“Listen to what I say…not what I do!”

Jim Mathias and the 2 nd Amendment

By Mike McDermott

Recently I was reviewing some of the pro 2nd Amendment bills that are being offered in the Maryland Senate for 2015. These are the bills that have the attention of the NRA and many Maryland firearms groups. I took the time to research the bills along with the sponsors and co-sponsors and found that Senator Jim Mathias is not a sponsor or co-sponsor on any of these bills.

This really came as no surprise to me since, historically, in his years in the General Assembly, one would be hard pressed to find a pro 2nd Amendment bill sponsored by Mathias. They simply do not exist. That is not to say that he has not voted against a few bad bills, but he has never been the deciding vote cast on legislation. In other words, the liberals had enough votes to “allow” him to vote the other way.

Lately I received some correspondence from an Eastern Shore gun rights group who are focused on these legislative issues. They reached out to Senator Mathias for his position on these important bills. They received an email from the senator’s Chief of Staff as follows:

On behalf of Senator Mathias, I have confirmation that the Senator is a co-sponsor on every bill he sent to you.   It can take time for information to be processed by each Committee, hence the missing information. Please let this office know if there are any additional questions.

Thank you.

Dorotheann S. Sadusky , Chief of Staff

It is easy enough to view sponsors and co-sponsors of any bill filed with the General Assembly in either the House or Senate. While many of these bills have democrats listed, you will not find Senator Mathias name as a sponsor or co-sponsor. You can go to the list ofbills sponsored or co-sponsored by Mathias this year and see that he had no trouble having his name assigned to legislation he wanted to sponsor…except for gun legislation.

The reason for the “missing information” provided by his chief of staff is bureaucratic misdirection. There are times, when a bill gets legs and looks like it is going to move, that a “Johnny come lately” legislator will ask to be amended onto a particular bill as a “co-sponsor”. You can always tell when this happens as their name will appear at the very end of the co-sponsor list as opposed to being in alphabetical order like the original bill sponsors. In this case, the senator got caught with his 2nd Amendment pants down!

If his chief of staff’s email is taken at face value, the Senator is not telling the truth.

Here is a list of the bills that Mathias indicated that he had sponsored or co-sponsored this year. You can view the links and see for yourself, but you will not find his name:

SB-100

Public Safety – Permit to Carry, Wear, or Transport a Handgun – Qualifications

SB-261

Public Safety – Handgun Permit Background Investigation – Armored Car Company Employees

SB-326

Public Safety – Handgun Permits – Term

SB-407

Public Safety – Handgun Permits

SB-447

Sales and Use Tax – Tax–Free Periods – Hunting and Sporting Goods

SB-454

Handgun Permits – Reciprocity

SB-736

Public Safety – Handgun Identification Requirements – Repeal

“Liberal Jim” lied about many things during our recent campaign for the senate seat. Our elected officials must never be allowed to lie and get away with it during their service or in their campaign rhetoric. Honesty and integrity are not options for public service, they must always be prerequisites.

Marylanders, take back your state!