Handgun Ban

Two recent episodes, one about a mother and daughter injured by stray gunfire, the other recounting an angry meeting at which Mayor Schmoke was criticized for being indifferent to crime, underscore the frustration and heartbreak of efforts to deal with today's epidemic of violence. City residents are deeply concerned that City Hall isn't doing enough about the problem.That may be why Mayor Schmoke's suggestion that "the people" themselves must begin to reclaim their streets met with a cool reception.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court again stepped squarely into the culture wars yesterday by agreeing to hear a high-profile gun ban case, one that might make firearm ownership a significant issue in the coming election year. At stake is a law that prohibits residents of the District of Columbia from owning handguns. The justices will decide sometime next spring whether such a ban violates the Constitution. If they rule that way, it could eventually spell trouble for gun bans in other cities.

In a historic ruling yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right for individuals to keep guns in their homes for self-defense. It was the first major high court ruling on the Second Amendment. The 5-4 decision came in a closely watched challenge to a 32-year-old Washington law that prohibited residents from keeping any kind of handgun or shotguns and rifles without trigger locks in their homes - the toughest gun law in the nation. Although the high court's decision will have no immediate impact on gun laws beyond the district's borders - including state gun control laws like those in Maryland - constitutional scholars and advocates on both sides of the gun debate predicted a flood of litigation testing first whether the Second Amendment protection should be applied to state statutes, and then, in a second wave, whether specific state and local gun laws infringe upon an individual's right to bear arms.

IN 1993, when Kay Bailey Hutchison moved to Washington, D.C., after being elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas, she had a problem with her .357 Magnum. In order to comply with the District's ban on handguns, she had to dismantle the gun she would have kept by her bedside, buy a travel case for it and then return it to her home state. Now she's fighting back with an ill-considered campaign to repeal the 1976 law. She and other members of Congress should pause a moment and rethink these attempts to undercut the District's crime-fighting efforts and its independence under home rule.

The Supreme Court's decision in the District of Columbia v. Heller case settles a long, heated debate, finding the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own weapons for self-defense - not merely a right related to membership in a "well-regulated militia." But the ruling doesn't end the struggle over gun control, nor does it mean gun regulations have been eliminated. The court lists a number of laws the decision does not affect, including concealed-weapon prohibitions and "long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."

After spending the past two weeks fighting off attempts to kill a proposed ban on the sale of assault pistols, gun control supporters in the Maryland legislature faced an unusual threat yesterday from one of their own.In a move that could have sunk the bill, Del. Peter Franchot, D-Montgomery, tried to amend it on the floor of the House of Delegates to include a ban on the possession and sale of all handguns.Gun control supporters easily beat back the amendment and later gave the bill preliminary approval on voice votes.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, decrying the "crazy" way guns have been permitted to proliferate in the United States, has declared that he is prepared to challenge the powerful National Rifle Association lobby and introduce major new gun control measures.The American people "are way ahead of Congress" on the gun control issue, Mr. Clinton said in extraordinarily candid and at times heated remarks made in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Gun violence has created enough public concern to support a ban on certain kinds of guns and "a lot of other reasonable regulations."

Is a contract valid only when The Sun thinks it's wise?Why doesn't The Sun give give readers the facts about the tobacco lawsuit, and how the state's case came to be pursued by Peter Angelos' law firm ("Tobacco no hazard to his wealth," editorial, Oct. 19)?When the state put the case out for bid, at least six law firms, including out-of-state firms, submitted bids.The state insisted that the firm taking the the case commit at least $5 million, which knocked one or two firms out of the bidding.

The Supreme Court has upheld an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment ("Justices back gun owners," June 27). And I am thankful that five justices are capable of reading the plain meaning of the Constitution and enforcing its freedoms. Guns are merely tools. By themselves, they do nothing. The person using the gun dictates whether it is used for good or bad purposes. Gun restrictions such as the Washington law that the court struck down have the primary effect of removing guns from the hands of law-abiding citizens.

From: Roger W. Lambie Sr.JoppatowneOnce again, law-abiding gun owners in Maryland will be under attack in the state legislature and from within the governor's mansion.According to newspaper reports -- Washington Post, Dec. 22, 1990; The Sun, Nov. 22, 1990; Montgomery Journal, Dec. 24, 1990 -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer and other "gun grabbers" will propose a bill, if passed, that would ban the sale, possession or transfer of approximately 60 rifles in the state of Maryland.Its chief sponsor and leading the charge in the house will be Delegate Peter Franchot, D-Montgomery.