Walter Baker

C "An overwhelming number of Marylanders want tougher gun laws," Gov. William Donald Schaefer said in his State of the State address earlier this month. "Gun legislation can't be bottled up in a committee." Yet that is exactly what Cecil County's Sen. Walter M. Baker has in mind.Senator Baker is chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. As far as he's concerned, the only good handgun bill is a dead handgun bill. The fact that public opinion polls indicate overwhelming sentiment in favor of tougher handgun restrictions doesn't faze him. The fact that nearly as many Marylanders die from handgun wounds as from auto accidents doesn't seem to matter a bit. Nor does the Cecil County chairman seem upset that his stance is viewed by a growing number of his Senate colleagues as outdated and damaging to them politically.

It is no secret in Annapolis that the biggest impediments to handgun control are Cecil County Sen. Walter Baker and his Judicial Proceedings Committee. Already this session, Mr. Baker has sworn to kill any and all handgun legislation that comes before his committee. "Banning guns has nothing to do with crime," he said. Mr. Baker's Senate colleagues, though, have other ideas.Their concern is that opposing handgun controls in an election year could be political dynamite, especially for incumbents running in urban or close-in suburban communities where crime is a dominant campaign issue.

Four pieces of progressive legislation in Annapolis are in grave jeopardy because of the intransigent attitude of one state senator, Walter Baker of Cecil County. Bills on helmets for motorcyclists, firearms safety, assault weapons and domestic violence all are threatened by Mr. Baker's misguided conservatism, which is sadly out of touch with the 1990s.These are sensible bills designed to ensure the safety of Marylanders. They are the kinds of measures a smart-thinking conservative could support.