Gun

A state senator told colleagues Wednesday that a bill to prohibit school systems from suspending children who make gun gestures or have objects that look like a gun is needed because "this has gotten out of hand. " Sen. J.B. Jennings filed his bill after the recent two-day suspension of 7-year-old Joshua Welch at Park Elementary School in Anne Arundel County for nibbling a pastry into what a teacher believed was a shape of a gun. B.J. Welch, the boy's father, was in Annapolis to testify in support of Jennings' bill before the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.

A loaded handgun was found in a holding cell in a Baltimore police station this week, officials confirmed after receiving inquiries from The Baltimore Sun.  The weapon, a .22 caliber handgun with six rounds in the chamber, was found by an officer as he was placing a suspect into a cell in the Southeastern District station on March 12, according to a report provided by police. The officer had entered the detainee's information in a station log book, then walked into the cell to hand back a driver's license when he noticed a black knit glove lying on a shelf.

The vast majority of people who participate in gun buy back programs are like me. Law abiding people who are looking to unload worthless, unsafe firearms. Criminals do not turn in their illegally obtained and illegally possessed weapons. These are nothing more than feel good programs. I turned in my worthless firearm that was unsafe to fire and received a $100 dollar bill. I used this $100 to purchase so called "high capacity" magazines that are currently in the process of being banned in this state.

Where does one start about guns and the love for an outdated Second Amendment that our forefathers if they lived today would never have written? Where does one begin about the armament industry, corporations without conscience for all they are killing in the name of profit? And what happened to the fingerprint activation device they once promised as a gun lock to save the lives of our children? What happened to our TV, theater, the games our children play, and who decided America needed a steady diet of murderous violence?

Three more members of the Washington Wizards have met with authorities concerning the Gilbert Arenas gun investigation. Caron Butler , Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson had to miss practice Monday to answer questions. Coach Flip Saunders and other players met with authorities last week. Arenas is under investigation for taking guns to Verizon Center and related incidents stemming from a dispute with teammate Javaris Crittenton . Arenas has been suspended indefinitely by the NBA, and Crittenton has been excused from team activities while the legal process plays out. The team also suspended Andray Blatche for one game for unspecified behavior during Sunday's game against New Orleans.

Guns are on the mind of much of America in the wake of the deadly theater shooting in Colorado and a foiled copycat crime here in Maryland. They're certainly on the mind of Maryland congressional candidate Faith Loudon who's planning a shooting-themed fundraiser with her "very special guest" National Rifle Association President David Keane. Loudon, a Pasedena mother of three and a Republican who's running in the state's 4th congressional district sent out an invitation over the weekend to what she's calling a "shooting event.

In response to the Sandy Hook shootings and the resulting uproar on weapons control, Gov. Martin O'Malley finally proposes legislation limiting the availability of guns purchased by the public and promises to allocate funds for increased safety in schools ("O'Malley to push stricter gun limits," Jan. 15). "Finally"? Yes finally, because the issue of guns and homicide remains far from a novel issue for citizens in Maryland, especially for those citizens of Baltimore City. The FBI's Uniform Crime Report showed 27,808 violent crimes reported in Maryland's metropolitan statistical areas in 2011, with 391 of these crimes labeled murder or non-negligent manslaughter.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, said this morning that he considering introducing a gun control package in the upcoming legislation session and reiterated his opposition to assault weapons like the one used in the Newtown massacre. "I think you can count on there being several bills, the likelihood is that there will be a bill from this administration, the details of which we are still working on," O'Malley said at a briefing with reporters this morning. The governor said that this morning he directed members of his cabinet to examine three areas for possible legislation: Gun control, access to guns by the mentally ill and school safety.  O'Malley said he's particularly interested in looking at the state's laws on assault weapons and limiting the number of rounds in a magazine.

On a roll in recent years, a gun-rights group pressed its advantage in a federal appeals court Wednesday, seeking to extend Second Amendment rights through a challenge to Maryland's handgun permit laws. "We're not challenging the constitutionality of having a licensing system," Alan Gura, a lawyer for the Second Amendment Foundation, told the three-judge panel in a case involving a Baltimore County man's permit renewal. Rather, he argued that Maryland unnecessarily restricts the right to carry firearms.

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.