:12:11 AM PDT by andyk (Go Juan Pablo!)
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To: marktwain
This seems like an extension of probation. I wonder how you get off the list...

I suppose it's even worse than probation. Probation is given as an alternative to doing your time in jail or prison. There is an endpoint to it. I don't get the sense that the author of this proposal wants people to ever be removed from the list.
15 posted on 05/06/2012 8:20:51 AM PDT by andyk (Go Juan Pablo!)
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To: umgud
Well, this is it today.

But once it's passed, I'd imagine that it's much easier to amend it in dark corners when nobody's watching.

Govt never changes.

16 posted on 05/06/2012 9:11:25 AM PDT by HeartlandOfAmerica ("We have prepared for the unbeliever, whips and chains and blazing fires!" Koran Sura 76:4)
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To: OldCorps

Luckily for far left radicals, it does not take any intelligence to reproduce, even single cell bacteria accomplish that.


17 posted on 05/06/2012 11:33:50 AM PDT by W. W. SMITH (Maybe the horse will learn to sing)
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To: marktwain

Citizens with no criminal record should be able, at will, to carry, concealed or open, any firearm they please, hand gun or long gun, anywhere they please without let or hindrance by government authorities.

Self defence is an innate right of existence, even a new born baby will try to defend itself.


18 posted on 05/06/2012 11:47:38 AM PDT by W. W. SMITH (Maybe the horse will learn to sing)
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To: marktwain; Abundy; Albion Wilde; AlwaysFree; AnnaSASsyFR; bayliving; BFM; cindy-true-supporter; ...

Maryland “Freak State” PING!


19 posted on 05/06/2012 7:16:35 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Occupy DC General Assembly: We are Marxist tools. WE ARE MARXIST TOOLS!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I just left MD for UT. After 30 years of MD FREAK state nuttiness, I could take no more.


20 posted on 05/06/2012 7:27:53 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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