Maryland Senate Votes on SB211
and Rule 43

Reported by an observer on 23 March 2000 at 6:18pm.

Voting for the motion meant that the ultimate passage of the year 2000 SB211.  
This bill gave us integrated gun locks, ballistic fingerprinting, and the
useless safety course requirement for buyers of regulated firearms. 
Voting for Rule 43 are:

BLOUNT, COLLINS, CONWAY, CURRIE, DeGRANGE, DELLA, DORMAN, EXUM, FOREHAND,
FROSH, GREEN, HOFFMAN, HOLLINGER, HUGHES, KASEMEYER, KELLEY, LAWLAH, MCFADDEN,
MIDDLETON, MILLER, MITCHELL, PINSKY, RUBEN, SFIKAS, TEITELBAUM, VAN HOLLEN 

The 19 Senators who voted against the Rule 43 motion to bring 
SB211 out of committee are:

Astle, Baker, Bromwell, Colburn, Dyson, Ferguson, Hafer, Haines,
Hogan, Hooper, Jacobs, Jimeno, Madden, McCabe, Munson, Neal,
Rosser, Stoltzfus, Stone

Senators Harris and Mooney did not vote, because of some confusion.

From another observer on 29 March 2000.

Sometimes, such as when the Democratic leadership so desires, things can
happen fast in Annapolis.  Senate President Mike Miller's success in
bypassing the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee (JPR) to bring Governor
Glendening's "Smart Gun" proposal (Senate Bill 211) to the Senate floor
salvaged an otherwise "dead" bill this session.  This was accomplished on
March 23rd by a motion that was made to return SB 211 from JPR to the Senate
Floor under a rarely used procedure called Rule 43.  This passed by a vote
of 26 to 19.  Then a vote was taken to move the bill to second reader so
that it could be amended which passed 27-18.  Amendments were offered by
Senator Van Hollen .  Senator Haines moved that the amendments be laid over
for one day (which is a procedure also allowed under the rules).

The amendments were then adopted on the following day.  As you have
probably read in the media reports, pro-gun Senators had plans to filibuster
the bill on third reader, but certain deals were cut with the Governor and
Senate leadership.  We do not have any insider information on any of these
deals.  On March 27th, the Governor's gun bill SB 211 was debated on the
Senate floor and received a favorable vote of 26 yeas and 21 nays.

THE VOTE ON THE MOTION TO PLACE SB 211 ON SECOND READING IN ABSENCE OF A
COMMITTEE REPORT:

All Senators who voted YES on the Rule 43 motion, voted YES, and Senator
Thomas L. Bromwell (District 8) also voted "YES." 

All Senators who voted NO on the Rule 43 motion except Bromwell, voted NO.
Plus, Senators Andrew P. Harris and Alexander X. Mooney also voted "NO."

Reported by an observer on 27 March 2000 concerning the final vote.

The Governor's gun bill SB 211 was debated this afternoon on the Senate
floor and received a favorable vote of 26 yeas and 21 nays.

Voting yea: (26)  President Mike Miller, Senators Blount, Conway, Currie,
Della, Dorman, Exum, Forehand, Frosh, Green, Hoffman, Hogan, Hollinger,
Hughes, Kasemeyer, Kelley, Lawlah, Madden, McFadden, Mitchell, Pinsky, 
Roesser, Ruben, Sfikas, Teitelbaum, Van Hollen.

Voting nay: (21) Senators Astle, Baker, Bromwell, Colburn, Collins, DeGrange,
Dyson, Ferguson, Hafer, Haines, Harris, Hooper, Jacobs, Jimeno, McCabe,
Middleton, Mooney, Munson, Neall, Stoltzfus, Stone.

Here is the list of several of the Senators who voted against SB211 in
the final vote but who voted earlier to allow the bill to come to the 
floor out of committee:

Bromwell
Collins
DeGrange
Middleton

Collins, DeGrange and Middleton voted to bring the bill out of
committee.  Bromwell voted yea in first vote and later switched his vote
to nay when he saw the vote would carry.

All voted to bring bill to 2nd reader which passed 27-20.  If they had
voted nay the vote would have been 23-24 and failed.

Of the three, Bromwell is the worst offender.

Once the final outcome was known, they switched sides in order to claim
that they opposed the bill.  They must think the people are too stupid 
to follow the preliminary committee votes.

Anti-RKBA votes on the year 2000 SB234

In the same year, pro-RKBA senators tried to petition SB234 to 2nd reader status 
in the senate.  SB234 would have converted Maryland to a "shall-issue" concealed
handgun carry permit state.  The vote is nearly the mirror image of the rule 43
vote above.  Some differences came from senators who felt the use of that rule
improper and voted against it for that reason and not because they favored RKBA.
That vote is recorded at:

Voting Yea - 16 
  BAKER            HAFER       JACOBS      MUNSON  
  COLBURN          HAINES      JIMENO      SFIKAS  
  DELLA            HARRIS      MCCABE      STOLTZFUS  
  FERGUSON         HOOPER      MOONEY      STONE  

Voting Nay - 28 
  MR. PRESIDENT    CURRIE      GREEN       LAWLAH      ROESSER  
  ASTLE            DeGRANGE    HOGAN       MADDEN      RUBEN  
  BLOUNT           DORMAN      HOLLINGER   MCFADDEN    TEITELBAUM  
  BROMWELL         EXUM        HUGHES      MIDDLETON   VAN HOLLEN  
  COLLINS          FOREHAND    KASEMEYER   MITCHELL  
  CONWAY           FROSH       KELLEY      NEALL  

Not Voting - 2 
  DYSON            PINSKY  

Excused From Voting - 0 

Excused (Absent) - 1 
  HOFFMAN  

Notice that Senators Astle along with Bromwell, Collins, DeGrange, and 
Middleton voted anti-RKBA on this motion too.

Last revised on 1/10/04 by Phil Lee.