(December 1, 2000) The drums in Takoma Park are beating a renewed call for gun control. We stymied them last year when they tried to put their total handgun ban to an illegal referendum. The city council then appointed a committee to study other ways to enact gun prohibition. This group could have made recommendations any time, but they know the game is played in Annapolis, not Takoma Park. With a new legislative session on the horizon, now is the time: after nearly a year of laying low, they're ramping up media events, intended to condition public opinion so its effect (however little) will show up on the General Assembly's radar screen just as new gun control bills are considered.

Under consideration are the usual assortment of feel-good measures, wrapped around a ban on handguns near any public place. (How close? Bureaucrats will fine tune that once the bill is law.) But ordinary citizens won't know proposal details from Takoma Park itself. City administration cheerfully accepts both phone and mail requests for a report copy (as we suggested in a previous issue here, in fact) then simply doesn't send them out. Presumably we can all learn what they've done after the fact. 'Fast and loose' remains the Takoma Park trademark. Stay tuned, we will keep you posted on potential litigation coming up.