Governor Martin O'Malley is fighting for an assault weapons ban in Maryland. This year Governor O'Malley's legislative agenda included
a ban on all assault weapons, limitations on magazine capacity from 20 rounds to 10, stronger licensing requirements on handgun purchases and restrictions on possession of guns and ammunition
.
http://www.governor.maryland.gov/....
Recent news reports have indicated that members of the House of Delegates are considering weakening the assault weapons ban by removing certain types of weapons from the proposal. Governor O'Malley, however, is not backing down from his original proposal.
In a blog post on Governor O'Malley's official website, Raquel Guillory, Director of Communications, strongly urged the Maryland House of Delegates not to weaken Governor O'Malley's assault weapon proposal by removing certain types of weapons including the AR-15.
Our view: Skeptics in the House of Delegates are misguided to think that some of the firearms Gov. O’Malley wants to prohibit have any use other than mass killing.
In 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized the Washington region for three weeks by firing bullets at innocent people in parking lots and at gas stations, ultimately killing 10 people and wounding three others. They used a Bushmaster XM-15 E2S rifle, one many variants of America’s most popular assault weapon, the AR-15.
. . .
As delegates consider amendments that would limit Mr. O’Malley’s proposal on assault weapons, they should ask themselves this question: If the features common to these firearms are merely cosmetic, why has the military adopted them? They are not for hunting or target shooting or for defending one’s home from an intruder. They are for killing as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and there is no justification for having them in civilian life.
http://www.governor.maryland.gov/...
The entire blog post is well worth the read in that it makes a very convincing case why the Governor's proposal should be enacted as is.
The Washington Post editorial board is opposed to weakening the Governor's proposal. The editors criticized delegates who want to remove the AR-15 from the assault weapons ban stating:
They should favor prohibiting the sale of assault weapons such as the popular AR-15 because it’s the right thing to do to promote public safety and it would reflect the interests of their constituents.. . .
A pair of Montgomery County Democrats, Dels. Luiz R.S. Simmons and Kathleen M. Dumais, both members of the House Judiciary Committee, said they were inclined to exempt the AR-15 from the weapons ban. Both said they’d been swayed by the pleadings of gun advocates who have flooded the legislative halls in Annapolis in recent weeks.
But the reality is that the number of Marylanders with a legitimate need to own AR-15s is minuscule. By contrast, repeated, tragic and bloody experience in Maryland and elsewhere in the United States makes plain the overwhelming need for a comprehensive ban on assault weapons.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
I hope that the Maryland House of Delegates does not follow Harry Reid's example, and that it passes the Governor's original proposal. And thank you Governor O'Malley for not backing down and for fighting for the assault weapons ban.