Gun advocates seeking to make it easier for average citizens to carry handguns for their own protection were back in force again at the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. They urged lawmakers to join 37 other states that require no special reason for getting apermit to carry a weapon.
“Will there be more guns?” asked the sponsor of HB2, Del. Dan Riley, a Harford County Democrat. There will be, but “those guns will be in the right hands.”
Riley stressed that all the current requirements to get a permit to carry a handgun would remain. Currently, an adult must have had firearms training and have no criminal record and no mental or substance abuse problems. But Riley?s bill would remove the requirement that someone have “a good and substantial reason” to carry a handgun.
“This is discriminatory,” Riley said, because the state police generally only issue the permits for those carrying substantial sums of money.
“Current law places greater value on material goods than human life,” argued Jane Weaver, Maryland coordinator of Second Amendment Sisters. “The people that you?re trying to stop from carrying guns don?t care about the laws.”
Riley, Weaver and the other handgun supporters said that crime has gone down in states where ordinary citizens are allowed to carry guns. Not knowing who might be carrying a weapon would “make criminals more circumspect with the little old lady or the little old man,” said Del. Susan McComas, a Harford Republican on the committee.
Committee Democrats were dubious.
“In metropolitan areas that have this law, I don?t see any difference” in rates of violent crime, said Del. Gerron Levi, D-Prince George?s. “Clearly if there?s something that reduces violent crime, we should take a serious look at it.”
Riley offered the same bill last year, but despite a hearing, Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Vallario did not bring it up for a vote. The vote would be “very, very close,” Riley told The Examiner. Some committee members like the bill but feel their constituents would object, he said.
There are about 12,000 active permits to carry handguns in Maryland, according to state police figures, a much smaller percentage of residents than in states such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, which make it easier to get a permit, advocates say.
The state gets about 2,000 applications a year and denies about 250 of them. “They do everything they can to try and discourage you from applying,” said John Josselyn of the Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore. “It?s intimidation. It borders on harassment.”
Josselyn maintains that many more people would apply if the requirement for “a good and substantial reason” is removed.
