Gun

Baltimore County police identified a 40-year old woman who was charged after brandishing what an officer believed to be a gun before he shot her multiple times in Pikesville early Saturday. Stephanie Kamlot threatened an officer with a metallic replica of a large-caliber semi-automatic handgun after he ordered her to drop it several times, causing him to shoot Kamlot, according to a police statement. Kamlot was shot in the upper body and taken to a city hospital for treatment, police said.

Now that Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman has declared the possession of stun guns to be "clearly protected by the Second Amendment" (in an interview with WBAL Radio), we must consider other weapons that should be protected constitutionally. Grenades, improvised explosive devices, hand-held missiles, and, of course, tactical nuclear devices are surely protected as "arms" by the Second Amendment because we need the ability to protect ourselves from an oppressive government which already has all of these resources.

Annapolis Police collected 16 guns as part of a statewide gun turn-in day. The police accpeted six handguns, five rifles, four shotguns and one air rifle during Saturday's event. They also accepted 20 boxes of ammunition. The police said the most common reasons for guns and ammunition to be turned in were that they belonged to a deceased person and the person no longer wanted them in their home. The statewide gun turn-in was organized by the Office of the Attorney General.

In the face of a threatened lawsuit by the National Rifle Association, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has formally advised Gov. Martin O'Malley that he can sign the bill next week without fear of any part of it being overturned in the courts. In a detailed 25-page letter, the attorney general laid out the reasons he believes all of the provisions of Senate Bill 281 that the NRA might challenge are “constitutionally and legally defensible.” Among the provisions Gansler said federal courts would uphold are a ban on the sale of guns classified as assault weapons, restrictions on the sale of gun magazines holding more than 10 bullets and licensing and training requirements for handgun purchasers.

Anne Arundel County police officers are asking people to bring their unwanted guns to a gun turn-in event on Saturday. The event will be from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Glen Burnie Improvement Association building at 19 Crain Highway South in Glen Burnie. The police are co-sponsoring the event with the Office of the Attorney General. They'll accept handguns, rifles and shotguns, whether they are working or not. No identification is necessary and guns will be accepted with no questions asked.

Terrorism, whether practiced in the U.S. or overseas, can be defined as a deliberate act of violence to instill fear in a target audience. We fight terrorism when we stay calm but resolute; we abet terrorists when our response is to panic or try to foment panic in others. This past weekend, the CEO of the National Rifle Association stood up on a stage in Houston and chose to follow the latter route, linking the recent bombings in Boston with gun ownership - or a lack thereof. "How many Bostonians," the NRA's Wayne LaPierre asked, "wish they had a gun two weeks ago?"

It should've been the shot heard around the world. Chances are, you didn't hear it. An ominous sort of history was made last week near Austin, Texas, but it seems to have largely escaped notice. There was some media coverage, yes, but less than, say, Lindsay Lohan's latest stint in rehab, certainly less than you'd think for something whose ramifications will likely shadow us for years. On May 2, you see, a group called Defense Distributed, led by law student and self-described anarchist Cody Wilson, accomplished what was apparently the first successful firing of a gun "printed" entirely by a 3-D printer.

I read with interest James Maxeiner's op-ed, "The Bavarian case for registering guns" (April 28) in The Sun. Mr. Maxeiner advocates for the licensing of gun owners and registration of firearms, what he calls "sensible regulations on firearms. " He rationalized that if Bavarians "...accept that they must be licensed to own and operate their Ultimate Driving Machines, so too do they accept, without objection, that they must be licensed to own and shoot firearms," so should the citizens of the United States.

  A Montgomery County woman who has split with other Second Amendment activists on how to fight Gov. Martin O'Malley 's recently passed gun safety bill said Friday that she has received the green light to begin a petition drive to bring the issue to a referendum. Sue Payne said has received approval from the State Board of Elections for the form and summary wording of the petitions she intends to circulate as she seeks signatures to put the gun bill, which O'Malley is expect to sign later this month, on the 2014 ballot.

I grew up with guns in my house. There are guns in my house. I understand the sport of the shooting range and the sport of hunting. I understand the argument, while not finding it convincing, that guns in the home protect you. What I do not understand is any argument for assault weapons in private hands. Assault weapons were created to kill people - just as one did so effectively in the hands of a 20-year-old at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Now is the time to have a reasoned discussion of gun ownership and of gun control.