The death of a proposed Maryland assault weapons ban is unlikely to encourage Montgomery County’s Senate delegation to pass legislation enabling the county to enact stricter firearms regulations, Sen. Mike Lennett said Thursday.
“It makes no sense to make someone a criminal on one side of the street, but not another,” Lennett, a Democrat from District 19, told The Examiner. “I haven’t heard any sentiment for the bill on the Senate side, out of recognition that it needs to be done statewide.”
But Sen. Brian E. Frosh, D-District 16, said, based on what he knows about the Montgomery County bill, he plans to encourage his colleagues to support it. Frosh said he hasn’t read the bill, originally sponsored by Del. Roger Manno, D-District 19, but would likely have supported it regardless of what happened with the assault weapons legislation.
“I don’t see any reason why Montgomery County should be prohibited from enacting measures to protect its citizens,” he said.
Last month, the Montgomery House delegation passed Manno’s bill, which would give county officials an exemption to strengthen rules about firearms if they saw fit to do so. But the county’s Senate delegation hasn’t voted on the legislation.
“One is a local bill, andvery specifically targeting the county and simply enabling legislation,” said Manno. “And the [assault weapons bill] is much more specific and much broader. I’ve heard it said that there is a connection between the two bills, but I don’t see it.”
In February, Patrick J. Hogan, D-District 39, said he’d prefer a statewide change to a local exemption. Hogan chairs the Senate delegation.
According to Manno, it’s “very difficult” to pass statewide gun control legislation. “So rather than try to apply … a one-size-fits-all fix on every county in order to address a problem that exists in Montgomery County,” he said, “it made more sense … to introduce local legislation.”
