The 78 to 61 tally came at the end of difficult negotiations aimed at producing a measure that would convince lawmakers to resist the entreaties of thousands of gun rights advocates who have been frequent visitors to Annapolis this year.
Two House committees conducted emergency meetings yesterday morning to make last minute repairs to the legislation in order to meet Senate objections. Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Vallario said the goal is to win speedy Senate acquiescence before the General Assembly adjourns on Monday. He’s got his fingers crossed in hopes that--
“…the amendments that have been adopted by the House will be acceptable to the Senate and that they will adopt the entire bill.”
At a time when President Obama and leaders in other states are also pursuing gun restrictions, O’Malley’s proposal is among the most restrictive. It would ban military-style assault weapons and ammunition clips larger than 10 bullets. Handgun-buyers would also have to be licensed and finger-printed by the state police.
But House Republican Leader Tony O’Donnell called the measure little more than a political stunt by O’Malley that is not quite a done deal.
“Unfortunately, I think we have a very flawed bill. I think it was passed to further the…national political ambitions of this governor. I think it will be challenged in court.”
The House endorsed the bill largely as proposed by Governor O’Malley and passed by the Senate. As the delegates tinkered with the legislation in recent days, though, some changes were made that troubled Senate Judicial Proceedings Chairman Brian Frosh.
He said before the final House vote yesterday, though, he was cautiously optimistic that corrections were being made.
“It’s really hard to make that call without knowing what’s going on in the past three and a halk hours first hand. But they are heading in the right direction.”
One of the repairs to the bill removed members of the Maryland Defense Force from a list of people who would be exempt from the gun ban. James Adkins, the Adjutant General of the Maryland National Guard, complained to lawmakers that the Maryland Defense Force is a volunteer group that has no military training and no need to carry weapons.
Another change, removed an exemption for members of the military or the national guard who are at least 18 years old. Both Maryland and federal law require that possessions of regulated firearms be limited to those over 21.
This week’s gun control drama brings to a climax a General Assembly session that has been marked by high profile issues championed by O’Malley. But none of the other issues--not even a round of gasoline tax increases--has produced anything like the huge output of voter response prompted by the move to curb gun rights.
An estimated 4,000 potential witnesses turned out for the first round of public hearings on the measure, and gun rights advocates continued to make their presence known in the succeeding weeks.
Typical among them was Steve Leuschner, a Democrat from Baltimore County, who sat in the House gallery throughout almost all six hours of the debate yesterday, wearing a tan vest with part of the second amendment stitched on the back.
“The root of the problem is not the gun. It’s the person that has the gun, the person that has the gun in their hand. If you’re a good person with a gun you don’t intend to harm anyone. If you’re a bad person with a gun, you may intend to harm someone.”
One of the great conundrums of this debate, is how to tell who’s a good person with a gun and who’s bad.
I’m Karen Hosler, with Joel McCord, reporting in Annapolis, for 88.1 WYPR.