(April 29, 2004) On Tuesday of this week Jim Purtilo, political commentator and firearm issue activist, filed suit in Montgomery County asking the Circuit Court to enjoin Maryland State Police from enforcing handgun sale restrictions that go far beyond the agency's statutory authority.

Present state law bans sale of new handguns lacking 'integrated mechanical safety devices' - a term coined for the first time by gun control proponents in 2000 when Parris Glendening's "smartgun" proposal was panned in the General Assembly. The legislature stopped his mandate for high-tech (and undeveloped) electronic locks in favor of a simple mandate that each gun have either a lock or a disabling safety.

At issue today is the scope of this mandate for mechanical safety devices. Though the law clearly defines two ways for a product to meet the requirement, Maryland State Police now approve only handguns having an integrated lock, not ones having a disabling safety. As a result, the vast majority of new handguns on the market are unlawful for Maryland sale.

It is exactly this crisis of product availability which prompted Senate President Mike Miller - champion of Glendening's 2000 law and the man who brokered the compromise language on safeties in order to pass a bill - to recently introduce legislation intended to adjust the lock definition so handguns could be sold. His 'Beretta bill' - so-called because guns made by Beretta in his home district cannot be sold in-state - languished with all other gun bills.

MSP's enforcement of the lock mandate is based on regulations written and adopted by the Ehrlich administration last summer. Purtilo's complaint states these regulations are illegally restrictive and seeks a declaratory judgement to limit MSP enforcement to only what the law says. He filed suit only after his efforts to work with the administration in the last year were rebuffed, with no other efforts towards relief in sight.