Maryland’s 2006 General Assembly Adjourns!

The Maryland General Assembly adjourned "sine die" at midnight last night, April 10, with anti-gun forces unable to advance their agenda.  Despite the introduction of dozens of bills that would have been harmful to gun owners, hunters, and sportsmen, gun control advocates were unable to advance any piece of legislation.

Included in the bills defeated by NRA members are House Bill 451, the Police Officer Protection Act that would have made criminals out of gun owners, who themselves were the victim of theft; HB 1367, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2006; HB 1369, the Microstamping Bill that would have mandated the sale of firearms equipped with technology to microstamp a handgun's serial number on each round fired; and

HB 1157/SB 663, the black bear hunt prohibition that would classify black bear as non-game mammals and prohibit a black bear season. 

Thanks to the phone calls, emails, and letters from Maryland's NRA members,

all of these onerous proposals were defeated.

Unfortunately, the hostile partisan environment of the 2006 General Assembly Session also led to the demise of a very important piece of legislation that would have greatly benefited shooters in Maryland. Senate Bill 907, the NRA-backed Range Protection bill, was derailed in the final 48 hours of session. House Environmental Matters Committee Chairwoman Maggie McIntosh (D-43) introduced an amendment to SB 907 that gutted the bill and would have made Maryland's range protection law weaker than it is currently. She insisted the bill would only leave her Committee in the amended form. She was successful in securing the votes for the amendment, thereby making the bill useless in further protecting Maryland ranges.  The bill then stayed in Committee until the clock ran out on the Session.

NRA-ILA would like to thank all of the NRA members who contacted their legislators about SB 907. This bill would not have made it as far through the legislative process without your support.  SB 907 did receive overwhelming support in the Senate, however, spearheaded by Chairwoman McIntosh and Delegate Barbara Frush (D-21), it fell victim to partisan politics.

NRA-ILA would also like to thank bill's sponsors, Senator John Astle (D-30) and Senator E.J. Pipkin (R-36), who worked very hard to help protect

Maryland's shooting ranges.