In a 5-5 vote with no discussion, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee killed a proposal to ban all assault weapons in Maryland.
“It?s a huge victory for Second Amendment supporters,” said Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, who voted against the ban. Many gun owners had flocked to the committee to testify against the bill.
The vote came shortly after a measure to repeal the death penalty also failed in committee, with the same five senators ? two Democrats and three Republicans ? voting against repeal. Another Republican, Sen. Nancy Jacobs, Harford, would have almost certainly voted against the repeal, but she was absent due to the death of her father on Wednesday in California.
Sen. Norman Stone, D-Baltimore County, another opponent of repeal, said, “There hasn?t been a gun bill to get out of this committee” in recent years because of fear that when the legislation reaches the Senate floor, “someone will amend them to ban all guns.”
As long as guns are the subject of the bill, “you can add anything” to the measure, including a ban on handguns, Stone said.
But “assault weapons [ban] probably failed on its own merits,” said Stone, who noted that many types of automatic rifles were already banned in the state.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Mike Lenett, D-Montgomery, and 20 other members. As a committee counsel, Lenett had worked on a federal ban on assault weapons, which has since expired.
