Handgun

Baltimore County police say they shot a woman in Pikesville early Saturday after she pulled a handgun on an officer. The woman was in serious condition at a local hospital Saturday evening but expected to survive, police said. According to a news release, the officer was called to the 3100 block of North Brook Road before 2 a.m. to investigate a report of a suspicious person. He saw a woman throw a large rock at a house, officials said, breaking a window. The woman allegedly drew a handgun, and police said the officer repeatedly ordered her to drop, then shot her multiple times in the upper body.

Baltimore County police say they shot a woman in Pikesville early Saturday after she pulled a handgun on an officer. The woman was in serious condition at a local hospital Saturday evening but expected to survive, police said. According to a news release, the officer was called to the 3100 block of North Brook Road before 2 a.m. to investigate a report of a suspicious person. He saw a woman throw a large rock at a house, officials said, breaking a window. The woman allegedly drew a handgun, and police said the officer repeatedly ordered her to drop, then shot her multiple times in the upper body.

Faiths United To Prevent Gun Violence, a national coalition of over 40 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu national denominations and organizations strongly supports Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to require handgun purchasers to obtain a license from the state police in order to purchase a handgun. States that have these provisions have lower gun death rates because handgun licensing deters people with no criminal records from purchasing guns for people who should not have them.

The House of Delegates voted Wednesday to give Maryland one of the toughest gun laws in the nation, passing a bill that would ban the sale of assault-type weapons, set a 10-bullet limit on magazines and require fingerprints and a license to buy a handgun. Delegates altered the Senate's bill during more than 10 hours of emotional floor debate that lasted over two days. Key lawmakers said they expect the differences to be resolved quickly and the legislation sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley for his promised signature.

Baltimore police arrested an 18-year-old suspect on a gun charge in the 2300 block of Shirley Avenue. Officers recovered a loaded handgun around 4 a.m, according to the department.

A man pulled a handgun on police and barricaded himself inside a Baltimore County home Thursday morning after officers attempted to serve a warrant, police said. County police say officers were serving a second-degree assault warrant on an unidentified man in the 7600 block of Perring Terrace in Parkville when the man ran to a bedroom and retrieved a handgun. He pointed the gun at an officer and barricaded himself inside the bedroom at about 10:30 a.m., and at some point fired a shot within the home, said police spokesman Robert McCullough.

A Carroll County man was arrested Tuesday morning at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport after a Transportation Security Administration agent detected a 45-caliber handgun in his luggage at a checkpoint. TSA spokesman J. Kawika Riley said the man was trying to pass through the screening area at Pier C when an X-ray machine operator noticed what appeared to be a weapon in the passenger's carry-on luggage. A Maryland Transportation Authority police officer was summoned to the scene to conduct a search and found the handgun, Riley said.

A 35-year-old Crofton man is charged with drug possession and distribution and handgun offenses. Michael A. Shepherd was arrested Thursday evening at his home in the 1600 block of Airy Hill Court. After a series of surveillance operations that stemmed from community complaints about illegal drug activities, detectives obtained a search warrant and arrived at the home about 9:30 p.m. Officers recovered two handguns, one of which was stolen, and several rounds of ammunition.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County police say they have charged a 21-year-old student with brandishing a weapon on campus, an incident that placed the campus on high alert Thursday morning. Andrew Kelechi Irechukwu of Timonium is accused of having a dangerous weapon on school property, carrying a handgun in a vehicle, malicious destruction of property and disturbing the operation of a school, according to campus police. Police had said Thursday that a student displayed a handgun to a female acquaintance at the Catonsville campus around 5:15 a.m. Thursday.

Officers arrested a 21-year-old man on gun charges around 10 a.m. Saturday in the 2000 block of Denison Street, Baltimore police said. The officers recovered a loaded handgun. No more information was immediately available.

A federal appeals court has upheld Maryland's handgun permitting law, reversing a lower court decision by concluding that the state can constitutionally require an applicant to show “good and substantial reason” that he or she needs a concealed-carry license. Fourth Circuit Judge Robert King, writing for the three-judge panel, said the state had shown that the requirement “is reasonably adapted” to its “significant interests in protecting public safety and preventing crime.” Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler cheered the ruling Thursday, saying the state is “a safer place today because of its handgun conceal-and-carry permit laws.” “The idea is to make sure guns are in the hands of responsible people, and not just anybody who wants to tote a gun in public,” Gansler said.

This week may well be the time when lawmakers in Annapolis decide whether the gun control legislation they pass in the wake of the Newton, Conn., school shooting actually does some good to reduce the rates of violence in Maryland or just sounds good at election time. Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal made it through the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee last week with its key provisions largely intact. But that progress is at serious risk when the bill hits the Senate floor, likely tomorrow or Wednesday.

Baltimore police have two men in custody after seizing 29 stolen handguns Tuesday morning. Around 2:30 a.m. Monday, two men allegedly broke into an outdoor supply store in Saxton, Pa. by crashing into it with a vehicle, then stole multiple handguns. They then drove to Baltimore with the intention of selling the guns, police said. Law enforcement with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives alerted Baltimore police that the vehicle might be in the city. Police located the vehicle in the western patrol district around 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Faiths United To Prevent Gun Violence, a national coalition of over 40 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu national denominations and organizations strongly supports Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to require handgun purchasers to obtain a license from the state police in order to purchase a handgun. States that have these provisions have lower gun death rates because handgun licensing deters people with no criminal records from purchasing guns for people who should not have them.

It has been one month since the devastating tragedy in Newtown, Conn., and most of us are still trying to come to grips with the events of that terrible day. When gun violence rips through a community it is always hard to bear, but when the victims of the violence are innocent children, it is unbearable. We are left wondering how so many young lives could be taken so quickly, and how we can prevent it from happening again. In our national search for answers, many have understandably been drawn to solutions that might reduce a perpetrator's ability to kill multiple people in short order: restrictions on high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic assault rifles like the Bushmaster .223 used by Adam Lanza.

State and federal politicians have been scrambling for the last few weeks to react to the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., with governors, congressmen and the president exploring new laws that might have prevented that tragic massacre. But today, Gov. Martin O'Malley announced the outlines of a package of legislation that would do much more than merely react to that terrible act. He pledged to take some of the steps that many of his peers are pursuing, such as a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, but also to pursue a comprehensive licensing system for handgun buyers.

City school officials said a student hit another student with a handgun inside the locker room at the Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship high school in West Baltimore Monday. City Schools police received a report from a school coach that a student had a handgun in a locker room after school Monday. The incident remains under investigation and school officials said a warrant has been issued for the student's arrest. The unidentified student has not returned to school, officials said.

County police arrested a 16-year-old Annapolis High School student Monday on charges of pulling a loaded gun on another student.Cortez Marquis Carlisle, of the 100 block of Colton Ave. in Largo was charged as an adult with illegal possession of a handgun and first degree assault. He was released on $15,000 bond.Police said the youth bumped into a 17-year-old boy in the hallway of the school in the 2700 block of Riva Road about 10 a.m. The older boy, who thought the bump was intentional, kicked the younger boy's book bag in retaliation, police said.

Firearms, particularly handguns, drive violent crime in Baltimore, yet nowhere does the word handgun appear in your recent editorial on this year's uptick in Baltimore homicides ("Troubling homicide rise," Dec. 28). Obviously, whatever the Baltimore Police Department is doing to get illegal guns off the streets isn't working as long as the city remains among the top 10 most dangerous cities in America. Here is a suggestion that can't seem to get any traction in this town: An bounty for anonymous tips about people carrying illegal handguns.

A second 17-year-old boy has been arrested in the Dec. 19 shooting of a third teen in Frederick, allegedly for helping the accused shooter get rid of the handgun used in the shooting, Frederick Police said Thursday. Cory Aaron Nowalk, 17, of Frederick, was located by police at his home on Wednesday after a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of being an accessory to a first-degree assault and with illegally transporting a handgun, police said. Police say detectives investigating the shooting determined Nowalk helped Dylan Gray, 17, also of Frederick, hide the handgun used in the shooting in the days following it. Nowalk admitted his involvement and led detectives to the gun, which another person allegedly was involved in hiding as well, police said.