Assault Rifle

A Baltimore County judge handed down a sentence without jail time yesterday for a former gun dealer charged with illegally providing a weapon to a man who died in a firefight with police last year. Sanford M. Abrams, an outspoken firearms advocate in Maryland who once served on the board of the National Rifle Association, entered an Alford plea to a single charge of illegally selling a restricted weapon. The plea approved by Circuit Judge John Grason Turnbull II allowed Abrams to maintain his innocence but forced him to concede that the state had enough evidence to convict him. In turn, Abrams, 58, of Owings Mills, received a five-year suspended prison sentence and one year of probation.

A police stop of a gold Corvette in Northeast Baltimore this month led authorities to a house on Holder Avenue over the weekend that had a cache of unregistered weapons including a World War II-era grenade, a Baltimore police spokesman said Monday. Michael Hudlicka, 59, was released on $35,000 bail stemming from his arrest after the traffic stop March 16 when police said he had a holstered .45-caliber handgun loaded with 10 hollow-point bullets. He could now face new charges besides possession of an unregistered handgun, according to police.

A Catonsville man accused of using an AK-47 assault rifle in the robbery of the Wilde Lake Giant Food store two years ago was indicted a second time by a Howard County grand jury yesterday, seven months after prosecutors dropped the first set of charges because of insufficient evidence. The grand jury returned a seven-count indictment yesterday on armed robbery, assault and other related charges against Duane E. Curtis, 24, of the 1200 block of St. Agnes Lane. Curtis, who was jailed not long after the robbery on an unrelated drug conviction, is also a recent prison escapee, according to a correction official.

Baltimore County police released more details Tuesday about an incident last week in which a man broke into a house in Glen Arm, exchanged gunfire with a resident and later committed suicide. The intruder, identified as Robert Floyd Buss, a 36-year-old Middle River resident with a long criminal record, knew the couple whose house it was, according to Lt. Robert McCullough, a police spokesman. Buss met the couple, Luigi and Aubrey Alvano, at a hair salon they own in Essex. "It appears that his intent was to rob them," McCullough said.

ROCKVILLE -- A Montgomery County judge called Ruthann Aron's actions in an alleged murder-for-hire plan "indicative of a very clever mind" yesterday, as prosecutors disclosed that an assault rifle had been seized from her bedroom and instructions on how to make a silencer found in her car.In arguing successfully that the former U.S. Senate candidate should not be released from jail, prosecutors also made another startling revelation: Aron might have targeted...

The assault rifle looked real to the woman who it was pointed at. She quickly called police and they arrested a 23-year-old man and a teenager near Westminster High School in Carroll County, and charged them with assault and reckless endangerment. Maryland State Police said the "assault rifle" was actually an Airsoft gun "that closely resembled an assault rifle. " Toy guns are supposed to have orange tips so that police and other know they're not real, but police said this one had its tip painted black, "apparently to make it look more like a real firearm.

Nearly two years after a mysterious double-slaying at Loch Raven Reservoir, a Baltimore County grand jury indicted yesterday convicted bank robber Anthony Zenone -- one of two main suspects -- in the deaths of the two Cockeysville men near the reservoir's Warren Road bridge.Zenone, 31, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the June 1995 death of Vincent Brian Young, 26, who was shot several times in the chest, and Vernon Arthur Smith, 46, who died from a blow to the head, said Assistant State's Attorney S. Ann Brobst.

If a killer with an assault rifle would be deterred from attacking a school by a teacher with a pistol, he or she would simply attack a hospital, a church, a sports rally, a political meeting, a bus, etc. ("Gun advocates detail plan to arm teachers," April 3). Unarmed teachers are not the problem. William L. Akers, Windsor Mill Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Last week's vote by the state Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee to kill a bill banning assault weapons effectively shot down the centerpiece of gun control legislation in Maryland this year. The only other measure being seriously considered, a "gun lock" bill requiring owners to keep firearms under lock and key, away from children, was also killed on Friday.Though last week was an apparent setback for gun control advocates, Maryland has made great progress in limiting the availability of such weapons in recent years and there is every reason to believe public support for such measures remains strong.

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