Tag: gun control

Protecting Our Rights – Voting and Guns

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My bottom line: The law should benefit people or prevent them from being harmed without unduly burdening the rights of those whose conduct is being regulated or criminalized..

One example is voter fraud.

To what extent should we impose barriers to the exercise of this fundamental right when seeking to prevent individuals from voting illegally?

The Congress struck the proper balance when it enacted the Help America Vote Act in the wake of the Florida recount in 2000.

In addition to official government documents, proof of residency can be demonstrated by a person’s address on a rent notice or a utility bill.

My legislation, which was enacted, adopts that federal standard when an individual’s right to vote is challenged at a polling location.

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmStatutesText.aspx?article=gel&section=10-312&ext=html&session=2018RS&tab=subject5

A second example of that balancing act is gun control.

Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.

Who wrote that? It was Justice Scalia in his majority opinion striking down DC’s gun control law.

When the members of the Congress, the General Assembly, or any other legislative body seek to prevent the loss of life due to firearms, we must do so without violating the 2nd Amendment rights of gun owners.

But we can do so, as Justice Scalia pointed out.

And we must.

 

A caucus Groucho would not want to be a member of

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The Maryland Democratic Party’s “center-right legislators have shrunk to a handful,” writes Barry Rascovar, a former editorial writer at the Baltimore Sun.
The Republican Party faces a similar problem.
None of the three GOP legislators who voted for marriage equality is returning to Annapolis.  Two were elected to local office, Senator Alan Kittleman and Delegate Wade Kach; Del. Robert Costa has retired.
Five years ago, I introduced legislation listing the family members who are allowed to remove a deceased’s remains from a burial site and reinter them elsewhere.  An amendment to remove domestic partners from that list was supported by 32 Republicans.  Only two voted against it.
Twelve Republican members voted in 1991 for the choice legislation that the voters approved on referendum, 68-32%.
For nearly 40 years, compromise language has authorized Medicaid funding of abortions because of a woman’s mental health.  An amendment to strip that language received 48 votes in the House.  All but six of the 48 were Republicans.
No Republicans voted for the Firearm Safety Act of 2013.
I tried to find out how many GOP members of the new legislature were endorsed by the NRA, but you must belong to the NRA to view its endorsements,
As Groucho Marx would say, that’s not a club that would accept me as a member.

A Few Good Flip Flops

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2014 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“You can’t handle the truth.”

If Col. Nathan R. Jessup, Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men, were a pundit, that’s what he’d say about Larry Hogan’s flip flop on gun control.

During yesterday’s debate, Mr. Hogan pledged that he would enforce the new gun law and had no plans to quietly roll it back, saying he was “very supportive” of the assault weapon and background check provisions despite opposing the bill.

When Lt. Governor Brown accused him of opposing those individual provisions, Hogan said he approved of those measures. He said he didn’t support the bill because he didn’t think it was strong enough in keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

If the bill had been amended to meet Mr. Hogan’s concerns, it would not have gained a single vote. The opposition to the heart of the bill, the restrictions on gun purchases, was too strong. I can attest to that as a member of the Judiciary Committee who participated in the hearings and the debate.

Mr. Hogan would not have won the GOP primary had he said then what he says now: that he would have supported the bill if amended.

What he did say then was this, according to the Sun: “It think it’s unlikely that it’s going to be repealed, given that the Democrats in the legislature just rammed it through. But I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. I opposed SB 281. There are things we can do administratively at the executive branch level to change some of the definitions, and so that we’re making it easier for law-abiding citizens to own firearms.”

You can stand down, Col. Jessup.

Learning about products that can kill

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2014 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I hope to learn something new each session.

Weeks before the public hearing, I knew the outcome for my legislation that would ban the sale of gateway products for young smokers – unpackaged, or single-wrapped, cigarillos and other flavored  tobacco products.

As I expected, House Bill 1158 got an unfavorable report from the House Economic Matters Committee.

To overcome the influence of the tobacco industry, the Governor needs to sponsor the bill or it must be the highest priority of a very broad coalition.

That’s also the case with gun control.

You’d think that wouldn’t be the case with two products that can kill people, but it is.

I read this today:

Smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the country, is now increasingly a habit of the poor and the working class.

How should we target our smoking prevention efforts so that we can reverse that trend in Maryland?

As I work on that for next year’s session, I hope I’ve learned something from this year’s experience.

A learning experience – under fire

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This is how I learn things.

Someone was testifying on the first of 30 gun bills being heard by my committee today.

I turned to my pro-gun seatmate and lamented, “This will be a very long afternoon, especially if none of these bills will be sent to the House floor.”

Both of us assumed that after last year’s contentious debate, the leadership did not want to resume that discussion on the floor of the House or Senate.

Then a witness said, “The Senate committee is considering an amendment to the identical bill.”

If true, it means that a gun bill could get a favorable report from my committee.

The Senate is not going to work on a bill if it’s dead on arrival in the House.

Reading testimony after a meeting beforehand

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

 

Don’t read your testimony.

Know what you’re talking about (Why we need this bill) and don’t worry if you pause or stumble occasionally.

That’s better than not making eye contact with the committee members because you’re reading what’s below you on the witness table.

I preach that to my law students and follow that rule myself.

Except when I get an email that my bill on the allocation of slots revenues among the neighborhoods near Pimlico Race Track is about to be heard in 10 minutes in the Budget and Taxation Committee and we’re nowhere near the end of the floor debate on the gun bill.

“You’re going to testify for the bill,” I told my staffer, “and you can read the testimony.”

An hour later, he responded, “I didn’t read it verbatim. I had enough time to prepare oral remarks. No question. A few nods.”

“I will talk to committee members when I can,” I responded.

There was no need to do so, he informed me. “Senator Jones asked for them to move it quickly after the hearing.”  It got a favorable report.

Before the hearing, I had met with the senator, who represents Baltimore City, and gained her support.

—-

My floor speech about the 2nd Amendment on Tuesday is discussed in The Free State Press, with a link to my remarks.

http://thefreestatepress.com/bullying-partisanship-assault-on-the-bill-of-rights-dominate-house-gun-debate/

Guns and the law

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

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.

Praising the NRA, Quoting Justice Scalia

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“The NRA is very good at what it does,” I declared.

I was a guest on the Marc Steiner show.

“The existing law is riddled with loopholes, thanks to the NRA,” I continued.  “For instance, agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms can make only one inspection per year of a licensed gun dealer.”

Some of the other points I tried to make.

“President Obama and Governor O’Malley are not claiming that their legislation would be a panacea [as another panelist had asserted].  What they’re seeking are reasonable limitations on access to certain firearms and magazines that will reduce the risk of deadly violence upon innocent children and others.”

“Chiefs of police overwhelmingly support gun control laws.”

In response to the claim that the 2nd Amendment would be violated by these restrictions, I read from Justice Scalia’s opinion in the case striking down a District of Columbia statute because it violated an individual’s right to possess and use a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.

“From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases” the law was understood to mean that the Second Amendment “was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose…Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

—-

I had this dialogue with a veteran lobbyist who was about to seek co-sponsors for a bill we are working on.

“It’s good to have a champion on the committee,” said the lobbyist.

“No, it’s essential,” I replied.

“I’m getting too old to get a lot of co-sponsors.”

“Young or old, seeking co-sponsors who are not on the committee hearing the bill is the biggest waste of time in Annapolis.”

 

Government’s First Obligation

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The first obligation of government is to keep people safe where they live, work, and play.

I’ve said that many times over the years.

Today I extended that obligation to include “the school that their children attend.”

I spoke at a press conference about legislation that will be introduced in Annapolis next month in response to the tragedy at Newtown.

I will be introducing one of those bills.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/md-senators-set-to-revive-previous-gun-bills/2012/12/19/c8d7d344-4a14-11e2-ad54-580638ede391_story.html

Two years ago, in response to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Delegate Luiz Simmons and I introduced a bill to create a task force to study access to regulated firearms by individuals with mental illness.

That group will issue its report in the next two weeks.

In 2010, I introduced legislation to prevent “straw man” purchases, which allow handguns to end up in the hands of persons who are legally prohibited from possessing those weapons.  It would have required purchase permits to obtain a firearm.

“Bagel Brain Jews Want Your Bullets and Your Guns,” read the headline on a flier distributed in response to the legislation, which Senator Brian Frosh also introduced.

When I spoke today, I said that we should have a rational discussion about guns, respecting the views of all parties.

I often depend upon help from colleagues

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | No Comments

           This was a day for the newsletter rule.

            I don’t have to be the lead sponsor of a bill. If I can legitimately take credit for my role in getting a bill passed, then I can mention it in my end-of-session newsletter.

           Two examples today.

           Last year, I introduced legislation to require the Public Service Commission to make comparative information about electricity prices easily accessible to the public. This website would include a user-friendly search tool, enabling consumers to search for service offers in their zip codes.

             My bill did not pass, but the chairman of the committee introduced similar legislation this session. House Bill 597 would require the commission to regularly update a customer choice education page. It passed the House today, 138-0.

             After the shooting of Congressman Gabrielle Giffords in January, I did not want that tragedy to pass without the legislature taking action. 

             At a minimum, we should address access to guns by people with mental illness. Gun control legislation is considered by the Judiciary Committee, where I served until this year.

             This means I would no longer be the most effective person to shepherd the bill through the committee.  So I asked Delegate Lu Simmons, a subcommittee chairman on Judiciary, to be the lead sponsor.

             He did the research and drafting for the legislation but kept me informed along the way. The amended bill, which creates a task force to study the access of individuals with mental illness to regulated firearms, was reported to the House floor today.

March 18

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning