Gun Owners

One of the most popular topics for legislators today is restricting gun ownership in some form or fashion ("Guns: Old issue, new hurdles," Feb. 10). They have labeled some firearms as "assault" weapons and likened them to those used by the military. I spent 23 years in the U. S. Marine Corps, and I have never heard the term assault weapon used there. The fact is, the word "assault" is not an adjective. Second, only people who don't understand firearms believe that a gun purchased from a local firearms dealer has the same capability as those used by our military or police.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Police Chief Jim Johnson on Monday called on state and federal lawmakers to strengthen laws on background checks for gun buyers and stop the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the wake of the Connecticut school mass shooting that left 28 dead. "This is not the time to be timid," Kamenetz said at a news conference, reading from an open letter he wrote to Maryland's state and federal elected officials. "We cannot sit by and do nothing.

ANNAPOLIS -- A Senate committee voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill that would require gun owners to keep guns away from children, and now both sides on the issue are claiming victory.Once known as the "kiddie lock" bill, the Schaefer administration measure was changed during yesterday's committee vote, dropping the original's references to locked containers or trigger-locking mechanisms.As amended, the bill states that gun owners must secure weapons so children under 16 don't have unsupervised access to them.

THE NATIONAL Rifle Association has done good work in its time representing the interests of gun owners and promoting gunmanship, target competition and firearms safety. But in recent years, with ever-greater stridency, it has become a trade association for the enlargement of markets for gun manufacturers and dealers. That, too, is a legitimate enterprise, but a very different one -- a difference NRA leaders have disguised with the language of ideological extremism.Its trade association motivation was never clearer than in its application to the United Nations for accreditation as a non-governmental organization (NGO)

Advocates of strict new gun control laws recently rallied in Annapolis. Protesters staged a counter rally, and one was quoted as saying, "The Second Amendment belongs to us." It does and it doesn't.It does in the sense that it "belongs" to all American citizens; it doesn't in the sense that it protects gun owners' rights exclusively, at the expense of everybody else.This argument comes up every time the public starts demonstrating the will to enact new restrictions on gun ownership and use. The National Rifle Association and other such groups recite the Second Amendment like a mantra.

A national survey of more than 5,000 households found that one in three has a gun, and offers more evidence that many gun owners are not storing their weapons safely.At least one gun is kept loaded and unlocked in about 20 percent of households with firearms, according to the survey published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.The researchers discovered that in 11 percent of homes with both a firearm and a child younger than 18, a gun is stored loaded and unlocked.

WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association endorsed Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett's Democratic opponent last year. Since then, the conservative freshman Republican from Western Maryland has been working hard to make sure that doesn't happen again.He took the latest step yesterday, staging a news conference outside a House committee room to complain that he had been denied permission to testify against gun control legislation at a hearing about to take place inside the room.Mr. Bartlett has introduced two pieces of legislation which he says are designed to protect the constitutional rights of gun owners.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's licensing proposal that calls for a $100 fee, fingerprinting and safety training before someone can buy a handgun does not violate the U.S. Constitution, according to a legal opinion released Tuesday by Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler. The opinion came at the request of state Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has questioned whether the licensing provision goes too far. “Law-abiding gun owners have nothing to fear,” Gansler said in a statement, adding that “the qualifications do not allow for confiscation of guns nor could they.” The opinion, written by Dan Friedman, counsel to the General Assembly, rests on a 2008 Supreme Court decision and says the state has the authority to limit the right to possess a handgun.

Two administration-backed gun control measures passed their first major hurdle in the General Assembly last week when the House Judiciary Committee approved them for a vote by the full House of Delegates. One bill would ban 38 types of military assault-style weapons from being sold in Maryland; the other would require gun owners to keep their firearms under lock and key to secure them from minor children.Support for both measures is strong in the House, despite the arguments of gun owners' groups that assault weapons so far have constituted a relatively small fraction of the guns used in crimes.