MD Alert and what you can do

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

MikeK

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
607
Location
MD
I know there are a number of folks from MD on this board. I've met a few in person. If You want to do something to prevent the few 'rights' we have from being eliminated (courtesy of MCDL):

Senator Frosh has scheduled the hearing on SB288, the ban on most
semi-automatic rifles, for February 10. See the link:
http://mlis.state.md.us/2004rs/billfile/sb0288.htm

That means they hope to catch us off guard and not ready. They are
trying to pull a fast one.

Whether or not you are ready, we need you all for the hearing. Sign-
up to testify if you only want 15 seconds to say who you are, who you
represent, and where you stand on the bill.

Information about where to go and what to bring is given at:
http://www.mcrkba.org/TestifyingInfo2.html
More details will be provided as they develop.

They are afraid of us getting organized and having a good showing.
Let's make their fears justified.
 
I've already taken a personal day at work so I can be there.

I'd appreciate it if people would post some suggestions on how to get the most out of my 15 seconds.

Sounding like an idiot for 15 seconds is far worse than saying nothing at all.
 
I may be able to take a half of a day from work....all of these snow days have messed things up very badly at school...but ultimately this is much more important.
 
spot77 - The 2nd link has some broad ideas. I will contact some folks that will be signing up to testify and see if we can get some ideas for a co-ordinated approach. There is a strategy session Monday afternoon (2/1). I may get some feedback after that.



edited for spelling.
 
Last edited:
I applaud the steadfast courage of Marylanders resisting
the anti-Second Amendment mob. The sad fact of the matter
is that Maryland's continued decline in the rights of
gun owners has not been helped by the lack of a
state constitutional amendment declaring Marylanders'
right to keep and bear arms. Maryland's entire
state constitutional history shows the absence of
this critical amendment.
 
just showing up and wearing a sticker i'm producing will help

standing up and simply saying
"i am apposed to the intent of SB288" is enough

wanna get elaborate?

quote the Maryland Militia call up from WWII:

"The Maryland Minute Men, armed with weapons with which they are
thoroughly familiar from long use, operating in a community in which
they are accustomed to every road and trail and stream, and aroused
to fighting pitch by the knowledge that they are serving to protect
their own homes, their family and all that they hold dear in life,
will prove a staunch defense against any enemy activity."

tell them how much shooting AR15s is part of your culture

tell them how you bought a case of ammo and took an 18 year old out to learn
how to safely shoot an AR15 before he deployed in Iraq

tell them that machine guns are already highly regulated and the pack of lies
that Neil Quinter and Rob Garagiola are telling makes you want to "Cas Taylor"
anyone who threatens our liberty by even considering such an infringement.

ask them about this:

CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND
ARTICLE IX
MILITIA AND MILITARY AFFAIRS.
SECTION 1. The General Assembly shall make, from time to time, such provisions for organizing, equipping and disciplining the Militia, as the exigency may require, and pass such Laws to promote Volunteer Militia organizations as may afford them effectual encouragement.


The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording
of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well
as its interpretation by every major comentator and court in the first
half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is
an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in
a peaceful manner.
1982 the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution,

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves..
and include all men capable of bearing arms."
- Richard Henry Lee, Senator, First Congress

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except
for a few public officials."
- George Mason.

"A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to arms,
is the best and most natural defense of a free country.."
- James Madison.

heck just stand up and say:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
 
Harry, I respect and agree with your rebuttals, however they'll have no impact whatsoever on the sheeple politicians hellbent on attaching their names to "feel good" legislation. I need a hard hitting, common sense narrative to sell to the people I'll be addressing. Beyond embarrassing myself, I don't want to say something that's not easily comprehended or cared about by the decision makers.

Let's face it; constitutional arguments are not en vogue, and any speak of militias will only conjure up images of David Koresh style compounds and psycho rednecks playing soldier in the woods.

I'll only have one chance at this, and I want it to make a difference.

Same with everybody else......and we need not repeat the same arguments; the more well thought rebuttals to this legislation that we can get on record, the better chance we have of defeating it.

I haven't been this passionate about anything in a looooong time, and I'm not about to screw this up and get poked in the ??? without a good hard fight.:fire:
 
Mike K, please post everything you can.

And PLEASE, Marylanders; don't just sit back and take this! I know there's a TON of Maryland shooters on this message board. I realize how difficult it is to attend this meeting, so please write and email every politician you can to let them know that you do not supprt HB 288 / SB 288 and you will not support anybody that votes for it. Get your friends to do it too; even if they're not shooters now, they may be in the future! It's THEIR rights too! It doesn't take long, and maybe it really will make a difference. How will you feel if you DON'T help our cause and this bill passes?

/soapbox off
 
been there done that

Expect the antis to have their photos taken with Garagiola
Sonia Wills was there sheding tears for the victims last year
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/summaries/reader/0,2061,562649,00.html
She's on the Brady payroll

No reasoned argument full of any truth or statistics is going to impact any of the anti legislators. Their Jihad is set

Molon Labe baby
and welcome to Cas Taylor's retirement plan

if you want some educational points
check out www.mcRKBA.org

we are building SB288 speaking points here this week:
http://www.mcrkba.org/GunBills.html

restating the State Police's opinion from last year may be fun:
attachment.php
 
if you want an idea of what the opposition is going to say,
read here:
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/issues/hot_issues/assaultweapon/

having the facts to refute this "reasoning" is a worthy task

Read what Quinter is saying:
Assault Weapons Ban Is A Safety, Not Personal, Issue
I was very disappointed that Del. Warren E. Miller (R-Howard) chose to
personalize the debate over whether rapid-fire assault weapons should be
allowed in Maryland communities ["Officials Ready to Trade Fire Over Assault
Weapons Ban," Howard Extra, Jan. 15].

I began working to keep assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition
magazines off our streets in 1995, when I was chief counsel for U.S. Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). I did this because I knew that assault weapons
are the weapons of choice of grievance killers, drug dealers and deranged
lunatics, designed specifically to make it easy to kill large numbers of
people at once, and because they have no legitimate hunting purpose.

As a staff member, I worked hard on this issue behind the scenes for years
because of its importance to public safety and stood to gain no credit. And
I am pleased that the evidence has shown this effort to be successful. A
study by the U.S. Justice Department found that the federal assault weapons
ban was responsible for a 6.7 percent decrease in total gun killings in the
country, holding all other factors equal. The study also confirmed that
assault weapons are disproportionately involved in murders with multiple
victims, with multiple wounds per victim and with police officers as
victims.

It is especially ironic that aspersions are being cast by an appointed
state delegate who regularly makes cold calls to reporters to comment about
county issues over which the state has no responsibility, to "make a name
for himself."

Del. Neil F. Quinter
(D-Howard)
Click to expand...
 
A
study by the U.S. Justice Department found that the federal assault weapons
ban was responsible for a 6.7 percent decrease in total gun killings in the
country, holding all other factors equal.
Click to expand...

this statement will be repeated

and can be nullified by really reading and quoting the study:

the Urban Institute hosts a 117 page version pdf:
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/aw_final.pdf

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=406797

IMPACT EVALUATION OF THE
PUBLIC SAFETY AND
RECREATIONAL FIREARMS
USE PROTECTION ACT OF 1994
Final Report

March 13, 1997
Jeffrey A. Roth and
Christopher S. Koper
with William Adams, Sonja
Johnson, John Marcotte, John
McGready, Andrew Scott,
Maria Valera, and Douglas
Wissoker

Supported under award #95-IJ-CX-0111 from the National Institute of Justice,
Office
of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this
document are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position
of the U.S. Department of Justice.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

the NIJ hosts the 12 page:
http://ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/173405.pdf

R e s e a r c h i n B r i e f
National Institute of Justice
Jeremy Travis, Director

Impacts of the 1994 Assault
Weapons Ban: 1994â96
by Jeffrey A. Roth and Christopher S. Koper


March 1999

The legislation required the Attorney
General to deliver to Congress within
30 months an evaluation of the effects of
the ban. To meet this requirement, the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded
research from October 1995 to December
1996 to evaluate the impact of Subtitle A.
This Research in Brief summarizes the
results of that evaluation.
 
I'd love to be there with you guys, but it falls on the second class of an important course I'm taking this semester (classes start tomorrow). It is once a week so missing one class is missing an awful lot.
 
Maryland has several anti-gun issues: AWB, ballistic fingerprinting,
internal locks, CCW, and the lack of a state constitutional
amendment stating, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms."
With regard to AWB: if the liberals succeed in banning "assault
weapons" in Maryland, then what is next? Lever-action rifles?
With regard to ballistic fingerprinting, despite overwhelming
evidence showing that ballistic fingerprinting has not solved
one crime, the liberals are still pushing the ballistic fingerprinting
agenda. The evidence will accumulate that internal locks cause
more deaths than save lives. With regard to CCW, those states with
CCW laws have less murder, robbery, and home invasions than states
without a CCW. But all of this evidence falls for naught
when trying to reason with the anti-gun mob.
 
Once they make assault weapons an illegal item,
its a simple matter to add "that which offends them" to the list.

a harsh reading of the current text could be interpreted to read
that semi auto pistols are assault weapons.
 
Spot et al:

Here are a few ideas from someone much more knowledgable and active than me:

Mike,

I'm rushed right now, so I'll try to throw a few things out.
You may have heard all of it before, but I hope some of
it can be passed on to your guys...

*It has been stipulated that so-called "assault weapons"
are the "weapons of choice" among criminals, yet the
of the top 10 guns used in crime, 9 are pistols, and one
is a shotgun. The #1 firearm used in crime is STILL the
Smith&Wesson .38 revolver, and it doesn't leave a shell
casing -- unless, of course, the perpetrator is conscientious.

*Since "assault weapons" cover rifles, pistols, and shotguns,
which of these "weapons of choice" are most chosen, the
rifles, pistols, or shotguns? Isn't it true that more people
were killed with knives than were murdered with every AW
of every kind?

*Senator Garagiola has stated that the .223 Remington
varmint round is too powerful to be in the hands of the public.
This really bothered my wife and her sister who shoot antelope
with the .270 Winchester. They're wondering when the good
Senator will be coming after this massively-powerful round
next.

*The .223 Remington is one of the most popular center-fire
cartridges for match competition. It is used by athletes of
all ages, all across the country. It is also used for hunting.

*A rifle with a...
"PISTOL GRIP THAT PROTRUDES CONSPICUOUSLY BENEATH THE ACTION

...is BIGGER and HARDER to conceal than a hunting rifle.

That's about all I have time for now.

ALL SPORTSMEN need to realize that if an entire class of

firearms -- shooting one of the world's most popular competition

rounds -- can be banned because it is "too lethal," or "too powerful"

or the "weapon of choice" among criminals, then NO GUN THEY

OWN IS SAFE!

Remember, many gun manufacturers built rifles that only shoot

pistol ammo after the 1994 ban. That's ammo that won't even

penetrate a ballistic vest, but that doesn't matter. Many of these

guns now appear on ban lists appearing at the state level across

America.

Like Carmen Amedori has said, "If you're staying home to polish

your guns, you're not going to have any guns to polish."

It's time gun owners pulled their weight. Our enemies are rising

from the dead, and gun owners figure it's safe to go bowling. If

they don't stand up and fight, a bowling ball will be the only thing

they'll be allowed to throw downrange.
 
I have been crawling through the Maryland Department of Natural Resouces hunting regulations. I was looking for the section that says large game such as deer can be hunted with a rifle producing 1200 pounds of energy at the muzzle. I have read this before, but could not find it.

But I did find in the regs that a handgun can be used for hunting large game if it generates 700 foot pounds or more of energy at the muzzle from the minimum of a six inch barrel. The regs also mention that semi-automatic rifle must have a magazine that hounds eight rounds or less.

Bottomline, is that contrary to the stupid politicans comments that the so called "assault weapons" are only suitable for killing people, most of them could be used legally for hunting. The Maryland politicians probably have no idea what the States hunting regulations are.

This might be a good point to make.
 
AWB

For those who can't attend, here is a way to make your feelings known. I did it at lunch time today and all three ladies were very polite. This from direct-action.org.

ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN ON FAST TRACK IN ANNAPOLIS
(31 January 2004) We roll into February with our first alert of the year warning you that a major gun control package - the one we all expected - is on the fast track in Maryland's General Assembly, where the Senate is poised to advance a ban on "assault weapons" very soon.

YOUR MISSION for the week of February 2: contact key Senators on the Judicial Proceedings Committee and express your strongest opposition to *any* new gun control under consideration. Details are below.

TO NON-MARYLANDERS, as always we say welcome, and hope what you learn here will help you deal with anti-gunners where you live. Watch closely how the left wing here seeks to affect presidential politics by slanting the terms of debate towards ground of their own choosing. Maryland's battle over so- called "assault weapons" may have national impact ... that's what they want!

Here's what you need to know! -- Jim

1. ABOUT THE BILL - A COMPREHENSIVE BAN ON MOST SEMI-AUTO FIREARMS
Senate Bill SB-288 proposes to BAN the possession of so-called "assault weapons" in Maryland. What is an assault weapon? Proponents define this by starting with ANY SEMI-AUTO FIREARM that takes a detachable magazine and then checks if it has any cosmetic feature they don't like. Then it bans "copycat guns" - anything that the state thinks resembles an assault weapon. And it gets to decide what that is later! To top it off, the bill mandates registration of any such firearms that area already in private hands by a certain date. But because the state can retroactively ban any gun it wants later, you might not have known to register your gun with state police in time - That puts you in possession of instant contraband, which will get you years in jail. See for yourself at http://mlis.state.md.us/2004rs/billfile/sb0288.htm
2. HERE IS WHAT TO DO
a. During the week of 2 February, call each of these three key Senators and tell them NO to the assault weapons ban:

Senator JOHN GIANETTI (410) 841-3141 -or- (301) 858-3141
[email protected]
Senator LEO GREEN (410) 841-3631 -or- (301) 858-3631
[email protected]
Senator JAMES BROCHIN (410) 841-3648 -or- (301) 858-3648
[email protected]
YES, send email too, but calls numbers are what we need to run up now. Be polite, identify yourself and say you want the Senator to strongly oppose SB 288 and ANY new gun control. It is perfectly appropriate for you to call back a few days later to give your message again; after all, you need to know the Senator has received your input. (Calls from outlying areas can be made toll free by dialing 800-492-7122 and then asking for the 4 digit extension listed above.)

b. Call each of the rest of the Senators on the Judicial Proceedings Committee with the same message. They are at: http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/05sen/html/com/05judp.html

c. Have everyone you know call too! Volume of calls COUNTS. Our goal is to ensure that no office staff member can hang up the phone without it immediately ringing with a call from another irate gun owner. This is an all-hands operation and is not a drill. DO IT!

You are the first wave. Your calls this week are intended to condition the battlefield before the major hearing on FEBRUARY 10th at 1PM in Annapolis. So yes, there will be another wave of calls needed next week, but by then our direct mail will have hit and your next calls will be multiplied by those of gunowners who aren't connected to the Internet. The intent here is to shape feedback so our constantly rising shout of opposition will rise to a crescendo just before the bill is voted. ONLY YOU CAN MAKE THIS WORK!
 
The entire premise of the anti-gun mob in Annapolis is wrong: they "feel" that guns are evil, but persons committing criminal acts with guns are not. As long as the debate is centered around guns, the anti-gun mob will continue to erode our rights because they hold the majority. There is no winning a debate with an irrational majority who cannot be persuaded with facts, especially when those facts deal with criminals using a tool to commit their nefarious acts. The anti-gun mob is focused on the tool, and not the criminal pulling the trigger.
 
Made calls to three key Senators Gianetti, Green, Brochin against SB 288. Only took a few minutes. Voiced opposition and they take your name and address data.

Gunfyter, thanks for the tip.
 
My pleasure. I'm just coming off short term disability and really can't afford to take any time off, but my cell phone works fine, so I'll do my part by calling and then following up in a few days. Hopefully, the rest of the Maryland THR members will follow suit.
 
I sent emails to all three yesterday and followed up with phone calls today.

I had to leave messages for all, but the aide for Senator JOHN GIANETTI said that he favors the federal ban, but has made no decision on SB 288 at this time.

In light of the pending Maryland legislation, I too, sadly favor the federal ban:(
 
In order to preserve Marylanders' right to keep and bear arms,
including firearms referred to as "assault weapons," it is necessary
to amend Maryland's state constitution:

RESOLVED, That the People of Maryland reaffirm that each law
abiding and responsible person has the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
for defense of himself or his family, and be it further
RESOLVED, That the People of Maryland demand government
respect their civil Right to self-defense and to Keep and Bear Arms by
rejecting firearms laws that violate both the Second and Ninth
Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, while having no effect on the
activities of the criminal element in our society, and we urge our duly
elected members of the Legislature of Maryland to focus on providing
appropriate resources needed to capture, try and imprison violent
criminals through legislation; and, be it finally
RESOLVED, That the People of Maryland demand that our State’s
lawmakers amend the Maryland Constitution to specifically recognize
each person's Right to self-defense and to Keep and Bear Arms with:

(A1) All persons are, by nature, free and equal, and have the
inherent and inalienable Right of enjoying and defending their lives
and liberties.

To that end, all persons have the Right to keep and carry arms and
are responsible for the abuse of that Right and no law shall be
passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes
committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals; but this
provision shall not prevent the passage of legislation providing
minimum sentences for crimes committed that were facilitated by a
firearm, nor prevent passage of legislation providing penalties for
the possession of firearms by a convicted felon or by a person
adjudicated as not responsible because of mental illness or other
mental impairment, nor prevent the passage of legislation
punishing the use of a firearm, nor prevent the regulation of
possession of firearms by a minor. Nor shall any regulation on the
open possession of a firearm by a minor apply when supervised by
an adult or when on private property with the permission of the
owner for purposes of shooting.

No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of
the right to keep and carry arms, but may regulate the discharge of
firearms for non self-defense purposes.

No law shall impose licensure, registration or special taxation on the
ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition. Nor shall any
law permit the confiscation of firearms, except those actually used
in the commission of a felony.

Since equality in the enjoyment of rights is only made sure through
political equality, the laws of this state affecting these Rights shall
be without distinction of race, color, sex, or any circumstance or
condition whatsoever other than individual incompetency, or
unworthiness duly ascertained by a court of competent jurisdiction.

http://www.mcrkba.org/Resolution.html
 
7 snail mail letters last Sunday, 7 this Sunday.

1 more to Gov. Erlich tonight.

(If) I get snowed/iced in tommorrow, LOTS of phone calls.

Penance for not being able to make the Assembly session.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top