PLEASE take 5 min to oppose House Bill 612 and Senate Bill 737

Hi Everyone,

Even if you have done it before , please just take 5 minutes and go here;

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmmain.aspx?pid=legisrpage&tab=subject6&poptype=find&popid=

and send a short message to your legislators. Here is what I sent....

Contact Legislator(s)
Message will be sent to Guy Guzzone, Vanessa E. Atterbeary, Shane E. Pendergrass, Jen Terrasa

To My Respected Legislators,

I am writing to implore you to reject any support for the poorly written, unconstitutional bills, House Bill 612 and Senate Bill 737. These bills will do nothing to reduce any kind of violence and will only harm honest, law abiding voters.

THANK you for your consideration,

Bigfoot21075

Already done, including with mailed letters, not just emails. Still haven't received any responses from either R or D reps in my district. I also contacted my district's senator, Sen. Reilly, who is on the Senate Justice Committee, and haven't received a response. But from what I've heard he is against these bills already.

Next step is take a day off work and do some office calls to try to get some actual human conversation going.

Done. Followed up to earlier communications.

Thanks for supplying the link. Done.

Done! Thank you for posting.

Done...

Did that Monday, including emails to all committee members House and Senate. I've received 5 replies, only one from a demorat

Bigfoot21075 said:

Hi Everyone,



Even if you have done it before , please just take 5 minutes and go here;



http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmmain.aspx?pid=legisrpage&tab=subject6&poptype=find&popid=



and send a short message to your legislators. Here is what I sent....



Contact Legislator(s)

Message will be sent to Guy Guzzone, Vanessa E. Atterbeary, Shane E. Pendergrass, Jen Terrasa



To My Respected Legislators,



I am writing to implore you to reject any support for the poorly written, unconstitutional bills, House Bill 612 and Senate Bill 737. These bills will do nothing to reduce any kind of violence and will only harm honest, law abiding voters.



THANK you for your consideration,



Bigfoot21075

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Done. I see we are in the same sh*thole district.


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rbird7282 said:

Done. I see we are in the same sh*thole district.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Lol and mine will make three of us. Done.

Done. Although i think its pretty much shouting into the wind here in MoCo.

Done, thanks for the link!

NYRangers917 said:

Done. Although i think its pretty much shouting into the wind here in MoCo.

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It is, but I shouted from inside the beltway anyway, just because it gave me an opportunity to be on the record with my non-representative representatives.

I believe individual messages carry more weight than cut and pasted copies. Here's thre message I sent:
To My Respected Legislators,

I am writing to implore you to reject any support for the poorly written, unconstitutional bills, House Bill 612 and Senate Bill 737. While I respect the intention to save lives, the reality is that criminals do not respect the rule of law as we law abiding citizens do. The effect of these laws will be to further restrict the rights of law abiding Marylanders to exercise their rights as clarified under the second amendment.

Thank you for your consideration,

NYRangers917 said:

Done. Although i think its pretty much shouting into the wind here in MoCo.

Click to expand...

Thank you even if it is shouting in the wind.

This is the text of the email I'm sending to all of my elected officials. Our club is also doing an email campaign that will go out to elected reps from every district where our members reside.

Dear Senator Zirkin,

I had the pleasure of speaking with one of your staff this morning, I wanted to follow up the call with some more information in writing. I hope you keep our position in mind when you consider these bills.

Generally, gun laws only punish innocent law abiding citizens. There are already numerous laws on the books meant to control gun violence. None of them are working because criminals don't follow the law! New restrictions only make things more burdensome for law abiding gun owners who want to enjoy shooting sports, hunt, and defend their families from the very criminals these laws are meant to stop. These laws won't stop crime and they make law abiding citizens less safe.

We strongly oppose SB 737. This law requires a new license to purchase ANY long gun. It also sets a 7 day waiting period and limits purchases to one every 30 days. This law is over-broad as it covers hunting rifles and shotguns, competition style bolt action guns, and other guns that are simply not a factor in violent crime.

This bill also bans private sales of rifles/shotguns that have been essential to the responsible law abiding gun community for centuries. It is already illegal to give a gun to a prohibited person. Gun owners in MD are responsible law abiding individuals who are careful to follow this law. For the purpose of keeping the law, private sales are only conducted after the seller has done their due diligence. Sellers have been trusted until now to ensure they are complying with law. Why is the legislature changing this? Why don't you trust the law abiding gun owners any more? There is no data that shows weapons sold private sales by law abiding citizens have been used in crime. The black market for guns will still be in full force, all this law does is punish law abiding citizens.

The bill imposes an unconscionable burden on those who have an immediate need for a firearm for defense of themselves and their families. The MD legislature has already restricted one’s ability to provide for their self defense with a handgun by enacting the HQL requirements and 7 day waiting period for handguns. Alarming as that was, many people shrugged it off, because they could still purchase a shotgun or rifle if needed. Many people actually prefer shotguns for home defense. Now, the state is stripping that from us as well, leaving people defenseless for a significant period of time.

We strongly oppose SB 346. This law changes the meaning of transfer to include lending a firearm to responsible and non-prohibited person. As stated above, law abiding gun owners are responsible and careful not to lend or sell firearms to a prohibited person. Gun owners should be trusted to use their judgement when it comes to their personal property. There is no data to support finding that lending between responsible, law abiding people has any effect on crime. Criminals don't follow the law and they will flout this law the same way they ignore the law that prohibits them from possessing a firearm currently. Law abiding citizens routinely lend firearms to other responsible individuals for a variety of legitimate purposes, such as shooting competitions, hunting, testing out new firearms etc. This law will only inhibit responsible citizens and it will have no effect on violent crime.

We support SB 115. Currently, you need a “good and substantial” reason to carry a concealed firearm. Self-defense is not a valid reason unless you can show evidence of direct threats of violence. This law would circumvent the “good and substantial” reason requirement by stating that self defense is a “good and substantial reason” without requiring any additional evidence. Ultimately, this law would mean that anyone who is not otherwise prohibited can get a CCW, because everyone has a right to defend themselves.

We Support SB 114, This law will change the CCW application process so that the applicants and State police can deal with them more efficiently. Currently, the applicant has to complete the 16-hour firearm safety course first and then submit the application. The State police review the application to determine whether the person has a “good and substantial” reason, and then approves or disapproves. The problem is that the applicant has to spend all the time and money required to take the safety course, without any guarantee that the permit will be approved. The bill will fix that problem by allowing applicants to submit the application first and receive preliminary approval from MSP. Once they have that approval, the applicant will take the safety course and complete the application.

Finally, we want you to know that you represent many responsible, law abiding gun owners. We want you to think about the impact these laws will have on real people, your neighbors, with zero benefit to halting violent crime. Instead of punishing us, we ask you to consider enforcing the laws already on the books.

Thank you for all you hard work,

Shmuel
President - Givati Rifle and Pistol

Done.

Done

Got one reply so far (I'm up here in Red Country though):

Good morning.


Thank you for contacting my office and sharing your concerns about gun legislation. I am pro-Second Amendment and will be working with my fellow legislators to make sure we protect our constitutional rights.
If you have any other concerns, please do not hesitate to contact our office. Once again, thank you for contacting our office.

Sincerely,

Senator Gallion

done. great link. doubt do much good, my districts flipped -both my state senator and representative, from R to D.

For what it's worth, I wrote to them:

"As your constituent, I am writing to request that you deny any support for House Bill 612 and Senate Bill 737. These are poorly written, ill-conceived bills that will do nothing to hamper criminal behavior or curb the murder rate in places like Baltimore, but will punish law abiding citizens. Our tax dollars will be inevitably wasted when these laws are run through escalating appeals and higher courts, where they will eventually be recognized as the unconstitutional infringements they are. Please focus our state's time, energy, and tax money on enforcing existing laws and prosecuting the repeat criminals that fuel the desire for actions, but who will be untouched by yet more burdens placed on honest citizens like me. Thank you for your attention to my concerns, and in advance for putting a stop to these two bills."