With little more than a week to go, Maryland lawmakers are struggling to produce a version of Governor Martin O’Malley’s sweeping gun control legislation that can win enactment before they adjourn.
If there is one point of clear agreement in the debate, it may be that people with criminal records shouldn’t have legal access to firearms. But the legislation as proposed by the governor and approved by the state Senate has what some legislators call a dangerous exception: criminal defendants who have their convictions or guilty pleas expunged when judges grant them probation before judgment, or PBJ.