Just as some local leaders hope to do with campaign finance rules, legislators for Montgomery County want to make it possible for the county to enact stricter gun control laws than what the state has in place.
State Del. Roger Manno, D-District 19, just introduced a late-filed bill in Annapolis that would give Montgomery County an exemption to strengthen rules about firearms if they saw fit to do so.
“In essence it’s to allow the Montgomery County Council to enact whatever legislation they see fit,” he said. “There are unique challenges in Montgomery County with regard to guns — we had the horrific events of the sniper and just a few weeks ago an armored car was shot up. Gun violence is on the rise. So this would give the executive and the council another tool in their toolbox to be able to address these challenges.”
Del. Manno said, in putting forth the enabling legislation, he’s not advocating for any specific increases to the gun control laws, only to allow local leaders to have the power to take action.
It’s the same line of thinking County Council member Phil Andrews is employing in trying to get lawmakers to pass a bill allowing county governments to ratchet up their campaign rules. The one difference is that Del. Manno wants his firearms exemption to merely apply to Montgomery.
“I would not try to tell Howard County how they should handle firearms legislation, which is why this is merely a local bill,” the freshman delegate told The Examiner.
Because Del. Manno filed the bill well after the deadline for a guaranteed hearing in Rockville, it will have to be accepted by two-thirds of the Montgomery County delegation in order to move forward.
If that happens — which it could this week — the delegate said he’ll request a hearing about the bill to take place in Annapolis.
In Maryland, to legally own a gun it must be purchased from a Federal Firearms Licensee and the owner must pass a federal background check.
Montgomery County Police started up a special unit devoted to firearms in January 2003 following the sniper attacks. In October of 2006, that unit collected its 1,000th illegal firearm.
