Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is a Republican running for re-election in a deep-blue state. That may or may not have played into his decision to back a host of new gun laws in his state, heralding them as “commonsense bipartisan measures."
The legislation includes a ban on bump stocks and other similar devices that allow semi-automatic firearms to simulate automatic fire. Another bill expands law enforcement’s ability to confiscate guns from individuals labeled an “extreme risk,” a measure known as a “red flag” law. [...]
In the signing ceremony, Hogan hailed the new laws as “common sense bipartisan measures that will keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and those with criminal backgrounds.”
Hogan also signed a bill to provide at least $5 million for public health and community-based gun-violence prevention programs. And other measures will strengthen an existing restriction on the purchase or possession of firearms by individuals convicted of domestic violence and revamp the appeals process for certain handgun permitting decisions.
Those are indeed bipartisan measures, each of them widely supported by the public. Get guns out of the hands of those convicted of prior domestic violence and those that are known from past police interactions to be violent. Do not allow gun attachments designed to defeat other gun safety measures. Spend some actual cash on violence prevention, rather than the usual approach of bleating that that's what America should do while not lifting a finger to do it.
We can hope that this is a sign of things to come, and that other elected Republicans may be feeling more pressure to reform gun laws from their constituents than they are from the usual National Rifle Association counter-threats. We will see.