Gun Laws

In what by now might seem a futile ritual, Baltimore's mayor and top law enforcement officials made their seventh annual pilgrimage to Annapolis on Thursday to press lawmakers for tougher gun laws that they say will curtail violence in one of America's deadliest cities. In past years, proposed legislation either stalled in committee, or, as happened last year, successfully made it to the full legislature but not in time for a vote before the session ended. The latest bills — which would add 10 years to the five-year mandatory sentence for a felon in possession of a handgun and make illegal gun possession a felony with a mandatory 18-month sentence — might have a hard time this year as well.

Maryland's restrictions on carrying a handgun outside the home have been among the strongest in the nation - and for good reason, given the death and destruction perpetrated by those possessing handguns in this state. So it is regrettable that the standard is now under threat because a federal judge, emboldened by a pair of recent Supreme Court decisions that have expanded the reach of the Second Amendment, has found a portion of the law unconstitutional. Make no mistake, U.S. District Court Judge Benson Everett Legg is pushing the Second Amendment envelope in his 23-page opinion that an existing restriction on handgun carry permits - that the applicant must show a "good and substantial reason" to have one - infringes on the individual's right to keep and bear arms.

Standing over a table of handguns similar to those recently seized by police, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake urged Baltimore residents Friday to help her lobby to increase jail time for those caught with illegal guns. "We all know we need to do more," Rawlings-Blake said, as she called for state legislators to change current laws, which "support our culture of tolerance. " The city has seen a drop in gun crime in recent years. Last year ended with 223 homicides — the lowest number since the late 1980s, just before the rise in crack cocaine use contributed to a spike in crime rates across the country.

Letter writer Becky Wagner, the executive director of Advocates for Children and Youth, makes an emotional plea for Maryland legislators to support series of bills that would ban assault weapons, close down gun dealers who violate the law, require everyone who owns firearms to report lost or stolen guns to authorities and deter straw purchasers from transferring guns to people who should not have them ("We can stop guns from killing our children," Feb....

As a father, I grieve with the rest of the country at the senseless loss of children's lives and the waste of human potential such tragedies represent. But I also refuse to remain silent and allow the elites and opportunists of the moment to take advantage of our collective grief and manipulate it for their own ends ("Teary Obama calls for action after massacre," Dec. 15). More restrictive gun laws are not the answer. If that logic prevailed, cars would be surrounded by inflatable bumpers and go no faster than 20 mph, household chemicals would be banned, and one would need a license from social services to have children.

When 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner brought a loaded Glock 19 with a 33-round ammunition magazine to a Tucson grocery store parking lot in January, he broke the law only when he opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others at her constituent event. Under Arizona law, no permit is required to carry a concealed handgun outside the home. As the incident demonstrated, such a lax approach would seem to invite mayhem in the streets. But Arizona has the right to set such a problematic standard, despite such evidence as the recent study by a Stanford economist demonstrating that right-to-carry laws do not decrease the overall level of crime and perhaps even increase it. What Arizonans should not have the right to do is force such laissez-faire gun control standards on Maryland; nor should those who live in Alabama, Tennessee, Florida or any of the other states where concealed-handgun permits are much more easily acquired.

Baltimore County police Chief James W. Johnson, along with other law enforcement leaders, will appear at a news conference Wednesday to ask Congress to approve stricter gun laws. Johnson, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, also spoke last month at a Senate hearing, along with officials from the National Rifle Association to discuss proposals to strengthen gun control laws. Johnson, as part of the national police coalition of police organizations, are asking for a ban on new semi-automatic assault weapons, requesting background checks for all firearm buyers, limiting high-capacity magazines to 10 rounds and improving the national criminal background checks.

John Josselyn stood at a gun range in Baltimore County on the warmest day of last week, ready for target practice with his .22-caliber pistol, and recalled how the simple threat of a gun once saved him from three thugs. The gun-rights advocate called it "tantamount to the rattle of a rattlesnake. " But Matthew Fenton's memories of firearms give him no sense of security. He was shot in the head three decades ago during a robbery that led him to found an anti-gun lobbying group. There's still a half-dollar sized piece of skull missing today above his left eye, where the bullet struck him that night.

The pain of losing their sons to gun violence hasn't left Lois Hess and Faina Vaynerman. Neither has their determination to fight for tougher gun laws. The women, whose sons were killed in 1975 and 1994, respectively, spoke yesterday at a news conference for the American Jewish Congress' campaign to lobby for stronger federal gun-control laws. Speaking at the Greenstein Building of The Associated -- Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, AJC members said they want to get a million signatures on petitions in support of the effort.

A Baltimore circuit court judge sentenced Gerry Gough to life in prison with all but 40 years suspended after he was convicted of shooting at three city police officers and wounding one of them. Gough pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder, two attempted second-degree murder charges, and a handgun violation in October. He opened fire on three detectives in March 2011, wounding one of them seriously enough that he has been unable to return to active duty, according to prosecutors.