May 31, 2022
“Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment… The idea
that we have so many people dying every single day from gun violence in America is a blemish
on our character as a nation.”
– President Joseph R. Biden (April 8, 2021)
Like many of you, I have been overwhelmed with grief in wake of the most recent high-profile mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and in Uvalde, Texas. And like many of you, I have been more introspective these past few days, having been served with yet another tragic reminder of just how precious our time together is on this earth. And like many of you, I have taken some extra time to be with loved ones. Even more candidly, I must admit that I have found it more difficult to let go from my daughter’s embrace as I drop her off at school, and that I have spent the last few nights beside her bed, watching her sleep – the preciousness of life understood more deeply with each breath I watch her take.
While it is impossible to understand what would drive anyone to commit such a vile and evil act, it is entirely possible to understand how we as a nation have gotten to this point. Today there are over 393.3 million guns in the United States; put differently there are roughly 120 guns for every 100 Americans. Between 1968 and 2017 there were 1.5-million-gun related deaths in the United States, that is more than the number of U.S. service members killed in every U.S. conflict since the Revolutionary War in 1775. More than 45,000 Americans died in gun related incidents in 2020, more than any year on record. Every day more than 110 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. In our country, an average of one child is shot every hour of every day.
Our borders are porous, and the vast majority of guns used to commit crimes in Maryland come from outside of our state. Our entire region suffers when weak laws in neighboring states enable the fluid flow of firearms across state lines. National action must and can be taken to move us in the right direction and our example here in Maryland can be instructive for the rest of the nation.
Over the last decade, Maryland has been at the forefront of firearm safety policies and has enacted several important bills to address firearm violence and to protect the State’s residents, a number of which I have outlined below.
Perhaps the most important lesson to gleam from our past successes is that we have the capacity to change policy and save lives if we act with the sense of urgency this problem necessitates. I plan to reintroduce a safe storage bill to ensure children and unqualified individuals don’t gain easy access to lethal firearms and would love to hear more from you about how we might best move our state forward.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me if I can ever be of assistance.
Maryland General Assembly Significant Firearm Safety Legislation, 2013-2022
2022 Legislative Session
- Public Safety – Untraceable Firearms: Chapter 18 and 19 of 2022 (Senate Bill 387), a part of the Senate’s community safety plan, prohibited a person from purchasing, receiving, selling, offering to sell, or transferring an unfinished frame or receiver unless it has been imprinted with a serial number by a federally licensed firearms manufacturer or federally licensed firearms importer. A person may not sell, offer to sell, or transfer a firearm unless it is imprinted with a specified serial number.
- Public Safety – Licensed Firearms Dealers – Security Requirements: Chapter 55 (House Bill 1021) prohibited a firearms dealer from conducting business and storing firearms at a location unless (1) the premises on which the licensed dealer operates is equipped with specified security features or (2) outside business hours, the licensed dealer locks all firearms stored on the premises in a vault, a safe, or a room or building that meets specified requirements.
- Crimes – Firearms and Inmates – Enforcement, Procedures, and Reporting: Chapter 142 (Senate Bill 861), a part of the Senate’s community safety plan, established the Maryland State Police Gun Center within the Department of State Police (DSP) as a statewide firearms enforcement center for the tracking, screening, and vetting of all firearm crimes committed in the State.
2021 Legislative Session
- Public Safety – Rifles and Shotguns – Sales, Rentals, and Transfers: Chapter 11 and 35 (Senate Bill 208) required that before the sale, rental, or transfer of a rifle or shotgun is conducted, the seller, lessor, or transferor and purchaser, lessee, or transferee both request that a licensed firearms dealer facilitate the sale, rental, or transfer. A dealer who agrees to facilitate the sale, rental, or transfer must (1) process the transaction as though transferring the rifle or shotgun from the dealer’s own inventory to the purchaser, lessee, or transferee; (2) conduct a background check on the purchaser, lessee, or transferee through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System; and (3) comply with all federal and State law that would apply to the sale, rental, or transfer, including all inventory and record-keeping requirements.
2019 Legislative Session
- Public Safety – Regulated Firearms – Prohibition of Loans: Chapter 458 (Senate Bill 346) expanded prohibitions against a firearms dealer selling to a purchaser if the dealer knows or has reasonable cause to believe that the purchaser is not able to possess a regulated firearm, to include a loan of a regulated firearm to a borrower. Additionally, a dealer may not sell or transfer if they know or has reasonable cause to believe that the purchaser, lessee, transferee, or recipient intends to use the regulated firearm to commit a crime or cause harm to his/herself or another person.
2018 Legislative Session
- Criminal Law – Crimes of Violence, Expungement, and Drug Treatment: Chapter 143 (Senate Bill 101) altered the definition of “crime of violence” by (1) changing “use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or other crime of violence” to “use of a firearm in the commission of a felony except possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance or other crime of violence” and (2) striking the requirement regarding sexual abuse of a minor that a touching not be through the clothing. Additionally, a person who has previously been convicted of a crime of violence or specific felony drug offenses is prohibited from possessing a firearm.
- Criminal Law – Prohibitions, Prosecutions, and Corrections: Chapter 145 (Chapter 1137) added the following offenses to the list of crimes for which evidence may be gathered during a criminal investigation through the interception of oral, wire, or electronic communications: restrictions on sale, rental, or transfer of regulated firearms; straw purchases; sale, transfer, or disposal of stolen regulated firearms; transporting regulated firearm for unlawful sale or trafficking; and knowing participation in straw purchase.
- Criminal Law – Wearing, Carrying, or Transporting Loaded Handgun – Subsequent Offender: Chapter 146 (House Bill 1029) prohibited a person from violating the State’s prohibition on wearing, carrying, or transporting a handgun with a handgun loaded with ammunition.
- Public Safety – Extreme Risk Protective Orders: Chapter 250 (House Bill 1302) established an “extreme risk protective order” and set forth a process by which certain mental health professionals, law enforcement officers, and family or household members of a respondent may seek an interim, temporary, or final court order to prevent a respondent from possessing or purchasing a firearm or ammunition for a limited period of time, based on a determination that the respondent poses a danger of causing self-injury or injury to others by possessing a firearm or ammunition.
- Criminal Procedure – Firearms – Transfer: Chapter 251 (House Bill 1646) required the State’s Attorney to provide written notice to the defendant when a defendant has been charged with a disqualifying crime that is a domestically related crime, that (1) the defendant has been charged with a disqualifying crime and (2) it is illegal for a person who has been convicted of a disqualifying crime to possess or own a regulated firearm, rifle, or shotgun. When a defendant is convicted of or pleads guilty to such a crime, the court must (1) inform the defendant that the person is prohibited from possessing a regulated firearm, rifle, or shotgun and (2) order the defendant to transfer all regulated firearms, rifles, and shotguns owned by the defendant or in his/her possession.
- Criminal Law – Firearm Crimes – Rapid Fire Trigger Activator: Chapter 252 (Senate Bill 707) prohibited a person from (1) transporting a “rapid fire trigger activator” into the State or (2) manufacturing, possessing, selling, offering to sell, transferring, purchasing, or receiving a rapid fire trigger activator. In addition, the Act prohibited a person from using a rapid fire trigger activator in the commission of a felony or a crime of violence. Violators are subject to the existing more stringent penalties that apply to the use of an assault weapon or a magazine with a capacity of more than 10 rounds of ammunition in the commission of a felony or crime of violence.
2017 Legislative Session
- Public Safety – Regulated Firearms – Definition of Convicted of a Disqualifying Crime: Chapter 804 (Senate Bill 224) prohibited a person from possessing a regulated firearm, a rifle, or a shotgun if the person has been convicted of a disqualifying crime. In addition, the Acts altered the definition of convicted of a disqualifying crime to include a case in which a person received a probation before judgment for assault in the second degree if the crime was a domestically related crime.
2015 Legislative Session
- Public Safety – Transport of Weapons on School Property – Retired Law Enforcement Officers: Chapter 293 (House Bill 1032) added retired law enforcement officers in good standing to an exemption applicable to a prohibition against carrying or possessing a deadly weapon on public school property.
2013 Legislative Session
- Firearms Safety Act of 2013: Chapter 427 (Senate Bill 281) modified and expanded the regulation of firearms, firearms dealers, and ammunition in the State and made changes to related mental health restrictions on the possession of firearms. Among its numerous provisions, the Act: bans the sale of specified and previously regulated “assault long guns” as well as “copycat weapons;” reduced the allowable detachable magazine capacity that may be manufactured, sold, purchased, received, or transferred in the State from 20 to 10 rounds of ammunition; prohibits the use or possession of “cop killer bullets” during and in relation to the commission of a crime of violence; requires successful completion of a firearms training course to obtain a handgun carry permit; and prohibits a person from possessing a regulated firearm, rifle, or shotgun if the person suffers from a mental disorder and has a history of violent behavior against the person or another.