Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.79) on October 14, 2000 at 17:10:
Md. Senate Approves Gun Compromise
State Would Be First to Require Built-In Locks on New Handguns
By Daniel LeDuc, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, March 25, 2000; Page A01
The state Senate gave preliminary approval yesterday to a proposal that would make Maryland the first state in the nation to require that all new handguns be sold with built-in locks.
Beginning in 2003, all new handguns sold in Maryland would have to have built-in mechanical locks that opened by combination or with a key. Until then, Maryland would join four other states in mandating that new pistols and revolvers be sold with separate trigger locks.
However, the legislation does not require Maryland gun dealers to sell personalized, smart guns that allow only authorized users to fire them. Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) had made that a centerpiece of his gun control package this year but was unable to gain enough support in the Senate.
The Senate will take a final vote Monday on the weakened version of Glendening's proposal. The compromise package was brokered just 30 minutes before the start of yesterday's Senate session to avert a filibuster. Both sides predict it will pass.
But the bill still faces consideration in the House of Delegates, where some members want to develop their own proposal and not simply accept the Senate's compromise version. Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany) said he wants to take up the Senate version of the legislation. No matter what version the House considers, opponents led by the National Rifle Association have promised a vigorous fight.
Glendening said the Senate proposal "will ensure that Maryland becomes the national leader in gun safety and responsible gun ownership." Though it fell short of mandating personalized guns, he said, "it's a very strong bill, 90 percent of what we wanted. It will save lives."
The Senate's approval came a week after Smith & Wesson negotiated a deal with the federal government in which it agreed to begin selling all its new handguns with built-in locks within two years and to have personalized guns for sale in three years.
The Maryland legislation would require the state Handgun Roster Board to review personalized gun technology annually, but it would not mandate the technology any time in the future, placating critics who say the technology is not yet feasible.
The proposal would add a mandatory sentence of five years for the illegal possession of a firearm by someone convicted of a violent crime or drug offense. It also would prohibit someone convicted of a violent crime as a juvenile from possessing a handgun until turning 30 years old.
Gun manufacturers or dealers would be required to provide shell casings from new handguns to the state police to help identify the weapons if they should later be used in a crime. And everyone seeking to buy a handgun would have to undergo two hours of safety training--except law enforcement officers, active, honorably discharged or retired military personnel or those who already have a concealed-weapon permit.
The integrated gun locks actually will be less safe because "people will get a false sense of security," said J. Edward Kiser Jr., of the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association. Gun control opponents say many owners would leave guns unlocked, defeating the purpose of having the locks. NRA lobbyist Greg Costa, whose organization has launched a phone campaign to urge members to call their legislators, said the built-in locks are untested.
"It's a de facto gun ban. This type of lock is very dangerous," he said.
Opponents had been preparing to filibuster the proposal in the Senate yesterday. The move potentially could have delayed other critical legislation with the end of the General Assembly session only two weeks away.
The gun measure reached the full Senate only on Thursday, after a rare parliamentary maneuver in which a majority of senators voted to pull it from the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where it had been stalled. That move angered opponents, and Thursday's Senate session turned acrimonious.
The heated rhetoric prompted Minority Leader Martin G. Madden (R-Howard), who supported the legislation but was upset by the parliamentary maneuvering of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's), to try to broker a peace.
Late Thursday and early yesterday, he met with Glendening's chief lobbyist, Joseph Bryce; the Senate's leading gun control opponent, Sen. Timothy R. Ferguson (R-Carroll); and the governor's main ally, Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Montgomery).
"The Senate of Maryland has always been a congenial body. That was not evident on the floor [Thursday]," Madden said. "I didn't want to see that continuing."
The final compromise by the governor's office, which already had agreed to strip the personalized gun provision from the legislation, seemed slight: Glendening's allies agreed to add two engineers to the Handgun Roster Board for technical expertise to evaluate personalized gun research. They recognized NRA-sponsored safety training as a way of fulfilling the training requirement to buy a handgun, and they exempted those with military or law enforcement training from the requirement.
But Ferguson said it was a significant victory for gun rights advocates that the personalized gun mandate had been stripped from Glendening's proposal. Though he doesn't support the built-in lock mandate, Ferguson said at least gun owners kept control of how to use their firearms and could use or not use the locks as they see fit.
"It's not the gun telling you what to do. It's you telling the gun what to do," he said. "That's the best thing about this."