Right now major gun control legislation is being considered by the Maryland legislature. A bill proposed by Governor O'Malley which would among other things ban assault weapons and limit magazines to 10 rounds, previously passed the Maryland Senate. http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/....
Gun control advocates had hoped the Maryland House of Delegates would pass the Senate Bill, which would then be signed into law by Governor O'Malley. However, two committees in the Maryland House of Delegates last week made changes to the bill which weakened the bill. Among the changes were allowing sales of assault weapons begun prior to the October 1, 2013 effective date of the bill, exempting from the registration requirement current owners of assault weapons, and removing from the bill certain physical traits that would define assault weapons.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
This last change:
creates a loophole, critics contend, that could allow future generations of weapons to be legal that otherwise would be banned.
For example, under the current version of O’Malley’s bill, it is likely that a semiautomatic rifle under development by Beretta would be legal in Maryland. The rifle, which is expected to be called the ARX-100, is modeled after a military rifle used by Special Forces units.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/....
A vote on the House bill is expected tomorrow, and unless the bill is amended back to the Senate's version on the floor of the House, gun control advocates will face a tough choice--do they push for the Senate to pass the House bill, which would then by signed by Governor O'Malley, or do they push for both versions of the bill to go to a conference committee, and hope that an agreement can be reached and that this legislation would then be passed by both houses by the end of the legislation session.
Taking the matter to conference would be risky since there is the danger that the clock will literally run out without gun control legislation being passed this session. For those of you unfamiliar with Maryland, Maryland has a 90 day legislation session, which can only be extended by a 3/5 majority of both houses or by the Governor calling a special session. http://msa.maryland.gov/.... The 2013 legislation session is expected to end this Monday.
It is for this reason that
Vincent DeMarco, president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, said his group was urging the Senate to accept the House version despite the amendments.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
I agree with Mr. DeMarco that it is better to accept a weakened House bill then to run the risk that the session will end with no gun control legislation at all. According to the Washington Post, it has been 17 years since Maryland last passed gun control legislation. Given the success of the NRA at the federal level, and the recent trends in the national polls on the issue of gun control, I don't think that we will get a better chance to do something on the issue of guns next year.
Despite the flaws in the House bill, The Washington Post is reporting:
all of the major provisions remain intact: His bill would ban scores of assault weapons, limit magazine capacity to 10 bullets, require fingerprinting and licensing of gun buyers, and expand the list of mental-health patients precluded from purchasing firearms.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/....