Around 10:30 last night, I read the bill.
The hearing on the Governor’s Firearm Safety Act began at 1:00.
Initially, I was turned off by the opponents’ bogus claims that any regulation of gun possession, including an ownership fee, violated the 2nd Amendment.
These people surely aren’t absolutists about other protections in the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court isn’t.
For example, a tax on newspapers does not violate the freedom of the press, unless it targets them for different treatment than other businesses.
(I read those cases around midnight. The bill hearing would last until 3:00.)
As the hearing wore on, there were fewer constitutional claims and more personal stories.
Some declared that they would leave Maryland if the bill became law. Many others said it would make them criminals.
Massive civil disobedience? I hadn’t read about that happening in New York after a law was enacted there in January.
So I read the Governor’s bill.
Assault weapons would be banned on October 1. If you already owned such weapons, they would not be taken away from you, but you would have to register them.
Gun owners would become criminals only if they chose not to obey the law. That’s not the same as saying that the bill would make you a criminal.
Annapolis etiquette says that you don’t question the accuracy of testimony by a member of the public.
However, I told a Republican colleague that if he made that false claim during the debate on the bill in committee or the House floor, I would not be silent.
