NEWS
By Erin Cox, The Baltimore Sun | April 17, 2013
Opponents of Maryland's tough new gun-control law said Wednesday that they will not seek to petition it to referendum and instead will back a lawsuit planned by the National Rifle Association. "This is a constitutional right that should not go to the citizens to vote on," said Republican Del. Neil Parrott of Western Maryland, founder of the mdpetitions.com group that has successfully petitioned three other laws to referendum in the past two years. Flanked by representatives of the NRA, Maryland-based gun-rights groups, and other Republican lawmakers, Parrott announced the plans to a crowd of 70 at a Jessup fundraising event for mdpetitions.com.
NEWS
April 13, 2013
Your recent editorial correctly pointed out that because Marylanders overwhelmingly support Gov. Martin O'Malley's gun legislation, voters almost certainly would approve it if it were petitioned to a referendum in 2014 ("Make our day," April 9). However, a successful referendum petition would delay the date when the law goes into effect by 15 months and thus postpone its life-saving impact by a similar period. We need to start as soon as possible implementing the law's fingerprinting and licensing requirements for handgun purchases, which is the state's most effective tool for reducing gun violence and saving lives.
NEWS
April 11, 2013
I support the wish that the Sun's editorial staff has made ("Make our day," April 9) that Gov. Martin O'Malley's firearm legislation be sent to referendum, but for different reasons. First, it will give the law abiding citizens more time to buy the lawful guns. Second, it will give sufficient time for the supporters of the Second Amendment to educate the Maryland voting population that it is not the guns (or knives, poison, ropes, baseball bats, cars, etc.) that kill, it is the people (criminals, mental deranged people)
NEWS
April 8, 2013
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.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun | March 21, 2013
The conservative group Judicial Watch has asked the Court of Special Appeals to overturn last November's referendum on a new congressional redistricting map for Maryland, contending the wording of the ballot question was misleading. Backed by Del. Neil Parrott's MDPetitions.com, Judicial Watch filed an appeal of a Circuit Court decision last year upholding the wording. The plaintiffs asked the appeals court to require a new election using different ballot language. The General Assembly approved the new map drawn up by Gov. Martin O'Malley and Democratic legislative leaders in a special session in 2011.
NEWS
March 14, 2013
Maryland's Constitution provides recourse, the referendum, to those who believe bad laws are on the books or new laws are necessary. The general idea is, let's put it to a vote. The process for getting a referendum question on the statewide ballot begins with gathering a certain number of signatures on a petition. Enough signatures, and the ballot question becomes one of your choices on Election Day. But what about those signatures? Who gets to sign? How are the signatures to be gathered?