Assault Weapons

Maryland residents overwhelmingly support Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to force gun buyers to submit to fingerprinting, safety training and more background checks, according to a new Washington Post poll . Across the state, fully 85 percent back the governor's licensing plan and 73 percent do so "strongly. " They also support banning high-capacity ammunition clips and assault weapons — two other portions of O'Malley's (D) bill, which in the wake of the December school shooting in...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a gun-control measure on Thursday to give Maryland some of the nation's tightest gun laws and the National Rifle Association plans to challenge it in court. Part of the law requires people to submit fingerprints to the state police to get a license to buy a handgun. "States with similar licensing provisions have substantially lower gun death rates than states that do not, so if we want better results we have to make better choices, and this...

The Maryland House of Delegates passed what would be among the nation's most restrictive gun-control measures Wednesday, voting to ratchet up the state's already tough rules by requiring fingerprinting of gun buyers, new limits on firearm purchases by the mentally ill, and bans on assault weapons and on magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. The 78 to 61 vote handed Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) a major policy victory as Maryland joins the ranks of Democratic-leaning states passing broad...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A Montgomery County woman says she is planning a petition effort to get Maryland's gun control bill put to a popular vote. Sue Payne tells WBAL-AM (http://bit.ly/15tnCCe ) that she hopes to have a website up so voters can download and sign petitions to get the bill on next year's ballot. Payne decided to act after opponents of the bill decided on a court challenge rather than a referendum petition. Payne will have to submit more than 55,000 signatures to the State Board of...

Every mass shooting has three elements: the killer, the weapon and the cultural climate. As soon as the shooting stops, partisans immediately pick their preferred root cause with corresponding pet panacea. Names are hurled, scapegoats paraded, prejudices vented. The argument goes nowhere. Let's be serious: (1) The Weapon Within hours of last week's Newtown, Conn., massacre , the focus was the weapon and the demand was for new gun laws. Several prominent pro-gun Democrats remorsefully professed new openness to gun control . Sen....

At 3 a.m. on July 2, 1993, Steve Sposato sat down in his darkened living room to write, by hand, a letter to the president of the United States. His life had just been shattered. Hours earlier, in the afternoon, a deranged man armed with semiautomatic weapons had gone on a rampage, slaughtering eight people at an office building in downtown San Francisco. The gunman's motive would remain forever a mystery. Among the slain: Steve's wife, 30-year-old Jody Jones...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's ambitious gun-control package would require citizens who move to Maryland to register guns purchased in other states, and will make it illegal for residents younger than 21 years old to purchase or own registered firearms or ammunition. Those restrictions were among new details the governor and his staff released Friday as they put the final touches on a gun-control package that has gained national...

Here's a complete transcript of President Obama's remarks on his administration's plans for gun control, and his views on the impending fiscal cliff, as delivered on Dec. 19, 2012. Transcript was updated as the remarks unfolded. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, everybody. It's now been five days since the heartbreaking tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut; three days since we gathered as a nation to pray for the victims, and today a few more of the 20 small children and six...

In his Jan. 26 letter, " Assault weapons are legal and safe ," Brett Weeks argued that assault weapons are inanimate objects and are not responsible for shootings. In other words, guns don't kill people; people kill people. In a sense, Mr. Weeks is correct. Assault weapons don't typically go around murdering people without someone pulling their trigger. Unfortunately, the "guns are not killer robots" defense doesn't address the main concern of people who favor an assault-weapons ban. The issue is that assault weapons make it...

The March 23 editorial " Banning assault weapons " stated that the "legitimate need to own AR-15s is minuscule. " This phrase is fairly accurate: Most people do not need an AR-15. But what about those who want one, whether it is for their personal safety, target-shooting or any other legitimate purpose? Personally, I don't need a 300-horsepower, two-seat car, but I wanted one and I acquired one. Do sports cars kill a disproportionate number of people compared with minivans and staid four-door ­sedans?

The group that led efforts to petition three measures to Maryland's ballot last fall announced Wednesday that it would not attempt to force a public vote on Gov. Martin O'Malley's recently passed gun-control legislation. MDPetitions.com said it would instead support a promised court challenge of the new law by the National Rifle Association. Del. Neil C. Parrott (R-Washington), chairman of MDPetitions.com, said the decision was reached after consultation with several gun-rights groups...

On the day after a gunman killed 20 children in Newtown, Conn., Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley wrote a text message to his chief legislative lobbyist. "Do we or do we not have an assault-weapons ban?" the governor asked that Saturday, 10 days before Christmas. No, Stacy Mayer wrote back. Really? the governor responded. I thought we did. A variety of pistols, such as mini-Uzis , were illegal. But the weapon that Adam Lanza had fired in Newtown — the...

Giles Crimi [" A poor way to remember Newtown ," Free for All, March 30] used the right language to describe the wrong subject. The "offensive and outrageous" display of "inconceivably bad taste" is not the editorial cartoon published in The Post but rather the actions of the National Rifle Association and the cowardly toadies in Congress — Democratic and Republican alike — who are subverting the good sense and will of the majority of Americans...

Gun control proponents won two major legislative victories yesterday as Maryland and Connecticut passed strict new measures to vet purchases of firearms. Meanwhile, President Obama, touring Colorado, made his appeal to the public for gun control proposals facing opposition in Congress. Below is The Post's coverage of the national debate this week. Maryland | House votes for far-reaching bill | How each delegate voted The new bill, proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, bans some assault...

The Maryland House of Delegates passed what would be among the nation's most restrictive gun-control measures Wednesday, voting to ratchet up the state's already tough rules by requiring fingerprinting of gun buyers, new limits on firearm purchases by the mentally ill, and bans on assault weapons and on magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. The 78 to 61 vote handed Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) a major policy victory as Maryland joins the ranks of Democratic-leaning states...

Some things seem naturally abhorrent – forceps to crush a cranium in an abortion, a needle to deliver a sentence intravenously on death row, and an assault weapon in the hands of the man on the street. Each instrument may have a purpose some time, somewhere, but as used above, each reflects brutality in our society. The Catholic Church opposes use of all three instruments to take a life. The church's pro-life stand against abortion is undisputed. So is its pro-life stand in opposition to the death...

JUST DAYS after Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the plug on an assault-weapons ban in Congress, lawmakers in Maryland are also getting cold feet about mounting a frontal challenge to the gun lobby by prohibiting sales of some of the most lethal firearms. We disagree with Mr. Reid's move on moral grounds; as President Obama said, the victims of mass murders deserved a congressional vote on assault weapons. But at least the Senate leader was operating according to strategic logic: Lacking the numbers to...

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid on Tuesday declared politically dead the effort to ban military-style assault weapons, a setback for President Obama and gun-control advocates who are pushing the Senate to move quickly on bills to limit gun violence. Reid (D-Nev.) is preparing to move ahead with debate on a series of gun-control proposals when the Senate returns from a two-week Easter recess in early April. Although he has vowed to hold votes on measures introduced after the Sandy Hook Elementary School...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley notched a victory late Friday in a House committee that had become a linchpin in his efforts to pass one of the most far-reaching legislative responses to last year's deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn. After more than eight hours of debate, every major provisions of the governor's gun-control bill , including an assault weapons ban and licensing and fingerprinting of gun buyers survived. Conservative Democrats had in recent weeks wavered on the governor's assault weapons ban,...

In a normal legislative battle, there comes a point when advocates have to stop letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. When it comes to gun control , the calculus is different: You have to stop letting the adequate be the enemy of the incremental but significant. That maddening fact is why the recent uproar over assault weapons is so dangerously misplaced. I'm all for limiting access to assault weapons, although the impact would be more symbolic than practical. But reinstating the ban was never in the cards.