Firearm

Hindered by cold, wet and windy weather at the start of the state's two-week firearm deer hunting season, as well as an abundance of acorns, fewer deer were taken this year, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Though hunters took more than 36,000 deer during the two-week firearm season that ended Dec. 8, there was a nearly 20percent drop in the state's most populous region and a 12 percent drop throughout the rest of the state. Brian Eyler, deer project leader for the DNR, said last month that officials hoped for a harvest of between 40,000 and 50,000 of the state's minimum estimated population of about 230,000 deer.

Laurel police report felonies, arrests and property crimes. Prince George's County police report violent crimes and property crimes. Anne Arundel County Police report major crimes. Howard County police report major crimes, break-ins and car thefts. City of Laurel Dorset Road, 15600 block, May 9. Unforced burglary. Seventh Street, 600 block, May 9. Robbery with firearm. Main Street, 500 block, May 8. Theft from motor vehicle. Irving Street, 100 block, May 8. Theft from building.

Howard County police have charged a suspect in connection with an incident last week in which five shots were fired into the Savage firehouse on Lincoln Street. Shaun P. Gormley, 20, was taken into custody Thursday, police said, and charged with reckless endangerment, assault, destruction of property and discharging a firearm in a metropolitan area. No one was injured in the Jan. 26 incident. Police said several firearms were recovered from Gormley's car and his Prince George's County home in the 9000 block of Briarchip St., Laurel.

Nobody blames cars for drunk driving, so why do some people blame firearms for gun violence? Might the term "gun violence" be more indicative of a deep, irrational fear of an inanimate object? W.J. Cooper, Salisbury Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

A Sykesville man who was placed on probation after pleading guilty in June to charges of beating his 15-year-old daughter won permission yesterday to use a firearm for recreational purposes.William Howard Poole, 46, of the 4800 block of Woodbine Road, asked Carroll Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. to dismiss one of the conditions of probation that prohibits his possessing, carrying or using a firearm.Mr. Poole was given probation before judgment on the charges of battery and resisting arrest and placed on three years of probation.

Maryland Transportation Authority Police arrested a Florida man Sunday morning after security agents found a loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage at BWI Marshall Airport. Michael Menlo Smith, 58, was found with a 9 mm Glock 17, loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition, and two magazines with another 10 rounds each, according to police and the Transportation Security Administration. Police confiscated the firearm and ammunition and arrested the man. There was no impact on airport operations, according to TSA. Smith told police he forgot the firearm was in his luggage, spokesman Sgt. Kirk Perez said.

City police are notifying gun shop owners and sales outlets in Baltimore to comply with a recently enacted city ordinance aimed at protecting children from firearm injuries.Dennis S. Hill, a police spokesman, said letters have been mailed the nine gun-shop operators and other sales outlets in the city advising them of the change in law.Some parts of the ordinance, which requires all firearm owners to keep their weapons secure from children, apply directly to shop owners, Mr. Hill said.The spokesman said the law requires that the shop owners offer to sell or give the firearm purchaser a trigger lock or similar device to prevent the firearm from discharging accidentally.

A member of the Bloods gang received a 10-year-prison sentence yesterday in federal court in Baltimore after his conviction on a gun possession charge. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Lanikko Santiago, 26, of Baltimore, to the prison term followed by three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. According to the testimony presented at his two day trial, Santiago was a passenger in the rear seat of a vehicle on Nov. 8, 2006 that was pulled over by Baltimore City Police detectives for a traffic stop.

Federal prosecutors in Baltimore brought fewer cases this year against felons caught illegally carrying firearms, but those gun-toting criminals who did reach federal court got substantially longer prison terms than in recent years, officials said yesterday. At the same time, prosecutors brought more cases under two other federal firearm statutes, which Maryland's U.S. attorney said could have a greater impact on violent crime in Baltimore and across the state. "We're doing the right thing; what we're doing works," U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio said in an interview yesterday.

A Gwynn Oak man previously convicted of drug and firearm offenses was found guilty Wednesday of violating his probation and was sentenced by a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to three years in jail. Quentin Benjamin Adams, 19, also faced a charge of failing to comply with the terms of the Gun Registry Act. But that charge was dropped after the probation violation. Adams pleaded guilty in February to illegal drug and firearm possession and was sentenced to three months in jail. He was required to register as a gun offender under a new law which took effect this year.

Besides drinking beer, there are two other pastimes that Bavarians love: driving and sport-shooting, including hunting. Bavarians build BMW's "Ultimate Driving Machines. " Bavarians' national dress is hunter green. No one who visits Munich is likely to miss the German Hunting and Fishing Museum in the middle of the main shopping street. When in Munich, I saw the world's best-known opera devoted to shooting and hunting, Carl Maria von Weber's " Der Freischütz " ("The Marksman"), with its unforgettable Hunters' Chorus singing, "What on earth can equal the pleasure of hunting?"

Let us beat the gun-rights crowd to the punch and agree with them right here and now that firearms aren't the only dangerous devices out there in dire need of greater regulation. It seems that certain types of fireworks may need to be added to that list, too. For those who aren't up on the latest word from the Boston Marathon bombing investigation, it appears some or all of the gunpowder allegedly used in the manufacture of bombs by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev came from fireworks.

A Parkville man allegedly seen carrying an antique firearm on an elementary school's property Monday afternoon has been charged with possessing a dangerous weapon on school grounds, according to Baltimore County Police. Robert Cleary, 30, walked across Villa Cresta Elementary School property on the 2600 block of Radar Avenue with a Civil War-era rifle at approximately 3:30 p.m. as students were being dismissed, police said. Investigators determined he was meeting a friend at the intersection of Ardmore Avenue and Radar Avenue to sell the weapon at a nearby pawn shop, where it was later recovered.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. Wade Avenue, unit block, between 9 p.m. April 5, and 7 a.m. April 6. Generator, power washer, table saw and miter saw stolen from unlocked shed. North Rolling Road, 100 block, between 8:30 a.m. and 6:10 p.m., April 5. Two TVs, Mac PC, iPad and iPod stolen.

With Gov. Martin O'Malley's landmark gun control bill given final approval by the Senate on Friday and waiting only the governor's signature to be enacted into law, Democrats in Annapolis are likely hoping that the next step will be talk of the "R" word. And we don't mean Ruger, Remington, revolvers or repeating rifles. Would you believe referendum? Oh, gun control advocates won't necessarily be happy about the prospect of seeing the gun legislation taken to referendum - it would, after all, delay the effective date for at least 18 months while the matter is decided by voters in November 2014 - but you can bet a lot of people on the Democratic side of the aisle would be ecstatic.

A reality of the far-reaching gun regulations approved by committees in the House of Delegates on Friday night: Marylanders likely will buy more assault-style weapons in the next six months than they would have without a new law. In fact, it seems like the current version of the legislation encourages sales. Gun dealers would be allowed to sell out their present inventories of assault-style rifles even after the ban takes effect Oct. 1. If a Marylander just places an order for such a gun before then, he could still legally own it. You might ask: If something warrants banning, why wait six months to implement it?

Two Westminster brothers, 8 and 14, are awaiting a juvenile hearing after they were arrested on charges of burglary, stealing two rifles and related offenses, police said.The boys were arrested Wednesday afternoon after police were called to Ain't That A Frame, a downtown art gallery and framing shop where a burglary was reported in progress, said Lt. Randy Barnes, a Westminster police spokesman.When police arrived about 3: 15 p.m., they found the boys being held by store employees, who reported seeing the 8-year-old walking from a storage area with a .22-caliber rifle protruding from his pants leg, Barnes said.

The retrial on a federal handgun charge of Melvin "Little Melvin" Williams -- who once presided over a heroin-dealing empire that employed 200 street-level dealers -- began yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore with brief opening statements by a prosecutor and Williams' lawyer.Williams' first trial on the charge of felony possession of a firearm ended in September in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a verdict.Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Webster III told the jury of nine women and three men that Williams in March repeatedly "pistol-whipped" a man on a southwest Baltimore street corner over a $500 debt.

In 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized the Washington region for three weeks by firing bullets at innocent people in parking lots and at gas stations, ultimately killing 10 people and wounding three others. They used a Bushmaster XM-15 E2S rifle, one many variants of America's most popular assault weapon, the AR-15. In 2006, Kyle Aaron Huff used a Bushmaster when he opened fire at a post-rave party in Seattle, killing six before committing suicide. In 2007, Tyler Peterson used an AR-15 to kill six people at a homecoming party in Crandon, Wis. In 2012, a gunman opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.

Over 2,000 people - 38 of them children - have been killed by guns in America since the massacre at Newtown, Conn., two months ago. The U.S. firearm homicide rate is 20 times greater than other high-income countries. We have brought down the death toll from cars, toys and medications through careful study and thoughtful legislation - why are we not able to enact legislation to protect ourselves from gun violence? Taking the needed steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands does not violate the Second Amendment.