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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Registering Guns In Maryland
Maryland politicians should be focusing on the state's budget crisis. Instead, some lawmakers are wasting the remaining days of the legislative session to pass more gun-control laws. These efforts to limit freedom should be shot down.
One of the slew of proposed gun laws getting serious attention is the Firearm Safety Act of 2010, which was introduced by state Sen. Brian E. Frosh, Montgomery County Democrat. The bill promises to tighten up Maryland's supposedly "lax" registration and licensing laws, but its main legacy will be to waste money. By diverting funds from crime policies that work - like more cops on the beat - and discouraging gun ownership, the proposal will increase crime.
Registration programs in Hawaii, the District of Columbia and Chicago can't point to any crimes that have been solved as a result of gun registration. In Canada, since the 1930s and up to a few years ago, the government could point to only three handgun crimes solved using registration information.
Long-gun registration hasn't solved a single crime in Canada, and Canadians are pushing to eliminate the program after wasting a couple billion dollars on it. Last autumn, Canadian Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said, "Canadians don't need another report to know that the long-gun registry is very efficient at harassing law-abiding farmers and outdoors enthusiasts, while wasting billions of taxpayer dollars." Case closed.
If a gun is registered and left at a scene, it could in theory be traced back to the owner to solve the crime, but this is almost never the case. First, crime guns are virtually never left at the scene of the crime. When they are, it's usually because the criminal is seriously wounded (or killed), and thus likely to be caught anyway. Second, even when guns are left at the scene, they generally are not registered to the criminals responsible, who either stole the weapons or otherwise obtained them illegally.
Freedom works; gun controls don't. Gun registration carries the added offense of wasting scarce resources in a troubled economy. Marylanders deserve better from their elected representatives.
Go Ellen!
ReplyDeleteNext thing they will try is anyone who has a gun stolen and it is used in a crime they owner will be charged! Stupid stupid stupid
ReplyDelete11:13 AM
ReplyDeleteAccording to this new bill if you do not notify law enforcement within 72 hours that your handgun has been stolen or lost, you will be held accountable!
What happens if you go on vacation for a week and your safe gets stolen and they are able to use YOUR gun in a crime?
Your Screwed!
SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteNo one has ever been able to tell me the practical use for an automatic weapon in civilian life. And please stop with the taking our guns away so we can not hunt or target shoot. It's never been about that and never will.
ReplyDeleteMaryland is run by the largest group of retards, a close tie with California. I like living on the eastern shore but ultimately I think laws like this will persuade me to move back to PA.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, who cares about the weapons? Shouldn't we all be more concerned about the bullets? If bullets were tracked at point-of-sale AND made much more expensive, wouldn't that change things?
ReplyDeleteWhy not an ammo tax? And, if you have a weapons violation on your record, you don't get to buy ammo at all?
And I find it very unlikely that any gun owner could be held liable for a crime committed with their weapon in the very limited scope of them being on vacation, and their gun is stolen.
Most of these so-called anti-gun politicians are hypocritical & self-righteous. Remember when the anti-gun advocate Senator Soles from N.C. shot an intruder at his home?
ReplyDeleteIf not, below is a link to one of the articles regarding the incident:
http://www.usacarry.com/forums/2nd-amendment-politics/9705-anti-gun-senator-shoots-intruder.html
"automatic weapon"
ReplyDeleteAutos have been banned for decades. Time to brush up on your gun laws before you make stupid comment like that. Semi auto is not the same thing. It’s diluted liberal democrat idiots like you that sponsor these laws. And I’ll move outta this state before I give up any of my second amendment rights!
criminals dont register guns....duh
ReplyDeleteYou can still own a full auto weapon in MD, it is just not cheap to get the permits and licensing.
ReplyDeleteThis bill has nothing to do with full auto weapons, it is dealing with making it tougher to buy/own/sell handguns.
Taxing/tracking ammo is not a good solution. Ammo is already going up in price, pretty soon the only people that will be able to afford it will be the criminals that use their drug money to buy it with.
I like to go out and shoot targets with my friends and also protect my home against the ever increasing crime rates here in Salisbury, nothing wrong with that.
Click Click Boom,
ReplyDeleteTaxing ammo is not the answer. I buy both handgun ammo and long gun ammo and a lot of it! As a law abiding citizen, why should I be penalized? The cost of ammo is already high, enough so that I have started to reload all of my spent casings to save some money. Now I wouldn't mind if they started tracking the purchase of ammo; however, that doesn't stop criminals from using others to purchase their ammo in a "straw purchase-like" manner.
I currently don't mind the process to purchase a regulated firearm (ie Handguns). It's somewhat extensive, but since I have nothing to hide then the $10 fee and 7-10 days that I have to wait doesn't bother me any. The State could stricken up the approval process, but then what would that accomplish? It would simply make law abiding citizens have to jump through more hoops to purchase firearms-it wouldn't stop criminals from getting their hands on firearms because they generally don't go through a FFL dealer to get firearms. Under the current process, a person with a criminal history cannot purchase a firearm. Criminals are called Criminals for a reason-they broke the law! They break the laws to get their hands on firearms to begin with so what's going to change with stiffer laws? NOTHING for criminals, but I would have to jump through more hoops to buy my guns.
They can't do anything more legislatively to prevent criminals from purchasing firearms-they already can't. So what's the next step? You put cops on the street to catch them. You stiffen up the penalties for illegal firearm possession and you ENFORCE THEM! No more letting firearm law offenders off easy.
In addition, one of the last firearm bills that went through the State required all new regulated firearm purchases to submit a spent casing fired from the actual firearm as a source of a ballistic fingerprint of the firearm. The problem with this is that every single individual from the gun manufacturer to the FLL dealer to the MSP that touched that casing would have to sign an affidavit that it was never tampered with, exchanged or altered in order for it to be admissable in court. This doesn't happen so what does that mean for this requirement? It means that the hundreds of thousands of spend casings in little envelopes that MSP has lying around in a big pile are non-admissable in court! It's a wasted piece of legislation solely aimed at restricting gun sales simply because a lot of manufacturers do not provide spent casings when they ship out their firearms to the dealers therefore their regulated firearms cannot be sold in Maryland. This requirement is not neccessary for the purchase of used regulated firearms.
I have guns, I will keep my guns, and I will use my guns. No law will stop me from that! If someone breaks into my home I will shoot them, it is that simple for me. They can take those bills and shove them.
ReplyDeleteI personaly don't own a gun... but I will within the next week or two. I think the bills are just crazy. I do not like my rights to be violated and it feels as if they soon will be. I feel I should be able to protect my family and my neighbors families. With all these criminals running around and the fact that it can take 15 min. or more for the MSP or wicomico officers to arrive, what I as a mom do... Well thats why I soon will have my first gun. I don't plan on having a chat with the thug over a cup of tea. I have a right to protect my young and myself and I shall.
ReplyDeleteFrosh and those like him constantly attaching our Constitutional rights are absolutely no different than an enemy of war trying crumble and destroy the walls of our security.
ReplyDeleteDay after day, I find myself more and more compelled to protect myself from these politicians, more so than the highest ever increases of crime and home invasions in our area. Todays politicians are far more dangerous than any thugs or gangs threatening our homes and neighborhoods in the wee hours of darkness. These white collar thugs are bold and blatant and attach and destroy in broad daylight. They got their hands on the housing and banking markets and destroyed them. They have our fuel supplies in their back pocket, going out of their way to keep us dependent on foreign oil, constantly grabbing away precious lands containing resources. They've taken over and threatened auto makers, and will soon threaten all manufacturing with cap and trade. For years now sending/forcing all our jobs overseas. Taxed us to the very max on everything, beyond what we can bare, inventing new taxes everyday. Now at the threshold is health-care....or so they call it.
ReplyDeleteAt this new rate of theft and attach, I honestly dont see us being able to survive or repair our Country by the time another election is here.
They need to add another paragraph to the bill, Anyone who votes for the bill will be in the posse that comes to get our guns. "CHICKENS", bet it won't pass.
ReplyDelete1. criminals don't obey any gun laws.
ReplyDelete2. other weapons: knives; vehicles; a bat; keys; rocks; sling shot. need i say more.
3. stop with all the regulations and laws. they only pertain to law abiding citizens. criminals will get the weapons they want. leave us alone.
4. everyone that wants to carry a gun should be allowed with no problem.(not children of course.) then crime would go down because the criminals wouldn't know who has a gun and who doesn't.
5. crime rates have gone down dramatically in areas where law abiding citizens are allowed to carry guns.
If you don't register them, they won't know you have them. If they don't know you have them, they can't take them.
ReplyDeleteIn their eyes, I am a criminal. But I can protect myself.