Testimony to the Maryland Legislature
and to the public at large

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2000 Gun Bills

  • Consolidated Testimony on All Bills for 2000
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    2001 Gun Bills
  • HB1172 & SB439? - Reduce Judge's power to change sentences
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  • HB185 & SB758 - allow external trigger locks (overturn part of SB211)
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  • SB218 - legislature to authorize local gov. to sue gun manufacturers
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  • HB239 - removes sexist language from carry law
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  • SB475 & HB622 - fake project Exile bill with new gun control
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  • HB26 & SB282 - penalizes criminal use of body armor
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  • SB384 - lock up your safety if children under 16 are around
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  • SB384 in Word - lock up your safety if children under 16 are around
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  • HB919 & SB785 - all firearm crimes have same manditory sentences
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  • SB 220 & HB 806 - "Shall Issue" -- an early effort
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  • SB209 & HB305 - bans bullet proof body armor for everyone --
                         amended to ban armor for felons w/o permit
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    2002 Gun Bills
  • SB 81 Handgun Permits - Retired Law Enforcement and Correctional
                         Officers
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  • SB223/HB542 Gun Safety Act of 2002
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  • SB224/HB543 Gun Accountability Act of 2002
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  • SB374 Crimes - Firearms - Child Access
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  • SB379 Declaration of Rights - The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
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  • SB 379 Declaration of Rights - The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
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  • SB382 Self-Defense Act - Rule of Law
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  • HB27 Income Tax - Credit for a Gun Safe
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  • HB 318 Firearms Offenses - Project Exile
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  • HB 605 Citizens' Protection Act of 2002
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  • HB606 Homicide - Use of Deadly Force in a Business Establishment or
                         Residence - Defense
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  • HB1075 Regulated Firearms - Interstate Importing - Prohibited
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  • HB 1368 Crimes of Violence - Second Degree Assault

    • 2003 Gun Bills
     
  • SB208 Ballistic Fingerprinting for all Firearms
                      Attorney General of Calif. Report
                      (See also our Ballistic Fingerprinting Brief and
                      John Lott's Bullets and Bunkum article)
    •
  • HB844/SB494 Assault Weapons Ban
                      See also the Maryland State Police Testimony:

    Maryland State Police AW Ban Testimony
    		•

    2004 Gun Bills
     
  • HB859/SB137 Testimony favoring "shall issue"


  • CeaseFire MD began a strong effort to ban semi-automatic rifles with a
         big lie about a Maryland Cop being killed and cops at risk.  Grabber
         propaganda was printed by the Post and the Sun during the year so,
         it was necessary to conduct a public relations campaign to counter
         media deceptions.  The Washington Post called for passing the Maryland
         assault weapons ban while admitting the reasons for the ban contained
         lies.  Their article, “A Roll Call on Weapons” and our response correcting
         the record is given here.  The Sun repeated false claims about assault
         weapon killings cops in "Md. lawmakers hear gun-ban testimony." Our
         correction of the record was ignored.


  • A considerable research effort was mounted in anticipation of and to
         prepare for CeaseFire MD's claim of risks to police based on the Violence
         Policy Center (VPC) report "Officer Down, Assault Weapons and the
         War on Law Enforcement," 2003.  Although not identified by the VPC, our
         research discovered the name of each of the 41 officers the VPC claimed
         was killed by an "assault weapon" and we gathered the circumstances of
         their deaths. This research was the basis of testimony we presented.  The
         table gives a summary of the findings for the 41 officers.  More
         information about this research may be found on our briefs page.
         Not only was CeaseFire MD revealed as lying about risks to police
         officers, but one of their board members testifying to the Senate was
         revealed as claiming academic degrees which came from a diploma mill. 


  • Both Bryan Miller and his sister, Lisa Miller Delity, published false claims
         about the gun used to kill their brother FBI agent Mike Miller later in 2004
         telegraphing their intent to continue the battle in 2005.


  • The original letter to the Post showing Bryan Miller's false claim and
         several corrections were submitted to the Post including one to their
         Ombudsman.  The Post published no correction of the record.
    •
  • HB1298/SB288 Testimony against Assault Weapons Ban of 2004

         See the Democrats' justification in the graphic below:
          Democrats Pick New Guns to Ban

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    2005 Gun Bills
  • HB 948 Maryland Assault Weapons Ban (same old, same old)
    •
  • SB116 Assault Weapons Criminal Penalty Enhancement Act
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    2006 Gun Bills
  • HB 1367 Maryland Assault Weapons Ban (Quinter et al try again)
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    2007 Gun Bills
    After the large effort in 2004 to pass a ban on semi-automatic rifles and shotguns with 20 senate sponsors and 71 house sponsors, interest by Maryland Democrats has diminished to the point that no ban bill was offered in the House in 2007 and no bill at all by the House or the Senate in 2008.  The Maryland Senate interest in a ban was still high in 2007 with a ban bill SB 43 sponsored by the 21 senators: Lenett, Britt, Conway, Currie, Exum, Forehand, Frosh, Garagiola, Gladden, Jones, Kelley, Kramer, Madaleno, McFadden, Muse, Pinsky, Pugh, Raskin, Robey, Rosapepe, and Zirkin.  The return of an effort to ban semi-automatic rifles can be expected in the near future after elections in 2008 (see model bill).

    This 2007 ban effort included support from a report by CeaseFire MD titled "EVERY 48 HOURS An Analysis Of Assault Rifles An Analysis Of Assault Rifles Traced To Crime In Maryland," September 2006, authored by CeaseFire Maryland Inc. Board Member Susan Peschin.  Comments on this rather poor CeaseFire document were posted to Maryland Alert in a series of messages ending in January 2007 in time for the 2007 legislative session.  The content of these messages has been edited and is offered here for wider distribution as eight linked documents. 

  • Mass Murder:      CeaseFire demonstrates ignorance about mass murder in the U.S.
  • "Every 48 Hours" myth:      Pechin trace numbers placed in context and tracing deceptions identified.
  • Trace Rate Inflation:      Pechin creates her own assault weapon definition to inflate the numbers.
  • Willful Ignorance:      Pechin shows ignorance of hunting practices and laws and ignorance about firearm functioning and capabilities.
  • The One-in-Five Lie Again:      Pechin serves up the warmed-over lie from the VPC that one-in-five police officers being killed with assault weapons.
  • Selective Quotes:      Pechin ignores new Justice Dept. Report on AW ban because that report refutes her "Every 48 Hours" propaganda.
  • Quote carelessness and warmed over mush:      Pechin is careless about quote source and re-hashes old paid work.
  • A-logical, self-contraditory, and sloppy statistics:      Documentation of the extraordinarily poor construction of this document by Pechin.

    • The posting (copied from another web site) "Abatement of Gun Violence" by Det. Bailey, Montgomery County [Maryland] Police Department, Firearms Investigations Unit, has interesting additions to the facts available about criminal use of "assault weapons".  The conclusions of Det. Bailey are:
      Ceasefire Maryland has insufficiently researched, inaccurately reported, and mainly misunderstood gun abatement facts in the following ways:
          Exaggerating the threat of so-called, “assault” firearms,
          Grossly misrepresenting the statistics on registration and tracing of guns, and
          Conjuring up a nebulous definition and discussion of “assault” firearms.


    Updated by Phil Lee on 7/29/10.  Contact maryland_alert# at Yahoo dot com (remove the #; sorry for being obscure, but web mail address
    scavenge programs make this practice necessary).