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Tuesday, March 08, 2011

'Gun Day' Coming To House Committee

When the House Judiciary Committee meets tomorrow, just days after it finished wrestling with a contentious same-sex marriage proposal, lawmakers will be greeted by another lightning rod issue: Guns.

Tomorrow is the House committee's annual "gun day," when hundreds of Second Amendment and gun control advocates clash over bills intended to shape how Marylanders purchase, carry and use firearms. This year, a dozen gun bills are on the schedule, including a pair backed by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

But if recent history is any indicator, the vast majority of firearm proposals debated in the House committee are poised to fail. It's the product of what advocates and lawmakers on both sides of the issue have described as the General Assembly's long-running stalemate when it comes to guns.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

and most likely it will still be impossible to get a cc permit

Smallsbury_Steak said...

Punish the people who do the crimes, not me! I WILL NOT BE DISARMED...PERIOD! I have a right to protect my family, my home and myself and no blue blooded politician is going to take that away from me. I enjoy the peace of mind as well as the recreation I get out of all of my firearms.

Go look at the violent crime rates by State and compare it to gun control for that State. Most of the States with the least restrictive gun control have some of the lowest violent crime rates in the nation! The same goes for the other side of the coin. NY, NJ, IL, SC and CA have some of highest capital and violent crime rates in the nation yet they have the most restrictive gun control laws. DC has ultra restrictive gun control and has the highest violent crime rate (double that of second place South Carolina!). MT, WY, RI, UT, SD, NH, VT, ND and ME (rank 41-50 respectively) have the lowest violent crime rates in the nation, yet have some of the least restrictive gun control laws! Vermont is typically revered as having the least restrictive gun laws in the nation, yet they have the second lowest murder rate.

Why are violent crimes less frequent in less restrictive states? It's simple: if you know that there is a higher probably of me carrying a firearm are you going to be more or less likely to mess with me? Concealed carry and
especially open carry installs respect out of fear of the person carrying the firearm. That person knows that I can adequately defend myself so why would they attack me?

So explain to me how gun control has actually been effective? The stats don't back it up nor do criminals care about gun control. Criminals are going to get their hands on firearms one way or another. The people that this legislation is truly affecting are the law abiding citizens of Maryland.

I'd like to mention one more thing... Somewhere at a Maryland State Police facility, there is a large room filled with little tiny manila envelopes of spent casings also known as "ballistic fingerprints" from NEWLY purchased regulated firearms in Maryland. These spent casings are not collected from the purchase used firearms manufactured prior to 2001 (I believe that is the date). The ironic thing about these worthless fingerprints is that in order to be used in court ever single individual that has have handled the casing or its envelope from the manufacturer, to the FFL dealer to the State Police would have had to sign an affidavit stating that the casing was not altered, switched or tampered with. That being the case (no pun intended), Glendening's "landmark legislation" has done nothing more than create a recycle center for brass and nickel or a dream stock facility for bullet reloaders such as myself! And Child Safety locks were aimed at stupid parent, but it all reality, if my son saw me remove an Omega Lock from the chamber of one of guns or disable an internal lock he would be able to do it himself. Child safety locks are for the irresponsible parent, a locked safe is for the responsible parent. Lock your guns and ammo away from your children!