Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.49) on October 01, 2000 at 21:04:
During the year 2000 session, Del. Valderrama was a sponsor for HB 1356 which would have overturned state pre-emption and allowed communities to institute their own gun control measures on handguns. That measure authorize each county, municipal corporation, and special taxing district to regulate the purchase, sale, taxation, transfer, manufacture, repair, ownership, possession, and transportation of a handgun. That measure also would allow the government to take guns whose owners cannot be found by the government.
Del. Valderrama sponsored HB 595 to permit courts to order "ex parte" (i.e., without hearing from both sides) gun owners to the immediate surrender to law enforcement authorities any firearm in the their possession for the duration of the order. If you are a gun owner, you become guilty without trial and are subject to state seizure or property as a penalty. Moreover the bill provides: "An officer shall arrest with or without a warrant and take into custody a person whom the officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of an ex parte order or protective order in effect at the time of the violation." Ordinarily, police can arrest only with warrents issued by judges or when they have witnessed a crime. To permit arrest on "probable cause" would permit great abuse by authorities.
Del. Valderrama sponsored HB 444 to require state or local law enforcement agencies to destroy unnecessary, unneeded, or forfeited firearms and providing a specified exceptions to the destruction requirement to allow a firearm to be "retained" [read stolen] by a law enforcement agency for official use. That bill is effectively a tax increase since valuable property owned by the state (old police firearms) will be destroyed rather than sold on the commercial market. This is another feel good anti-gun piece of legislation.
Del. Valderrama sponsored HB 279 (the House version of the SB 211 which passed) to prohibit a firearms dealer from selling, renting, or transferring in the State any handgun manufactured after December 31, 2001, unless the handgun has an integrated mechanical safety device and to require a safety course before regulated firearms may be purchased. The safety course is a prior restraint on a Constitutional right which (for the first amendment) has been held illegal for the government to do.
During debate on gun control measures, Del. Valderrama praised the martial law instituted by the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines which was used to seize guns there and suggested the need for the same appoach in Maryland.