Opponents said the bills do not clearly spell out how people can get their guns back after the protective orders expire. More importantly, they objected to the idea of taking away a person's constitutional right to keep and bear arms after a civil procedure that usually considers only one side.
John Josselyn, a vice president of the Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore, called the legislation "feel-good" measures that amount to "an admission that protective orders don't work."
Sen. Alex X. Mooney, a Republican who represents Frederick and Washington counties and sits on the Judicial Proceedings Committee considering the bills, said people intent on harming their partners can use other weapons, such as knives and cars, and that guns shouldn't be singled out.
Brown said the bills would not prevent all domestic violence killings. But he said he was certain they would prevent some.
Last year, 75 of the 500 or so killings across the state were domestic-related. Brown's cousin was one of the victims.
Domestic violence killings, Brown said, "are not the most difficult murders to prevent" because the attacks usually escalate over time. He said about 170 subjects of the state's 7,000 open protective orders are known to have guns.
Mary Crawford, a Carroll County woman, said she was convinced that if a judge had taken away her husband's weapons when she received a protective order, he would not have been able to shoot at her and take one of her children hostage during a fight nine years ago.
Janet Blackburn said her sister, Gail Pumphrey, a Howard County mother, was so terrified of her estranged husband, David Brockdorff, that she carried a picture of his .22-caliber rifle to every court hearing.
Despite a protective order, judges did not take the gun away.
On Thanksgiving Day in 2007, at a park in Frederick County, Brockdorff killed his children, David, 12; Megan, 10; and Brandon, 7; his wife, Pumphrey, 43; and himself.
