Maryland: House and Senate Committees to Hold Gun Bill Days

On Tuesday, March 10, at 1:00 p.m., the Maryland House Judiciary Committee will be holding a public hearing where it will consider all of the firearm-related bills in the House.  Information on how to testify as well as a full list of bills to be heard can be found here.  The list includes:

House Bill 39, sponsored by Delegate Seth Howard (R-30B), repeals current law that requires firearm manufacturers to submit a shell casing from each handgun sold, rented or transferred to the Department of State Police Crime Laboratory.  This clean-up legislation would remove the failed ballistic fingerprint system from state law and remove an unnecessary burden from firearm manufacturers who are required to continue sending shell cases to a program that was defunded years ago.

House Bill 306, sponsored by Delegate Robin Grammer, Jr. (R-6), seeks to repeal many of the deeply flawed anti-gun sections of Senate Bill 281.  HB 306, “The Firearm Decriminalization Act of 2015,” will remedy many of the issues that arose from the enactment of SB 281 and alleviate the unreasonable burdens placed on law-abiding gun owners in the state of Maryland.

House Bill 432, sponsored by Delegate Rick Impallaria (R-7), would repeal the requirement that applicants for a handgun wear and carry permit have a “good and substantial reason” in order to be issued the permit.  “Good and substantial” is subjective and really only leaves the choice up to the Maryland State Police on whether or not they want to issue the permit.  By making this change, HB 432 would make Maryland a shall-issue state, a long needed step towards allowing law-abiding gun owners to defend themselves.

The following Thursday, March 12, at 1:00 p.m., the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee will be holding their own public hearing on all of the firearm-related bills in the Senate.  Information on how to testify as well as a full list of bills to be heard can be found here.

Members are strongly encouraged to attend these hearings and testify in support of the above described bills as well as oppose any anti-gun bills.  If you are unable to attend but would still like to submit testimony, please keep it to a page in length and email it to [email protected] and your NRA-ILA will compile and deliver it to the committees.  Testimony should be submitted no later than midnight on March 8.