(September 1, 1999) Not long ago, Timothy Chang walked into a Rockville (Maryland) office and calmly shot a man to death. He planned this well in advance, and immediately after executing his victim, he sat down and asked the receptionist to call police.

Montgomery County officials just announced Chang will plead guilty to murder, and at the same news conference, announced handgun charges would be dropped. You see, Timothy Chang is on his way to receiving light treatment so a handgun charge, with its mandatory minimum sentence of five years, would have been a pesky obstacle.

Who is the State's Attorney in Montgomery County? Doug Gansler, who campaigned for his post on a platform of opposition to private ownership of firearms. Gansler won't charge a murderer with gun crime yet he is apparently happy to serve as a member of the Governor's Task Force on Childproof Handguns, with its poorly-veiled goal of disarming honest citizens. As if we didn't have evidence enough already, Gansler makes clear the agenda isn't so much public safety as it is with getting tough on you and me for owning guns.