(April 2, 2001)

1. There is no problem to solve.Accident rates involving kids and guns could hardly be lower; misinformation distributed by MAHA is based on criminal misuse of guns, which isn't addressed by this education mandate. The current low accident rates are a marvelous testament to the great care and concern for safety shown by responsible gunowners in Maryland, who are insulted to be told there is some "crisis" to be repaired legislatively.

2. On-going controversy is inevitable.All parts of Maryland have voters on all sides of the issue, yet each county will implement only one program under this mandate. One size definitely does not fit all. Each parent seeing her child being given a message at school that conflicts with one taught at home will have a problem. All bill proponents will own the resulting angst.

3. Litigation will rule school by school. Normally state preemption of gun law keeps gun policy debate in Annapolis. Gun issues explicitly in the state education charter will establish standing for activists on all sides, who will inevitably seek legal remedy when they perceive their views are not given equitable treatment by schools. Kid safety will be caught in legal crossfire.

4. We create a new blueprint for handling controversial social issues in schools. This bill mandates instruction on gun safety by listing programs at each end of the spectrum and asking counties to make their own choices. A likely unintended consequence is that we'll soon have a school mandate on abortion (by having school boards select wisely from material provided by NARAL and Christian Coalition); on slavery reparation (by selecting from materials provided by the Black Caucus and the KKK); gay rights and more, once each group comes to believe they can get from bureaucrats and local school boards what they cannot get directly from the General Assembly. In each case, knowing that the 'right' message is taught somewhere in the state will not comfort a parent whose child is taught a different message locally.

5. Cynics rule. A community that mostly wants to be left alone just went through a bruising fight over gun safety last year. When SB 211 passed, the community was told by leadership that no more undesirable gun bills would advance this term. Nobody is comforted to hear "oh, that didn't apply to mandates for attacking gun culture in population centers of the state."

6. State credibility in handling the previous gun safety measure is zero. Last year's SB 211 resulted in a gun safety training mandate for anyone who seeks to buy a handgun. That law mandates that regulation be established by last January, yet no training regulations are promulgated. The administration is rapidly erecting insurmountable barriers to lawful handgun purchasers, all in the name of gun safety education. Nobody in the community believes this administration will handle new gun safety mandates any more equitably.

7. Nobody trusts an administration intent on gun abolition over safety. At the same time it rammed SB 211 through in the name of gun safety, the administration permanently closed all state-owned armory ranges. Ironically these ranges had been centers of community instruction on gun safety for years, all at no cost to taxpayers. And again in the name of "gun safety" an annual Maryland State Police report cites their successes as measured by the number of guns taken from private hands, not criminals jailed. Citizens must view any new gun mandates as coming from a government that wants lawful firearm ownership and use repressed.

8. Bill passage validates false premises. Accepting MAHA's false reasons for passing this bill will unleash a floodgate of new legislative battles, each launched in the name of the same misinformation. Perhaps legislators thrive on the endless turmoil, but citizens increasingly ask when enough is enough.

9. These bills put a Wolff in the education henhouse. The record shows that administrators who would be charged with establishing policy under this law are already aligned with groups that oppose private ownership of firearms. MAHA newsletters, MSDE press releases, MSTA documents and testimony in bill files on other legislation all reveal bias that the community of firearm owners must beware. By putting responsibility in the hands of 'faceless bureaucrats,' antigun organizations apparently want legislators to enact Trojan horse gun control that wouldn't pass by direct means.

10. All measures represent a huge unfunded mandate. Counties that give due diligence to the mandate must necessarily foot the bill for their efforts. (Of course, the Governor's new Cease Fire Council, established by SB 211 last year, will be in a position to throw lots of free tax money to schools that adopt the antigun curriculum of choice. Public policy is always streamlined when money grows on trees.) Independent of who pays for all the education materials, schools already having difficulty teaching the basics will pay with lower aggregate test scores as precious classroom time is diverted to social mandates. All to solve a nonexistent problem.