Marylanders Lose Even More Personal Freedom

Despite the protests of thousands of gun rights supports and constituents who packed Annapolis daily, despite the pro-Second Amendment testimony in the state house that dragged on for hours into the night, ending at 4 a.m. one night, and despite the fact that supporters of the bill have admitted that S.B. 281 will not reduce crime, the Maryland General Assembly on Thursday, April 4^th voted to unconstitutionally restrict our right to bear arms anyway.

This gun-grabbing legislation, euphemistically titled “The Firearms Safety Act of 2013,” takes massive steps to make handgun ownership nearly impossible and practically criminalizes owning a handgun or semiautomatic firearm while doing nothing to deter or punish criminals. Del. Doyle Niemann (D-Prince George’s) has even gone on record saying the legislation “is not a solution to violent crime, murder or gun violence.” Well if it’s not any of those things, then what was the purpose of passing this bill?! I was under the impression that your purpose was to prevent things like the Newtown Shooting, which was violent crime, murder and gun violence all-in-one, from happening again. If your “Firearms Safety Act” won’t stop any of those things and, by simple logic, won’t prevent another Newtown, then what the hell does this legislation do?!

I’ll tell you what this legislation does. Del. Niemann also called this bill “a good first step.” What he and his crony colleagues mean by that is that it’s a good first step to flying in the face of the Constitution and taking all guns away from all law-abiding citizens. According to University of Maryland Rifle and Pistol Club President Ken Lan, the law as it is written is already a de facto ban on handguns because the state simply does not have enough state police certified handgun instructors or range facilities to go around. The state police, despite the illegality of the move, could also just indefinitely delay handgun background checks. Lan says he knows some people who have been waiting over 45 days for a handgun despite the waiting period being just 7 days.

The law is also a clear violation of both the Constitution and a Supreme Court ruling which makes it illegal for government to require licensing, fees, etc. to exercise a constitutional right. This law requires prospective handgun owners to undergo a criminal-style fingerprinting (much like sex offenders) and to pay all fees involved in that, which are presently about $34.50. Handgun owners must additionally pay an application fee for their handgun licenses and an additional fee every time they seek to renew their license, which would occur every 10 years. And if that weren’t enough, anyone who owns a “copycat weapon” when this law goes into effect in October, has to register that weapon with the state police and pay a penalty of $290 to keep it, a clear violation of both privacy and Second Amendment rights.

So what now? The most obvious reaction might be to start collecting petition signatures in order to get the law to a referendum vote, which Del. Pat McDonough (R-Baltimore and Harford) had vowed to do. But that isn’t the best idea. The bill of rights is something that isn’t subject to the ballot, so if we take this to a referendum, we’d be saying the law isn’t a violation of our basic constitutional rights. The best thing we can do right now is to take this law straight to the courts and fight it out there. Judges have shown favor to gun rights in Maryland recently and with the clear unconstitutionality of this law, we have a shot in the courts.

Regardless of what happens next, the point is that we cannot give up this fight. We must defend our constitutional and God-given rights from the liberal elitists in Annapolis, Washington and state capitals across the country who seek to take them away. And we must teach these “politicians” that their job is to legislate for the people, not to legislate for themselves like they seem to always do.

Jimmy Williams