Weapons

A Baltimore circuit judge denied another bail request Friday for the blogger who held a publicized standoff with city police this month that was broadcast live to thousands of listeners. Judge Lynn K. Stewart said Frank James MacArthur, also known locally as the Baltimore Spectator, posed a continuing threat to public safety and should remain jailed without bail. It was the third time that MacArthur, 37, who lives in the Waverly neighborhood, has been denied bail. MacArthur's attorney, Jill P. Carter, called the revocation a knee-jerk overreaction when many other suspects facing similar charges are often offered bail.

Gov. Martin O'Malley took his call for a ban on assault weapons to national television Wednesday night, arguing on MSNBC's Hard Ball that "these combat weapons have no place in a civilized society. " O'Malley this week said his administration is crafting a package of state gun-control legislation likely to be introduced during the General Assembly session that begins next month. Wednesday night, O'Malley told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that political sentiment has shifted. "I think we've all been changed as a country," O'Malley said in a segment that included former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, who also encouraged stricter gun laws in the wake of the Connecticut shooting that killed 27 people, 20 of them elementary school children.   

Memo to the U.S. Senate: A couple of your members have suggested that we need a national commission to study mass shootings in this country. Not necessary. You can find what you need in support of new firearms regulation right here in Baltimore. I offer two things - a smart, concise and recent report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, and the circumstances of a shooting in one of our suburban high schools. The latter, though a terrible event, would have been far worse had the firearm involved been an assault weapon.

An off-duty Baltimore County police officer's weapon fired twice outside an Overlea party earlier this month, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The officer had stopped near the intersection of Dale Avenue and Danville Road when he encountered a large group of people blocking the street and attempted to drive past when he himself was shot, police said. "We still have not determined the context in which the weapon was fired," said Elise Armacost, a police spokeswoman. She said the officer was not shot with his own weapon, and that police could not say if the officer fired his own weapon.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Police Chief Jim Johnson on Monday called on state and federal lawmakers to strengthen laws on background checks for gun buyers and stop the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the wake of the Connecticut school mass shooting that left 28 dead. "This is not the time to be timid," Kamenetz said at a news conference, reading from an open letter he wrote to Maryland's state and federal elected officials. "We cannot sit by and do nothing.

Legislation to ban assault weapons like the Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle used in the Newtown school massacre will be revived in Annapolis when the General Assembly convenes next month, according to leading lawmakers pushing to make the change. The ban is among several gun control proposals that have languished in the Assembly but will take on greater priority as Marylanders grapple with the aftermath of the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, gun control advocates said.

Look at what has become national ritual: A horrific shooting in some otherwise ordinary corner of the country - this time a town in Connecticut - with many dead and wounded, shock and grief, wall-to-wall television coverage. The president and the governor ask us to pray for the victims and their families. A police chief, suddenly and reluctantly a celebrity, provides details of the killings, including the make and model of the weapons. We're told to refrain from politicizing tragedy in its immediate aftermath - that's part of the ritual, too. More grieving, more stories and magazine covers, a week of funerals.

Here we go again with a "chemical weapons" bogey man ("New fears over Syrian conflict," Dec. 4). America invaded and is occupying Iraq thanks to alleged weapons of mass destruction, and now Syria is in our gun sights based on similar claims. Don't we know when to quit with these outdated scare tactics? Most nightly news shows are talking about a "fiscal cliff" our economy is headed for, and so now is not the time for a new military exercise in the Middle East. As much as I deplore the horrors of present day Syria, there are other nations in the area that should be involved.

A Baltimore County police officer's weapon discharged as he struggled with a prisoner receiving treatment at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson on Wednesday, police said. The officer was guarding a prisoner arrested in connection with a burglary who was receiving medical treatment in the hospital's emergency room, according to police. Police said an altercation broke out after hospital workers discovered the prisoner was hiding a needle in his clothing and the man grabbed a hospital staff member.