Alert for week of March 18 in Annapolis

This Friday Fax briefing of 15 March contains the following:

1. IMMEDIATE ACTION ITEM -- A bad bill is moving and we need immediate calls. Act on this item first before taking time to read the rest of the briefing!

2. Status of remaining gun bills as of this date.

ACTION ITEM -- Call to oppose HB 1024

This is yet another proposal to gut the Public Information Act. It would allow bureaucrats more opportunity to conduct the business of government in secret.

The Public Information Act (PIA) is one of gunowners strongest tools for exposing anti-gun shenanigans in Maryland. We need PIA to be strengthened, not gutted like 1024 would do.

Here is what to do ...

(a) Call Speaker Casper Taylor. He's pushing 1024 hard and needs to be told to back off. Call and tell him this is a "bad bill and we don't want it."

Speaker Casper Taylor
email: Casper_Taylor@house.state.md.us
phone: 301 858 3800 -or- 410 841 3800
fax: 301 858 3888 -or- 410 841 3888

(b) Call Delegate John Wood. He is chair the committee currently considering this bill. He is a solid, pro-gun guy and he is with us on this. He needs something to work with in front of his committee, like overwhelming public opposition to 1024. Give it to him! Immediately call and say "hang tough, we don't want 1024, and thanks for your support!"

Delegate John Wood
email: John_Wood@house.state.md.us
phone: 301 858 3502 -or- 410 841 3502
fax: 301 970 5080 -or- 410 946 5080

These calls MUST go in between now and late afternoon monday, the 18th. Yes, that's a short time, so call over the weekend and leave messages on voice mail too! Constituents in particular (Allegany county for Taylor and St. Mary's for Wood) should take extra time in talking with them, and be sure to point this out.

Status of remaining gun bills

Marathon gun bill hearings were held this last week, and most are now on their way into oblivion. Your calls and letters sustained over a two-week period definitely got attention in town, and completed the demise of anti- gun measures according to the choreography laid out by advocates in January. Good show!

This was not without some casualties on our side. As you know, HB 1367 is a measure to restore rights of gun ownership to people with ancient and low- weight convictions (popularly thought of as the Don Arnold bill, after the poster child for why the AG shouldn't harass gun owners.) It was just voted out of committee (which is good) but not without amendments that dramatically water it down (which are bad.) What happened? By a coincidence of timing, it was set for a House Judiciary Committee voting session yesterday evening, after the hearing on other gun bills. During that hearing, a GOP spokesman circulated a graphic image of three Montgomery County legislators depicted as Nazi officers. This enraged several Democrat committee members, who had the last word at the evening voting session by gutting HB 1367 rather than stay on the sidelines as had been previously expected. As a direct result of steeling anti-gun resolve, the GOP spokesman ensured citizens who could have had rights restored will remain unable to ever possess a firearm. We are still waiting to hear what the GOP got out of the stunt in return.

We will still have missions to implement between now and end of session (the action item at the top of this alert is an example!) but at this time the prognosis looks good for us surviving the session with our rights largely no worse off than when we started the session. There will be no net gain. That won't happen until after we take care of business next November!