TRIPWIRE	“Because an informed voter is freedom’s best friend.”
A Maryland Gun Rights Advocacy Newsletter	MARCH 2004

Firearm owners unite to OPPOSE the following proposals:
HB 269	Public Safety - Imitation Firearms – Prohibition Yes, a toy gun ban! Anything that looks like a handgun will become more controlled than the real thing!
HB 392	Gun Shops - Storage Vaults for Regulated Firearms Legislators want to drive up the cost of a dealer doing business in guns, so maybe he can’t afford to stay in business.
HB 456	Firearms Offenses - Project Exile Don’t believe the title – this has nothing to do with the NRA program of the same name. This bill expands gun disability laws giving police a bigger ‘mandatory sentence’ club to hold over gunowners to get them to plead guilty to any charge police bring.
HB 587	Prince George's County - Handguns - Sales by Law Enforcement Agencies to Officers Police have discovered that most handguns aren’t available under present state gun control laws, so in PG they want freedom to get handguns by buying their duty sidearms. Just like Maryland State Police!
HB 784	Montgomery County - Fire and Explosive Investigators – Authority Officials want defendants unable to legally challenge in court any claims made by police who enforce expanded operations against handloaders. Watch this one … it is as dangerous an attack on civil liberties as they come!
HB 983	Armed Criminal Lockup Act Gets tough with bad guys, and everyone else too! Would expand the power of gun-grabbing officials to confiscate property of firearm owners who haven’t even been convicted of a crime.
HB 1112	Public Safety - Gun Control Act of 2004 Vilifies ownership of firearms that look like real “assault weapons” by making their use a new special crime.
HB 1148	Domestic Violence - Protective Order – Penalty Expands gun disability laws and gives broader confiscation authority to officials who are driven by gun grabbing agendas more than public safety.
SB 288 / HB 1298	Maryland Assault Weapons Ban of 2004 An outright ban on possession of most semi-auto firearms, with equity of all existing guns confiscated.
SB 423	Juvenile Court - Expansion of Jurisdiction We oppose any expansion of jurisdiction sought by gun grabbers.
SB 925	Election Law - Polling Places - Safety Improvement A crass attempt to get any gun bill through another committee to the Senate floor, where gun grabbers can amend on their total semi-auto ban.
SB 927	Assault Weapon User Fee Same goal as SB 925, except if their amendment for outright ban fails then gun grabbers can jack up the tax on semi-auto firearms to make ownership unaffordable.
Firearm owners unite to SUPPORT the following proposals:
SB 662 / HB 251 / HB 410	Public Safety - Handgun Identification Requirements – Repeal Repeals the mandate for “ballistic fingerprinting” of all new handguns – the Parris Glendening program that has cost tax payers millions of dollars, barred sale of countless high quality handguns from companies not able to meet state standards, yet which has not jailed a single criminal in its years of operation.
HB 414 / HB 652	Handgun Safety Devices – Repeal Repeals the ban on handguns lacking “integrated mechanical safety devices” … a ban without benefit that has denied us access to a host of high quality products!
HB 444	Cecil County - Issuance of Handgun Permits A cute attempt to get ‘local consideration’ in the House for enacting Right to Carry (in Cecil county.)
HB 859	Citizens' Protection Act of 2004 House version of Right to Carry.
SB 137	Self-Defense Act - Rule of Law Senate version of Right to Carry.
SB 547	Handguns - Integrated Mechanical Safety Device – Definition The so-called ‘Beretta bill’ that would redefine IMSDs to include cable locks (though remove safeties.)

We take no position on a small number of other firearm related bills. Concerning proposals to expand opportunity for police to obtain carry permits: naturally we support having broader freedom for citizens to exercise right to carry, but police-only bills (HB 151 and HB 506) are irrelevent in light of our preferred reform of carry laws that benefit us all. Concerning proposals to expand penalties: We are happy if police want to ‘get tough’ with criminal misuse of firearms, but consider bills demanding an even tougher stance (such as SB 318) unnecessary public policy, given that nobody has been able to show safety improvement from enacting the last round of penalty enhancements. Ultimately, gun owners should spend our political coin on gains specific to our community, not on crime bills that presumably help the whole community yet which only serve to needlessly link crime and guns in the public’s mind.