Gov. Martin O’Malley
It took more than 12 hours over the course of two days, but the state’s House of Delegates passed one of the country’s strictest gun control measures by a 78-61 vote after wading through amendments and listening to impassioned debates.
The Firearms Safety Act of 2013 was first proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley a month after a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., touched off a national debate on gun violence. The measure would designate certain weapons as assault weapons and ban them, limit the number of rounds of ammunition allowed in a magazine and tighten licensing requirements for gun owners. But the debate isn’t over yet, opponents reminded the General Assembly.
The bill now returns to the state Senate, which passed a similar version last month. If senators approve the House’s minor changes to the legislation, which they are expected to do, the bill will go to O’Malley for his signature.
Del. Pat McDonough (R-Baltimore and Harford) said he would petition the legislation to go to referendum so state voters can have the final word in whether O’Malley’s proposals become law. That would require an extensive petition effort to gather thousands of residents’ signatures before it could go on the ballot. In the last two years, McDonough successfully led efforts to petition the DREAM Act and same-sex marriage to the ballot before both were ultimately upheld.
“When the politicians have done their work in this body and this chamber concludes on sine die, the people of this state will go to work,” McDonough said, adding “the people will have their choice.”
Supporters of the bill maintained it was a necessary public safety measure that would save lives while also protecting Second Amendment rights, which opponents have often said would be violated by more stringent gun control measures.
“I think we have a chance to move Maryland forward, a place where Marylanders feel protected, safe and treated fairly,” said Del. Jon Cardin (D-Baltimore).
While opponents often argue such measures intrude on residents’ constitutional rights to “keep and bear arms,” supporters believe gun ownership entails responsibility to ensure safety and that some of the other measures, such as those that would require purchasers to submit to digital fingerprinting, are relatively mild.
“The right to own a weapon comes with the responsibility to prove that you can use that weapon in a responsible manner,” Cardin said. “I don’t think that having to give your fingerprints in order to own deadly weapons is such a terrible, terrible violation.”
There was no shortage of allusions to the founding fathers, with many lawmakers evoking the merits of the Second Amendment and warning that restricting gun rights is a step toward a less free and more repressive society.
“[The Second Amendment] is absolutely sacred to many of us in the state,” said Del. Michael Smigiel (R-Caroline, Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne’s), “[The founders] were some of the greatest minds the world has ever known. They didn’t throw together in just a few hours a document and say, ‘That’ll do until somebody thinks that it’s been too long, that those freedoms are no longer necessary.’”
The legislation won’t solve gun violence problems, said Del. Doyle Niemann (D-Prince George’s), but it’s a much-needed first step in rectifying a national epidemic.
“This is not a solution to crime — violent crime — it’s not a solution to murder, it’s not a solution to gun violence; nor is it the first step down the slippery slope to fascism, socialism, communism and anarchism, or whatever else you want to say,” Niemann said. “It is a very small step in a number of different directions that will indeed make a difference.”
The House floor also set the stage for even further-ranging debates on the issue of gun violence. While Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) supported many of the provisions of the bill, he also said the fervor for gun legislation has only come about because the recent tragedy in Newtown, Conn., has given lawmakers a chance to seize the opportunity to push their politics. However, the perpetual gun violence in cities such as Chicago and Baltimore that continues to claim lives every day, he said, has been largely ignored in recent debates.
“But for this action in Connecticut, we wouldn’t be talking about this, because at the end of the day … [the bill] doesn’t do anything to affect change in the inner cities,” Wilson said. “It really does hurt my heart every time I see it. This has been a lifetime of watching this: Crack never being a problem until it gets out of the inner cities, violence never being a problem until it sneaks into the communities, and now we talk about how much we now care about gun violence when these men have been dying for years.”
