Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.161) on February 10, 2001 at 13:51:
http://www.times-news.com/op/2000/letter2000/let4491.htm
Wednesday - November 15, 2000
Taylor vote hurts gun buyers in Maryland
To the Editor:
Last week Casper Taylor wrote an essay outlining his stand on gun control.
In his letter he stated that he didn't harm his constituents. I found out
yesterday that we were, in fact, harmed in the worst way.
It was brought to my attention that the manufacturers have decided NOT to
sell their products in Maryland. So it looks like Casper didn't ban
handguns in Maryland, he just helped the cause by signing onto a law that
made the supply go away!! The weapon I was asking about was a 357 magnum
revolver. A legal 'sporting' gun. It was not a Saturday Night Special, an
assault gun, nor was it a semi-automatic.
A SPORTING gun that is not available to an honest citizen, wishing to
purchase for cash from a licensed dealer, willing to 'reluctantly' wait 15
days, willing to pay the $15 Brady tax (cost of background check).
Everyone thought the increase in handgun sales last year was because of Y2K
fears. Not true. It was because of a report let out of Joseph Curran's
office. It was 54 pages of propaganda where he wanted to ban the sale of
handguns in the state. I read the report, then I went out and bought one
while I was free to do so. As of this date, I can only buy a used one, for
$100 more than a new one was last month.
Thanks Casper. We knew we could count on you to look out for us!
Gerald Wilson
Cumberland
http://www.times-news.com/op/2000/letter2000/let4529.htm
Superintendent defends ballistic 'fingerprinting'
To the Editor:
A letter dated Nov. 15 written by Mr. Gerald Wilson to your newspaper
stated, "Taylor vote hurts gun buyers in Maryland." Speaker Casper Taylor is
a premier legislator in Annapolis and I assure you represents his district
very well. I have had the opportunity to work with Speaker Taylor over the
past five years and I know he would not do anything that he did not feel was
in the best interest of his constituents.
Mr. Wilson states that, "the manufacturers have decided not to sell their
products in Maryland." Major manufacturers have been in contact with the
Firearms Section of the Maryland State Police Crime Laboratory to ascertain
how they can comply with the provisions of the law, and have actually
submitted shell casings to the laboratory as required by statute. The
technology known as "ballistic fingerprinting" is available to law
enforcement as an investigative tool to examine shell casings found at the
scene of a crime for possible match to a known gun. In addition to the
manufacturers shell casing database recently implemented, the laboratory has
participated in a federally designed and supported crime gun database known
as Drugfire. Nationally, over the past six years, 43,082 shell casings were
entered in the Drugfire system, 2,494 resulted in cold hits, which helped
find and arrest perpetrators of gun crimes. This evidence is invaluable to
law enforcement when they are investigating crimes involving handguns.
Mr. Wilson should also ensure that his facts are correct. Maryland law
requires a $10 application fee for the purchase of a regulated firearm and
the statutory waiting period is seven days, not 15 days.
Mr. Wilson states he could not find a .357 magnum revolver in his area. I
can only speculate that semi-automatic pistols may be more in demand than
revolvers and possibly the dealer in his area does not have enough demand to
maintain a stock of revolvers.
Since my tenure as superintendent of the Maryland State Police, I have
witnessed Speaker Taylor's concern for the area he represents and all of
Maryland's citizens. I believe the Speaker will continue to work with the
General Assembly to make Maryland a safer place for all of its citizens. As
he says it, "One Maryland."
David B. Mitchell
Superintendent
Maryland State Police