Maryland Gun Bill Hearings This Week – Your Action Is Needed

Maryland Gun Bill Hearings This Week – Your Action Is Needed

Maryland ––(Ammoland.com)- House Gun Bill Day is Tuesday, March 8th.

Tuesday March 8th is the so-called Gun Day for the House Judiciary Committee. The hearings begin at 1:00pm.

The information that you need to attend the hearings and make your voice heard is included below. Your active participation in this process, whether through phone calls, letters, emails, or written and oral testimony is crucial to not only advancing our rights, but also protecting yourself from further infringements on those rights.

The tools are in your hand. We hope that you will make use of them.

Attending the hearings:

For those that have not attended a hearing in the past, below are some general guidelines for attendance as well as the practicalities of actually getting to the hearing:

COMING TO HEARINGS IN ANNAPOLIS:

• Parking is at the Navy/Marine Corps stadium (Exit 24 off of RT 50) and is cheap. Plan your arrival to be at the hearings by Noon.
• Catch the shuttle and ask the driver to let you off at the House or Senate Office Buildings, respectively.
• Pass through security with a photo ID. Leave any knives, multi-tools, etc at home.
• Go to hearing room and stake your claim for a seat.
• If submitting written testimony, you will need 35 copies for the House, 20 for the Senate and it must be submitted by 11:00am.
• Dress is business or business casual. Let’s make a good impression by not playing into the stereotypes that they expect.
• Sign up sheets for testifying are inside the hearing room. Sign up to register your opinion, even if you don’t plan to speak.
• Typically, the folks representing you from the gun groups speak first as they have a coordinated plan of testimony.
• Be concise, polite, and stay on a single topic. If the day is getting long, it’s OK just to say “I support/oppose this bill”.

Attending A Committee Hearing
Security Procedures
Map of Legislative Complex

Bill Positions and Actions for March 8th 2011

•HB-161 – Use of Firearm in the Commission of a Crime of Violence or a Felony – NO POSITION Cross-filed as SB174

•HB-172 – Criminal Law – Diminution Credits – Possession of a Regulated Firearm by Person Convicted of Crime of Violence – NO POSITION Cross filed as SB173

•HB-241 – Criminal Law – Restrictions Against Use and Possession of Firearms – NO POSITION Crossfiled as SB240

•HB-252 – Crimes – Possession of Loaded Handgun or Regulated Firearm – Enhanced Penalties – OPPOSE Cross-filed as SB239

Send an email to the House Judiciary Committee and express your opposition to HB252. This bill would levy the same punishments on someone who accidentally has a loaded firearm in their vehicle coming from the range as it does the hardened criminal intent on victimizing someone. Further it adds mandatory sentences of 18 months to 10 years with no parole for someone under 21 years of age who is in possession of “ammunition solely designed for a regulated firearm”. With only a very few exceptions, there is no ammo designed “solely” for use in a regulated firearm, This clause could lead to someone under the age of 21 being charged because a States Attorney interprets 9mm or .223 as being “solely” for use in a regulated firearm. This demonstrates that Maryland’s legislature is continuing to write law about a subject that even it can not understand.

•HB-330 – Detachable Magazines – Maximum Capacity for Ammunition – STRONGLY OPPOSE

• Use the quick email tool to contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee. Tell the members of the committee that you are opposed to HB330.
• Remind them that the standard capacity magazines for most handguns range from 12 to 17 rounds.
• The 20 round limit on magazine capacity was arbitrary and the 10 round proposal even more so.
• This would be yet another de facto firearms ban, along with ballistic fingerprinting, the handgun roster, current 20 round limit, and regulated long gun list, because manufacturers will not retool to make magazines specifically to be Maryland compliant.
• This reactionary move has nothing to do with the Tucson shootings as the Glock magazine used there is already prohibited in Maryland.
• Law enforcement officers use magazines with a greater than 10 round capacity for a reason. In fact the standard issue Beretta that the State Police uses has a 14 round magazine.
• This restriction would effectively eliminate many of the shooting sports in Maryland that require magazines of greater than 10 round capacity.
• The very use of the term “high capacity magazine” is a public relations fabrication because standard capacity for most handguns is anywhere from 12-17 rounds.

•HB-343 – Public Safety – Handgun Permits – Repeal of Finding Requirement – STRONGLY SUPPORT

• Use the Quick Email Tool to contact the House Judiciary Committee to hell them that you support HB343.
• Remind them that 41 states, including our neighbors, recognize their residents’ right to self-defense.
• Tell them that it is time for Maryland’s capricious and discriminatory system of issuing permits to end.

•HB382 – Correctional Services – Diminution Credits – Use of a Firearm in Commission of a Crime – NO POSITION

•HB519 – Firearms – Knowing Violation of Specified Prohibitions – Penalty – OPPOSE

• Again, with very few exceptions, there is no ammunition solely designed for use in a regulated firearm. To continue to add language to Maryland Code that attempts to deal with this language is stupidity illustrated.
• This bill is a clear example of legislators trying to make yet more gun law even though they have absolutely no knowledge of the subject.
• The best thing the General Assembly could do it to remove this section of existing code altogether since it is unenforceable.

•HB705 – Crimes – Pawn Shop Sales of Firearms – Prohibition – Withdrawn!

•HB730 – Public Safety – Regulated Firearms – Mental Disorder – STRONGLY OPPOSE

• This just might be the most offensive bill of the year.

•HB730 would prohibit a dealer from holding a license to sell firearms if he/she has been treated for a mental disorder in the last five years.

• Similarly, anyone treated for a mental disorder in the last five years would be prohibited from purchasing, renting or OWNING a regulated firearm if that person has been treated in the last five years for a mental disorder.

•HB803 – Criminal Law – Possession of a Handgun – Institutions of Higher Education and Hospitals – OPPOSE

• This bill not only further codifies the victim rich environment of the state college campuses and hospitals, but it also creates a minefield of problems for the lawful gun owner who may be transporting their firearms otherwise in compliance with Maryland law. There are few college campuses and hospitals that have well-defined boundaries and a gun owner could face penalties from this law because they simply do not know where a campus or hospital begins and ends. Further, there are outreach centers of state colleges and universities that are not on traditional campuses and are not well-marked.
• Use the Quick Email Tool to contact the House Judiciary Committee and voice your opposition.

•HB1008 – Firearms – Detachable Magazines – Maximum Capacity for Ammunition – OPPOSE

• Oppose for the same reasons as HB330 above.

•HB1043 – Regulated Firearms – Applications for Dealer’s License – Record Keeping and Reporting Requirements – OPPOSE

• This bill will effectively make all firearms in the state of Maryland subject to a recordation of sale and thus creating a database of these firearms that is available to the State Police. Currently, non-regulated firearms are not subject to recordation of sale in the manner that handguns or regulated long guns are since they are only done on form 4473 and not Maryland paperwork. This is a huge leap in the intrusion of the state into affairs where they have previously been unable to go. Given the anecdotal reports of the Maryland State Police using the recordation of sales of handguns to cross reference ammunition purchases and then paying midnight visits to gunowners’ homes, we are leery of granting any further powers to the state.
• It also allows the State Police to inspect the inventory and records of a dealer at any time, thus creating potential for abuse by that agency whereas they could harass a dealer to the point that they could not conduct business.
• What we need you to do: Use the Quick Email Tool to contact the House Judiciary Committee and let them know that you oppose this blatant power grab that is an intrusion on Maryland gun owners and obstructive to Maryland gun dealers for the reasons outlined above.

Maryland Shall Issue, Inc.
1332 Cape Saint Claire Road #342
Annapolis, Maryland 21409
240-446-6782

Mission Statement: Maryland Shall Issue is an all volunteer, non-partisan effort dedicated to the preservation and advancement of all gunowners’ rights in Maryland, with a primary goal of CCW reform to allow all law-abiding citizens the right to carry a concealed weapon; and to the education of the community to the awareness that ‘shall issue’ laws have, in all cases, resulted in decreased rates of violent crime. Visit: www.marylandshallissue.org