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: Assault weapons ban backers dread lapse : by Sean R. Sedam : Staff Writer : Sep. 10, 2004 : : Sen. Robert J. Garagiola believes an assault weapons ban is something everyone should agree on. : Law enforcement supports it. Democrats, Republicans and independent voters support it, according to a statewide survey. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Senate have voted in support of an extension of the 10-year-old federal ban, which expires at midnight Monday. : "If Republican senators can support this, President Bush needs to step forward," Garagiola said. : That is unlikely to happen before the federal law expires, state officials said Thursday, meaning that Maryland will be left with laws that ban assault pistols and regulate the sale of certain assault weapons, but it will not ban assault rifles and their copycat knockoffs. : So why was a bill banning assault weapons unable to make it to the floor of the state Senate this year? : "In some areas the senators aren't hearing what the voters were saying and legislators weren't hearing what the voters were saying," said Garagiola (D-Dist. 15) of Germantown. : Garagiola and Del. Neil F. Quinter (D-Dist. 13) of Columbia sponsored the legislation in response to the 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area. Ten people were killed, including six from Montgomery County. : Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr. (D-Dist. 21) of Laurel has been roundly criticized for his swing vote in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee that killed the bill in April. The committee rejected it in a 6-5 vote. : "I can't see anyone in Prince George's County, which has the highest rate of gun violence in the state next to Baltimore city, opposing a ban on military-style assault weapons," said Leah G. Barrett, executive director of CeaseFire Maryland. : Barrett's group will join lawmakers, police officials, doctors and families of victims of gun violence -- including the sister of James "Sonny" Buchanan, one of the first sniper victims -- to mark the demise of the federal ban at two news conferences on Monday. : The first will be held at 10 a.m. at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, which treated the last sniper victim, Ride On bus driver Conrad E. Johnson. The second is set for 1 p.m. at the Open Center in Giannetti's hometown of Laurel. : That is no coincidence, Barrett said. In March, CeaseFire Maryland sent voters in Giannetti's district a letter, signed by Laurel Police Chief David T. Moore and Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger among others, noting Giannetti's vote against the ban. : The state ban would have made it illegal to transport, sell or possess 45 types of assault weapons. Fifteen semiautomatic pistols are already banned in Maryland and the purchases of 45 additional assault weapons require a seven-day waiting period and background check. The federal ban applies to 19 semiautomatic weapons. : Manger, like his predecessor, Charles A. Moose, supports an extension of the federal ban. : "These weapons are not the kind used for hunting or any kind of sport," he said. "They have one purpose, and that's to kill a lot of people real quickly." : The federal law was effective, he said. : "Before 1994, when the assault weapons ban went into place, about 5 percent of crimes in this country involving firearms involved assault weapons," he said. "After the law, that decreased to 1.6 percent." : It might not seem like much, Manger said, but for law enforcement officers that drop could mean "thousands of fewer times a cop faces someone with an assault weapon." : Moore said he has not yet spoken to Giannetti about the state ban. : Giannetti defended his decision. The state must draw the line in order to protect the rights of gun owners, he said: "The bill went too far. The bill was extraordinarily broad." : Giannetti said he took the brunt of the criticism because he was originally undecided on the vote. : Giannetti said he spent two weeks talking to law enforcement officials and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), who assured Giannetti that he would veto the bill. : Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver said the governor has "no official position" on an assault weapons ban, but supports Virginia's Project Exile, which provides mandatory sentences for gun crimes but does not ban specific weapons. : A bill to create a similar program in Maryland failed last year. : "The governor's position is stiff penalties for criminals with guns," DeLeaver said. : But Ehrlich is standing in the way of an assault weapons ban, Quinter said. : "The governor has worked hard against it and the governor's work against it turned Senator Giannetti against it," he said. : With Giannetti blocking the ban in committee, the governor did not have to veto it, Quinter said. : "We ban assault pistols, we should be banning assault rifles," said Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D). "We don't need them in our community. We saw the damage these rifles can do during the sniper shooting. We don't need them around." : A survey of more than 800 registered voters shows that it may be, at least on its face. : The survey, conducted in February for CeaseFire Maryland by Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies of Annapolis, found that 74 percent of registered Maryland voters, regardless of party affiliation, favor legislators passing a law banning assault weapons in Maryland. : Citing that support, Garagiola and Quinter said they will try again next year. : While CeaseFire Maryland has compiled a list of 70 Maryland law enforcement officials who support a strengthened assault weapons ban, both sides of the debate say the specifics of a bill will be crucial. : Giannetti pointed out that both the state police and the state Fraternal Order of Police opposed the bill as too broad. "I feel like I stand with the police," he said. : State police spokesman Maj. Greg Shipley said Thursday, "It was felt that [a ban] was not needed at this time." : Crafting a state ban requires striking a "balance" between protecting police officers and the public and considering gun owners' rights, Laurel's Moore said. "We have to make sure we get it right so that everyone is in agreement in it," he said.

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