MSI fighting G&S circa 1973.

THE WASHINGTON POST
Saturday, November 27,1971
Page C12

Mandel, Enraged by Killings, Plans to Seek Tight Gun Law

Gov. Marvin Mandel, reportedly outraged by a rash of killings recently in Baltimore, plans to ask the Maryland General Assembly to tighten the state's gun control laws when it convenes in January.

Mandel told an impromptu press conference Wednesday that although he believes the "final remedy for this problem is going to be in federal legislation," he and his staff are preparing legislation that he hopes "can stand the test of constitutionality and also help remedy the problem."

The governor did not reveal details of the proposals being considered, but Frank A. DeFilippo, Mandel's press secretary, said they considered two elements — some form of registration for hand guns owned by Maryland residents and regulation of the transporting of hand guns across state lines into Maryland.

DeFilippo said it was the regulation of guns across the state line that raised some constitutional problems. The Supreme Court has ruled in some instances that Congress has the exclusive power to regulate interstate commerce.

Maryland's present gun control law, passed in 1966, requires gun dealers to forward applications for a handgun purchase from a buyer to local police, who check the buyer's background. Alcoholics, drug addicts and persons convicted of serious crimes are not permitted to buy guns from dealers. The law does not cover the sale of guns between private parties.

At his Nov. 4 press conference, Mandel indicated that he had little interest in sponsoring tighter gun control laws. Since then, according to DeFilippo, a series of killings that occurred in Baltimore climaxed Monday with the killing of five men by an allegedly deranged co-worker have convinced Mandel that something must be done.

DeFilippo said that although the killings Monday were performed with rifles, that incident, coupled with several shootings that have occurred in Baltimore's public schools, the confiscation of more than 100 handguns in the schools this semester and the rash of killings in Baltimore left Mandel uncharacteristically outraged.

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The Washington Post
Jan 12, 1972;
pg. B2

Gun Control Tops Bills Mandel Wants Passed by Assembly
By Richard M. Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writer

ANNAPOLIS—One morning last November. Gov. Marvin Mandel learned that four persons had been shot to death in Baltimore the night before. As he drove to a conference later with his press secretary. Frank A. DeFilippo, he chewed on his pipe and. as it turned out, an idea that led to a proposal to control handguns.

"Damn it. Frank, I'm going to do something about guns this year." he suddenly exclaimed. A month later, Mandel had prepared a 17-page legislative package to ban handguns, concealed or unconcealed, on the street or in a car, and to permit police to stop and frisk a person on "reasonable suspicion" that he is carrying a gun.

Mandel's gun control bill is just one of the measures that he will introduce in the General Assembly as it opens its annual 90-day legislative session here today.

.....

For the moment, though, the governor's program looks like this:

• Gun control. Mandel's bill would prohibit most citizens from carrying a handgun on the street or in a car. The bill would empower the police to search a citizen for a handgun on the grounds of "reasonable suspicio n" rather than "probable cause." Mandel, who says there is an urgent need for the law, announced last week that he would ask the Assembly to pass the bill as emergency legislation meaning that it would go into effect rather than on July 1, when normal bills take effect. Emergency legislation requires three-fifths vote of each house.

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WASHINGTON POST
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1972
PAGE A14

The Pistol Packers (Editorial)

Governor Marvin Mandel's modest proposal to spare the lives of a few policemen by cracking down on gun-toters in public places has run into a withering crossfire, as he no doubt anticipated, from "sportsmen" on one side and from libertarians on the other. It may be that both of them somewhat misapprehend the purpose of the stop and frisk authorization the governor has proposed. The "sportsmen" see it as a form of gun control—which it certainly is not. And the libertarians see it as a license for unlimited harassment of black citizens —which the governor certainly does not intend it to be.

The Mandel proposal would fix stiff penalties for carrying a handgun on one's person or in an automobile without a permit. An exception is made for sportsmen engaged in an authorized sporting enterprise. And the bill would authorize policemen to stop persons and pat them down briefly and superficially on the basis of a "reasonable belief" that those persons are illegally carrying a concealed pistol. Prohibitions on packing concealed pistols are hardly novel and hardly a threat to bona fide sportsmen. For what sport would a "sportsman" want to carry a handgun around with him on the streets of a city? The purpose of this legislation is to enable policemen to protect themselves from thugs who last year used handguns to kill 72 officers engaged in the performance of their duty.

* * *

Anyone who wants to know what a real gun control bill is like need only look at the provisions of a measure introduced in the Maryland Assembly last week by Del. Woodrow M. Allen. It would flatly ban private ownership of pistols; anyone wishing to use a pistol for target shooting or other forms of "sport" would have to join a licensed gun club whore it would be kept under prescribed conditions and fired only under careful supervision; persons owning handguns would be required to turn them in to state or local police by next January 1 for fair compensation.

Now, that is what we call a gun control bill. It would save the lives not only of policemen but also of daughters coming home from late dates and being mistaken for intruders, of wives and husbands displeased with one another with a firearm lying handy in a bedside drawer, of neighbors eager to settle political differences of the sort that arise now and then over a glass or two of some distillate. In fact, it is so sensible, practical and realistic that it has no possibility of passage by the assembly at the present time. Several thousand more Marylanders will have to lose their lives by pistol bullets before the insensate opposition of the gun lobbyists can be overcome.

* * *

The small first step toward sanity proposed by Governor Mandel appears to have had its chances of enactment improved by a prudent concession which has won it the endorsement of State Senator Clarence M. Mitchell III. It is wise and right, we think, that the basis for frisking a suspected gun toter should be sharpened so as to prevent arbitrary police action. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that the Fourth Amendment will not be violated if police officers search suspects for lethal weapons in situations where they may lack probable cause for an arrest. But of course this cannot be taken to mean that the police may search on mere unsubstantiated suspicion. Civil libertarians have been wholly justified in insisting that the police have real grounds for frisking; and we believe this insistence can be effectively fortified by requiring the police to report every stop and frisk incident so that the record will show just how frequently their action has been warranted.

Such sharpening of the legislation will, we hope, diminish the fears of the libertarians. The phantasies of the "sportsmen" may be dispelled by speeding up the system for issuing permits and by assuring them that they can carry their handguns to and from lawful sporting enterprises.

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THE WASHINGTON POST
Feb 26, 1969
Page A19

Tight Gun Law Asked for Md.
By Peter A. Jay
Washington Post Staff Writer

ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 25—Citing FBI statistics that he said showed Maryland with the highest rate of violent crime in the Nation, State Police Supt. Robert J. Lally called today for increased controls on firearms.

Figures distributed by Lally to the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate also showed Maryland with the sixth highest overall crime rate in the country in 1968, and Baltimore topping all other major cities.

Lally did not offer a specific endorsement for any of the several bills before the two committees that would tighten controls on the sale and ownership of guns, but said he would favor virtually any new restrictions. Opponents of the proposed legislation outnumbered proponents by more than 2 to 1 in a joint hearing hold by the two Committees today,

[ILL] Robert Esher, legislative chairman of the Maryland-District of Columbia Rifle-Pistol Association, said Lally's use of statistics was misleading. "You can't compare (the murder rate in) Massachusetts with Mississippi," he said.

The bills before the Committees would lengthen from one to two weeks the waiting period required between application and purchase of a hand-gun, require registration of rifles and shotguns, and regulate sales of handguns, between individuals as well as those involving a dealer.

Some of the opponents of the bills have legislative proposals of their own.

One, sometime gubernatorial candidate Charles J. Luthardt Sr. (who described himself today as "a white leader") said the State should furnish firearms "to any law-abiding citizen that requests one."

Another witness said the State should give a cash award "for merchants and their wives who shoot down criminals."

Speaking for the proposed controls, the Rev. F. Barry Stipp, a Montgomery County minister, urged passage of a County Council-backed plan that would allow persons who voluntarily submit to a police background check and receive an identification card to buy handguns without a waiting period.

Leonard Kerpelman, a Baltimore attorney who said he was "a long-time member" of the American Civil Liberties Union, said no legislation should be enacted that would prevent home owners from buying guns for self-defense.

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WASHINGTON POST
FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1965
PAGE A24

Quick Service (Editorial)

Has spring instilled an impulse to start life anew? Have the wife and kiddies become a burden to you? Has your boss been irksome? Are your neighbors a nuisance? No need, you know, to put up with all their irritating qualities. The authorities, it is true, have made it extremely difficult for you to get rid of those entanglements by the old-fashioned and simple way of poison. Strychnine, arsenic, potassium cyanide and the like are now so rigidly controlled by a paternalistic government that it is impossible to get hold of so much as a smidgeon of them.

Be of good cheer, however. A gun will really do quite as well. And the Government does practically nothing to keep these extremely effective playthings away from those who may have serious business to conduct with them. A glance at the pages of the American Rifleman, official organ of the National Rifle Association, will present for your selection a wide variety of weapons admirably suited for murder if for no other purpose. You need only send a check or money order by mail, and the tool of deliverance will be swiftly shipped to you.

Of course. if you are impatient and want to get the nasty business over with at once, you may prefer to buy your pistol locally. In the District of Columbia, you will be held up for as long as 48 hours before delivery of a handgun is made, so that if you are really in a rush it might be well to make your purchase across the District line in Maryland or Virginia where you can be sure of being accommodated at once with no questions asked and no annoying fuss or delay. Nowhere else on earth is murder made more easy.

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The Washington Post
Mar 3, 1967
Page B2

Broader Gun Control Bill Scored at Md. Hearing
By a Washington Post Staff Writer

ANNAPOLIS, March 2. Since a state-wide law to regulate the sale of handguns went into effect last June, no crimes have been committed in Maryland with any of the 8764 weapons purchased under its provisions, the bill's sponsor said today.

Del. Leonard S. Blondes (D-Montgomery) offered that testimony in support of a bill he has introduced this year to extend the law to regulate rifle and shotgun purchases.

But the proposal ran into the stiff opposition that was expected from both sportsmen and members of the House Judiciary Committee, which held the hearings.

Committee chairman Thomas Hunter Lowe (D-Talbot) threw frequent and hostile questions at Blondes and accused him of duping the Legislature and gun lobby last year.

While arranging a compromise last year that limited the bill to handguns, Lowe said, Blondes "led me and the opponents to believe that bill would be the termination of this question." Blondes denied this.

Lowe at one point threatened to cut off Blondes' testimony "because I have a dinner to go to" and, after an assistant attorney general from New Jersey testified about a similar law there at Blondes' request, Lowe asked whether "New Jersey has now taken the custom advising its neighbor states on how to legislate."

The Maryland law now requires a seven-day wait between application and purchase of a handgun, to permit a police check of the purchaser. Drug addicts, felons, recent mental patients and minors are prohibited from buying guns.

Since June, according to testimony, 9000 hand gun applications have been made and 236 have been refused. Police report no crimes committed with any of the pistols obtained, Blondes said.

The Rev. William Moors of Kensington testified in support of the bill, saying he became interested "when I learned a felon cannot get a driver's license in many instances in Maryland but he can buy a rifle right away."

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SPQM said:

I just noticed your profile.

See attached.

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SPQM said:

Some background:

Marvin Mandel was appointed to become Governor by the legislature on January 7, 1969 to fill out Spiro Agnew's term after Spiro became Nixon's VP.

In November 1971, a rash of people were killed in Baltimore in a single night...and well...



some more elaboration was put forth in a Washington Post article in 1972:



So, despite these people being killed with Rifles in Baltimore...let's ban carry of handguns, yet keep open carry of rifles legal!

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The Washington Post
Oct 23, 1999
Page A22

Against Guns in Maryland (Editorial)

LAST WEEKEND the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that fully 52 percent of last year's homicides were committed with handguns. In the face of this evidence, it is hard to see how anyone could object to the new handgun-control proposals from Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran. Because Mr. Curran had the nerve to say that, in the long run, handguns should be banned except in special circumstances, he has been, greeted as a radical—not just by gun supporters but also by Gov. Parris Glendening, a proponent of incremental gun control. But Mr. Curran's proposals are detailed and reasonable. Besides, guns are an issue where radical makes sense.

Mr. Curran's proposals start with tougher law enforcement. Maryland's background checks for gun purchasers, which are already demanding by national standards, would be made stricter: They would deny guns to anyone who has committed a misdemeanor, not just a felony, and people with a history of violence or mental instability would be excluded, too. This seems not only sensible but modest. Under existing law, somebody prone to violence would be denied a permit to carry a gun in public places, so denying that same person a permit to keep a gun under his pillow seems entirely fair. Mr. Curran proposes, just as reasonably, that selling or owning guns illegally be made a felony, and that police officers be permitted to wear body wires when going after black-market gun dealers.

Next, Mr. Curran aims to increase pressure on gun companies to make their products safer by incorporating safety locks and other such devices. He urges Congress to bring guns under its regulatory umbrella; given that the feds already lay down safety standards on everything from toys to cars, this seems a small request. He also endorses Mr. Glendening's efforts to require handguns sold in Maryland to incorporate technology that would restrict their use to registered owners. This would cut down on the tragedies that ensue when children discover parents' guns hidden in the sock drawer as well as prevent criminals from using stolen guns.

Finally, the Curran plan involves a public education campaign. He would enlist teachers, doctors and business leaders in an effort to convince people that guns are like tobacco— dangerous to your health. At present, too many people think that buying a gun increases personal safety rather than the opposite. But guns are used in self-defense much less than they are used in moments of anger, depression or carelessness. The presence of a gun in the home allows domestic disputes to turn lethal, and fully half the deaths from firearms each year involve suicide.

Having laid out his views, Mr. Curran must now work to realize them. The first legislative priority is to get the governor's smart-gun law enacted; other measures may have to wait a while. But it is never too soon to campaign for public understanding, nor to use that under-standing as a tool to get gun makers to change. Just this week, Smith & Wesson Corp., the biggest purveyor of handguns, announced that dealers selling its products must henceforth pledge to avoid illegal buyers; this marks the first attempt by gun manufacturers to control the marketing of their wares. If he puts his heart into it, Mr. Curran's public education campaign may produce results as fast as legislation can.

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Washington Post
Saturday, October 7, 1995
A28

Mr. Duncan and Mr. Curry on Guns (Editorial)

ACROSS THE state of Maryland, there are many homeowners who own and know how to use firearms and whose purchase of long guns for sport over the decades has been no serious threat to life and limb. But they as well as other Marylanders are concerned about handgun violence throughout the state and are represented on a special commission now examining gun trafficking—the flow of guns to criminals—and ways to crack down. The commission's ultimate recommendations are of particular importance to residents of Prince George's and Montgomery counties, two of the largest jurisdictions; this has prompted a special joint appeal from county executives Wayne Curry and Douglas Duncan for two specific public safety measures.

In a letter to the commission members, Mr. Curry and Mr. Duncan said "it is imperative that strong measures be in place to curb the growing number of firearm-related deaths and injuries," and they urged the panel to press for handgun licensing and a one-handgun-purchase-a-month law similar to one that is proving effective in Virginia. Why not? Why on earth would any reasonable citizen object to these modest measures?

It only makes sense that if we require the operators of automobiles to obtain a driver's license, then we should require the same of handgun purchasers," Mr. Duncan and Mr. Curry wrote. "Similarly, placing a cap of a dozen handguns per year could hardly be seen as an undue burden by reasonable people."

On the contrary, it's a way to relieve an undue burden: the obscene level of gun violence fed by suppliers who buy handguns by the carload for criminal shoppers up and down the East Coast. The two county executives note the "dramatic impact" that Virginia's purchase limit has had on curbing illegal trafficking. After that law took effect, guns used in crimes and recovered in New York were 70 percent less likely to have come from Virginia than they were before the law was in place, according to a study by the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.

However else people may differ about the prevalence of firearms in America, there ought to be agreement that reasonable steps can be made in the name of public safety. Who has to buy more than a dozen handguns a year? Who has to have an assault-style semiautomatic at the ready? The Maryland commission—and the General Assembly as soon as it meets again in January—can and should protect Marylanders' lives by making it just a little more difficult for criminals to arm themselves.

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The Washington Post
Nov 13, 1998
A22

Childproof Guns for Maryland (Editorial)

GOV. GLENDENING has a new handgun safety proposal that the General Assembly should not refuse. It could make Maryland the first state to ban the sale of any handguns not equipped with new childproof, personalized firing controls. While the proposal seems to be attracting bipartisan support, its backers can expect the usual flak from the gun industry. Already, NRA leaders are saying that they don't trust the technology and that government should butt out.

Parents know better. Anybody who cares about protecting children as well as adults from gunfire knows, too. "Smart guns" cannot be fired by anyone except authorized users. While the technology is still developing, a handgun can be equipped so that it fires only when certain fingerprints pull the trigger or when it is set off by a device worn by a user.

Under the Glendening plan, the existing Maryland Handgun Roster Board would have a year to come up with safety standards; two years after adoption, all handguns sold in Maryland would have to be in compliance.

Common sense says try it. "It's pretty difficult to argue against a childproof weapon," House Speaker Casper Taylor said in a Baltimore Sun interview. During the campaign for governor, a spokeswoman said Republican Ellen Sauerbrey believed the technology "does hold promise for reducing accidents and some intentional misuse of firearms."

Enactment of a bill in Maryland could promote similar laws in other states. How long would it be before manufacturers would decide to make only the safer handguns instead of making different kinds for different states? With legislative business set to resume in January, Gov. Glendening and lawmakers from both parties should seize the opportunity to make Maryland the leader in protecting children from handgun tragedies.

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The Washington Post
Nov 7, 1995
A12

Getting at Guns in Maryland (Editorial)

THE PLATFORM planks of winning candidates have a way of warping once a victory is nailed, which is why more than a few Marylanders are keeping an eye on Gov. Glendening's pledge last year to push for more measures to protect the public from handguns in the wrong hands. As a candidate, Mr. Glendening endorsed a set of proposals drafted by Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse, saying it would make enactment "a top priority." But not long after his election, the governor said wait 'till next year, with an explanation that "the whole issue is up for reconsideration." Translated, that meant he would appoint a commission to present recommendations to him.

The commission has now done so—its recommendations fall short of the proposals the governor originally endorsed. Mr. Glendening should thank the commission but hold fast and reassure Marylanders that he is serious about effective measures. The commission has recommended some restrictions that are important, including one for a one-handgun-a-month limit on purchases and criminal background checks for private transfers between people of these weapons, There are now no limits on handgun purchases.

Virginia has such a limit, and evidence so far points to the restriction as an effective curb on gunrunners. The traffickers use straw purchasers to buy up handguns that are then transported up and down the East Coast for quick, illegal sales. The obvious question here: Who needs 12 more handguns a year for private use?

Gov. Glendening had proposed a limit of 10 on the total number of handguns that an individual could own, as well as a police-issued identification card for purchases and a ban on handgun possession for people younger than 21. His commission recommendations do not include these proposals. Perhaps the legislature will reject these proposals as well, but why shouldn't the governor press for them and find out?

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THE WASHINGTON POST
Saturday, October 21, 1972
Page A15

Maryland's Gun Law (letter to editor)

Although you claim that "Maryland's Gun Law Has Caused Little Stir."(Oct 2.) It has indeed caused quite a stir among Maryland pistol sportsmen. The indoor winter pistol league in which I shoot experienced an abrupt drop in attendance when Gov. Mandel signed this bill into law. At the outdoor pistol range where I usually practice, attendance for April through September is down to 77 per cent of last year's figure for those same months. This is the largest decrease in many years.

Before the handgun control law was enacted, a person planning to go target shooting would often have a box of unloaded pistols harmlessly locked in his car while he went about the other normal activities of his day. The new law clearly does allow a target shooter to transport a pistol directly to or from the target range at which he shoots.

However, if he shops for groceries instead of going directly home from the range, he risks a three-year prison term and a $2,500 fine; for the courts may or may not consider grocery shopping to he a legitimate part of returning from target practice. Even if the judge is lenient, a person convicted of a harmless technical violation of this law is forbidden thereafter to possess handguns in Maryland or to possess any firearms "in interstate commerce" in the United States.

In the face of such vicious threats, is it any wonder that handgun sales and target shooting activity have declined?

RICHARD J. SANFORD
Bethesda.

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The Washington Post
Jun 3, 1999
Page B1

10 Criminal Suspects Bought Guns In Maryland
Background Checks Were Backlogged
By Craig Whitlock – Washington post Staff Writer

Maryland State Police said yesterday that 10 people were allowed to purchase handguns last winter even though they had criminal charges pending against them for alleged offenses that included assault, drug possession and auto theft.

The 10 criminal suspects applied to buy the handguns during a three-month period from December to March, when state police were struggling to sort through a backlog of 1,500 requests to purchase firearms. Although the suspects were not legally prohibited from buying guns, state police say they should have delayed the applications until the charges were re-solved.

Capt. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said yesterday that the agency is monitoring the outcome of the 10 cases and will confiscate the weapons if the gun buyers ultimately are convicted of crimes that would prohibit them from owning firearms. Until then, however, state police do not have the authority to repossess the weapons, Shipley said.

State Police Superintendent David B. Mitchell said this week that he has ordered the agency auto-matically to delay handgun sales to anyone who has been charged with a crime and is facing trial. In the past, state police had the option to place such handgun applications on "hold" but were not legally required to do so.

Del. Peter Franchot (D-Montgomery) said the issue of whether people merely accused of crimes should be restricted from buying weapons is a gray area that lawmakers should address in the next General Assembly session.

"The bad news is that 10 people slipped through, but the good news is that the state police are scrutinizing these people very carefully," said Franchot, chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees public safety. It opens up the issue of whether there should be a broader review of what the background check should include."

One of the handgun buyers was a Baltimore woman charged with theft who allegedly used the gun to fatally shoot her husband on March 27 at his workplace in Laurel. The suspect in that case, Sirena Catura Whittington, 26, was arrested three days after the shooting and charged with first-degree murder. She is being held without bond in the Prince George's County jail.

Police did not identify the nine other suspects who were allowed to obtain handguns, but they did provide a brief description of the charges pending against them and where they are facing trial.

Among the most serious charges are auto theft, second-degree assault, drug possession and illegal sale of a firearm, police said. Three of the cases are in Baltimore Comity, while both Howard County and Baltimore City have two cases. Prince George's County and Carroll County each have one case.

Under federal and state law, people who have been convicted of a felony, certain misdemeanors or a crime involving domestic violence are forbidden to purchase firearms. Those with a history of alcoholism, drug addiction or mental illness are also prohibited.

Under Maryland law, gun dealers must wait seven days before completing a handgun sale so that state police have time to carry out a criminal background check. If police do not respond or notify dealers of problems after a week, dealers may go ahead and release the weapon to the buyer.

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Handgun used in fatal shooting slipped by police
Background checks not completed for 11 awaiting trial
Slaying in Prince George's

June 02, 1999|By Devon Spurgeon and Matthew Mosk | Devon Spurgeon and Matthew Mosk,SUN STAFF

One of the guns that state police missed when the department fell months behind on criminal background checks was used in a fatal shooting in Prince George's County, the department acknowledged yesterday.

The sale of that handgun to a Baltimore woman awaiting trial on felony charges was one of dozens the state police failed to catch when the agency built up a backlog of 1,500 requests to screen gun buyers earlier this year.

In those cases, the seven-day waiting period passed without a police-issued "hold order," so merchants were free to turn the guns over to buyers, whether or not background checks were complete. In early March, troopers fanned out across the state to confiscate 54 guns that slipped into the hands of felons, psychiatric patients, and others who should have failed background checks.

But a report of state police gun checks released yesterday counted an additional 11 people awaiting trial for theft, assault and drug felonies who bought guns during the five months when the department was behind.

Among them is Sirena Catura Whittington, 26, who now is charged with her husband's murder. She is being held without bail in the Prince George's County Detention Center.

That case has unnerved officials already questioning the state police's ability to adequately monitor gun sales.

"What we're learning is that background check systems are not perfect methods of keeping guns from criminals," said Del. Cheryl C. Kagan, the Montgomery County Democrat who discovered the state police backlog in an obscure budget notation.

"Bottom line is, some criminals are going to slip through the cracks," Kagan said.

Col. David B. Mitchell, superintendent of the state police, acknowledged in an interview that the weapons sold to 11 customers "should have been placed on hold due to the pending criminal charges."

In the report -- which police had to complete before receiving $1 million in state funding -- Mitchell described a plan to prevent the system from breaking down again.

"By strengthening our policy we will be better able to prevent tragedies like the one that occurred in Prince George's County," he wrote in a letter that accompanied the report yesterday.

That sale placed a handgun in Whittington's hands as she awaited trial on a charge of felony theft. On her application, state police said, Whittington wrote that she was buying the gun for "personal protection."

Mitchell said that under normal circumstances, Whittington's application would have been put on hold. But once the gun was released to her, it could not be recalled because she has not been convicted.

"She had no history of violence that we were aware of," Mitchell said. "We will now under all circumstances put applications on hold when someone is being charged with a felony."

He said that state police are also monitoring the cases of 10 other individuals who were able to purchase weapons before their trials.

Applicants for handguns fail the background checks if they are felons, drug addicts, or under age 21. Those convicted of a domestic violence charge and some misdemeanors, or who have a history of mental illness also are rejected.

In March, after legislators noticed the backlog problem during budget reviews, police departments around the state were notified about the guns that had been given out without completed checks.


The state police charged 27 people with filing a false application and perjury for taking advantage of delays in criminal background checks to purchase weapons. Among them are a man convicted of attempted rape, a man charged with assault with intent to maim, a drug dealer and six drug users, state police said. Two people with outstanding arrest warrants also purchased handguns.

Troopers said they became overwhelmed when a federal system of instant background checks for sales of rifles and shotguns was instituted in December. At that time, the agency was also updating its computer systems.

Mitchell reassigned three officers from the division in charge of background checks and revised policies to speed up application processing.

He said the department has encouraged gun dealers to fax forms to police instead of mailing them.

It has also eliminated confusion about when the application period begins, decreeing that the process begins when the application is faxed or mailed, not when it is filled out.

In the report, Mitchell said the department will receive help from a Virginia-based nonprofit group, MitreTek Systems, in devising better procedures.

He said the department's turn-around time for applications is two days.

Capt. Greg Shipley, spokesman for the state police, said that since the beginning of the year, the agency has placed 2,100 holds on weapons. For all of last year, it placed 2,200 holds.

"There is strict accountability on a daily basis," said Shipley. "We are committed to not have a situation like we had back in the winter."

Pub Date: 6/02/99

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The Washington Post
Oct 20, 1999
Page A1

Tough Laws For Guns Proposed In Maryland
Attorney General Says Goal Is Ban
By Daniel LeDuc
Washington Post Staff Writer

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran is proposing a wide-ranging package of laws that would make the state's gun control regulations among the strictest in the nation and says his ultimate goal is a ban on handguns.

Curran (D), the state's chief lawyer, wants Maryland lawmakers to tighten background checks on potential gun owners, prohibit people from carrying concealed weapons in public places and ease liability laws to make it easier to sue gun-makers. He is considering whether to sue gun manufacturers for the violence caused by their products.

"Our public policy goal must be to rid our communities of handguns," Curran says in a report he is releasing today outlining his proposals.

State leaders said they had yet to review the attorney general's proposals. But Curran's recommendations come at a time when Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) has put gun control on the forefront of his legislative agenda this winter with a push for "smart gun" technology that would prevent handguns from being fired by anyone but their owners.

The attorney general said he supports the governor's proposal as well as legislation that would make illegal gun possession and sales a felony. They are misdemeanors now. He also wants to give police officers additional powers to investigate gun trafficking.

Curran said he was prompted by the gun violence that has troubled the nation over the past year. He cited shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, an Atlanta brokerage house, a Los Angeles day-care center and a Fort Worth church that left a total of 32 dead.

In an interview, Curran said he had not ruled out taking legal action against gun manufacturers. Nearly 20 cities and counties throughout the nation have sued gunmakers to recoup the cost of treating gunshot victims. None of the suits has gone to trial. A judge recently threw out a suit filed by Cincinnati, handing gunmakers a victory. But in the face of the new litigation, Colt's Manufacturing Co., the venerable Connecticut gun-maker, has said it is discontinuing many of its handguns.

Curran said he wanted to make a legislative push before suing and hoped that enactment of his legislative proposals would be the first step in what he acknowledged could be a more-than-decade-long effort to restrict handguns.

"Handguns should be the province of the military or law enforcement or a special segment of people" such as some sporting enthusiasts or shopkeepers needing protection, he said. As for his legislative proposals, he said "For every solution to a major problem, there has to be a beginning."

Curran, a longtime gun control advocate, was reelected to a fourth term in November. He backed a push for banning Saturday night specials while serving in the legislature in 1986 and cites his own experience: His father, while serving on the Baltimore City Council in 1976, was shot at by a gunman who invaded City Hall; his father was not wounded but suffered a heart attack in the incident, Curran said.

A spokesman for Glendening said the governor would be briefed on the details of Curran's report today. The governor plans to push hard on his smart-gun proposal and welcomes "all other proposals in the debate over how we make our communities safer," said spokesman Michael Morrill.

Initial reaction to Curran's proposals from Maryland legislative leaders was mixed. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's) said gun control legislation would be based on "common sense" and could include new requirements for) safety locks, but he did not commit to anything more stringent. House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany) was more receptive and said he expected delegates to pass the governor's smart-gun proposal.

"We are realizing as a society and as a nation we can't continue to not just condone but enhance and promote a life of violence. I definitely see something happening" on gun control said Taylor, who represents a rural district in Western Maryland where such measures are not popular.

Opponents of gun control are already girding for the battle.

"Violent crime is coming down, and he picks this time to say, 'Ban firearms?" said Sanford Abrams, vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association Inc. Curran, he said, "wants a police state. If you only let police officers have weapons, then citizens are their subjects, not their controllers."

Greg Costa, the Maryland liaison for the National Rifle Association, said any change in liability law would be a boon for trial lawyers but would do little to help anyone else. And he called any effort to increase purchasing requirements beyond the current seven-waiting period "unreasonable"

"We still have a constitutional right to own firearms," he said. The NRA is willing to work with Glendening on his push for smart-gun technology, Costa said, but will oppose any effort to mandate its use, which would effectively ban the sale of any handgun lacking the technology.

Gun control was last a major issue in Maryland in 1996, when Glendening championed legislation limiting people to buying one handgun a month. In recent years, there has been a steady decline in handgun purchases in Maryland, according to the state police. Sales peaked in 1994 at 41,726 but by last year had fallen to 19,440.

Under current law, Maryland residents dents to wait seven days and undergo a background check before purchasing a handgun. No license or registration is required to own a gun. Carrying a concealed handgun, how-ever, requires a permit that entails a more stringent background check and proof of safety training.

Curran began work on his 58-page report not long after the Columbine shooting. In it, he cites studies showing that in 1994, 200 people hospitalized for fatal gunshot wounds cost the state nearly $200 million in medical and police expenses.

In addition to the financial analysis, Curran compares the recent shootings in this country with those at a school in Scotland which prompted Britain to ban handguns, and in Australia, which led to a ban on semi-automatic weapons.

After, Columbine,Atlanta, Los Angeles and Fort Worth, he writes, "now it is our turn."

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ANNAPOLIS, March 2. Since a state-wide law to regulate the sale of handguns went into effect last June, no crimes have been committed in Maryland with any of the 8764 weapons purchased under its provisions, the bill's sponsor said today.

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The Washington Post
Jan 18, 1994
Page D1

Support Swells For Gun Curbs In Maryland
Lawmakers, Lobbyists Rethinking Positions
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer

ANNAPOLIS, Jan. 17—Public support for gun control has surged so rapidly in Maryland that it has caught both advocates and opponents by surprise, prompting state legislators to reevaluate what measures they'll embrace before the November elections.

The momentum, driven "largely by churches and groups that usually focus on other social topics, has boosted Gov. William Donald Schaefer's hopes of finally winning a ban on assault weapons. And some advocates want to go further, seizing the public mood to push for tougher gun restrictions that seemed largely unattainable just a few months ago.

"In the beginning, we thought this might take a while," Patty Pollard, president of the Maryland League of Women Voters, said of a legislative package that would sharply limit handgun purchases and require all buyers to obtain a state license. "But clearly the public wants it to happen now. The violence is overwhelming. So we are optimistic that we can do something this [legislative] session."

Pollard's group is typical of grass-roots organizations that traditionally have supported gun control but haven't made it their top issue until this year. The decision bubbled up from chapter meetings across the state last fall, Pollard said, because gun violence "is touching people in their communities."

Some politicians warn that such enthusiasm will be countered in the General Assembly by rural lawmakers who dislike gun control and by key committees in the Senate and House of Delegates that opposed Schaefer's assault weapons bill last year.

"I think there's a shift in the sentiment of the electorate, but that does not always translate into a shift in viewpoint of the elected officials," said Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's). Nonetheless, Miller has acknowledged the public mood by saying he wants the entire Senate to vote on gun-control measures that have been killed in committee in past years. The legislature's 90-day session began last week.

Some gun-control opponents say members of their groups already are responding to the push for tighter weapons restrictions, At a gun show in a Baltimore suburb last weekend, the National Rifle Association signed up so many new members that "they ran out of membership forms," said Bob McMurray, spokesman for the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association.

McMurray said his group is lobbying all 188 Maryland lawmakers. Gun-control advocates, he said, "are banking on the idea that if they can get something out of committee, they can pass it on the floor. Well, that's not a certainty by any means."

A recent Washington Post poll found that half of Marylanders would support banning all handgun sales, and two-thirds would halt sales of semiautomatic weapons. Such findings, coupled with growing support from grass-roots organizations, have surprised even the leaders of Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse (MAHA), the state's primary gun-control lobby.

Only weeks ago, members privately conceded that they stood little chance of winning their far-reaching legislative package this year. They said they hoped to put the issue squarely on the political table for the November statewide elections.

But as churches, PTAs and groups such as the League of Women Voters rallied to their cause, the gun-control advocates began wondering whether they should make an all-out push for legislative action this year.

"We're certainly very encouraged by the public outcry on gun legislation," said Vincent DeMarco, MAHA director. "I think it's pretty clear that more gun legislation will pass in 1994 than anyone thought possible a few months ago."

His organization's proposals call for limiting handgun purchases to two a year, requiring buyers to obtain a state license and undergo a firearms safety test, limiting gun ownership to 10 handguns per individual and imposing civil liability on people who illegally sell a handgun that later is used to kill or injure someone. A majority of legislators from Montgomery and Prince George's counties and Baltimore have endorsed the package.

MAHA had planned a large rally in Annapolis tonight but canceled it because of bad weather.

Schaefer's legislative package would ban 18 types of semiautomatic weapons, enlarge the list of regulated assault rifles and limit a person's purchases of handguns and assault rifles to one a month.

Many statewide church organizations have endorsed MAHA's proposals, saying their congregations are now deeply worried by gun violence.

"We have endorsed some measures in the past to get at the problem of handgun abuse, but I think this year we saw kind of an amalgamation of forces we didn't see before," said Richard Dowling, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference.

"There wasn't an outcry from the pews for our involvement in support of handgun controls," Dowling said. "That's different now."

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