I've been growing more and more concerned about the complete disregard for the 2nd amendment- by not requiring that any person who wants to bear arms must be a part of a well organized militia in order to protect our country! I encourage those ranting about their rights to actually read the 2nd amendment and consider it in the context the framers intended (as an example, I believe it was a budgetary consideration for a young country without the find to supply a standing army. The problem is worsened by those whose interpretation is provided by extremists like Mr. LaPierre...

A quick Google search shows that the average person will need at least 47 hours of lessons and 22 hours of private practice before they pass their drivers test.

To get a typical Scuba Diving Certified it takes it takes about 28 hours to learn about diving safety and how to use the gear and another two days (4-5 thirty to forty minute checkout dives) to demonstrate to an instructor that you know how to use the gear.

In comparison I think Gov. O'Malley's gun control proposal is reasonable and long overdue.

Wait until they tell us how much the licensing costs. Because if Maryland is out for one thing, it is for more of your money.

Gov O'Malley is right on with the regulations that should be imposed on gun owners and not only hand gun. I am from PA and have 5 hand guns and 4 rifles. Both of these types of weapons I've taken lessons to safely use and have always felt that everyone, no matter who, should pass firearms classes.. Upon writing to a cousin in Canada, she said her husband had to take an 8 hr class to own a simple 22 rifle. More time is required to obtain a license for a handgun. What's the problem?? You have to go to school and learn to get a diploma and as stated by Greg Shinn and Towney above. Get over it. who needs a gun to fire round after round. If you take lessons and practice, you don't need to have auto wearpons. Semi are 'ok', in my opinion but ALWAYS LESSONS for licenses to carry and even own.

@Greg
Most state constitutions consider all residents over the age of 18 members of the militia. The final say is the people's to make through force of arms if needed. "A well regulated" is referring to organized not restricted.

In order to purchase a regulated firearm in Maryland you ALREADY have to take an online safety course. along with copious amounts of paperwork, 17 different background check's, an FBI background check, forfeit your mental health records and more. So i dont know what you girls are crying about

Also we have already banned hi-capacity magaines! Already banned standard capacity magaines! Now were about to ban low capacity mags! Has it worked at all?? No! We still have one of the highest murder rate's around.

So your answer Towney to lower crime is to make me take a 28 hour safety course before I buy a gun?? What would that do? That would do absolutely nothing to prevent crime. I already have to sit through some lame safety course everytime I buy one....we already have that bulcrap. We already have a ton of bulcrap law's. If someone is going to shoot someone else, they could care less about some fuckin safety course...

anyhoo, about the article I have seen a TON of public opposition of this bill, I have an extremely hard time believing that the majority of Marylanders want more gun control. MOM and all the other suits are so disconnected from society. They are just trying to hail to the theif! at the expense of my ability to freely exercise my rights!

Marylanders need a 28 hour safety course before they vote!

I think it is important to address the notion of some folks that the second amendment had more to due with creating a "well regulated militia" rather than guaranteeing our God given right to protect ourselves from tyranny. Almost all serious students of history will agree on the foundations of the amendment and that is the inalienable right of the people to protect their "lives and fortunes" from a tyrannical government and a despot who might use his power to disarm the public in order to consolidate power and control. This was a chief concern of our founders and our fledgling Republic. There are volumes upon volumes of speeches and debate on the issue at the time. Of course, modern constitutional scholars who believe the Constitution is a "living, breathing" document, and who cast dispersion on the great minds of the founders because they might have owned slaves or were part of the 1% of the day will contend otherwise. Additionally, those of similar ilk will put forth the argument that tyranny and despotic reign is not a current probability in this country. Perhaps, but with a country 16 trillion in debt, looming financial chaos, and a political class bereft of courage and integrity I would strongly advocate that it is indeed a increasingly possibility. The only true check against potential tyranny is an armed populace. Our founders understood this, and so should we.

Instead of worrying about some isolated extreme murdering with guns, why not concentrate on what happens to children every day in this country. Every day you pick up the paper and there is a child abused by people they trust....priests, teachers, day care workers, parents, psychos, so many more.....and we don't approach how to stop this. It happens to animals too. You want to take away the one this they are allowed by the constitution to own to protect themselves. Lets start educations people about cruelty in ALL FORMS

1ke- Tell that to the insurgents in Afghanistan. They're fighting one hell of a fight. The Mujahadin sent the Soviets packing and their decades of military experience is not easily overcome.

Not to demean, in any way, our own fighting men and women. Quite the contrary. Our fighting men and women are the target of their own government as we speak. The push to label any soldier as PTSD, because they have trouble adjusting back to normal life, has the added effect of limiting the weaponry held by a trained army of Patriots by disqualifying them for mental health issues. You will see soldiers following orders to fire on American citizens, but you will also see an overwhelming desertion of soldiers who joined for love of freedom.

To say that firearms are useless because the government can do this or the government can do that demonstrates the very need for firearms; to control an unweildy, overbearing government. I'm not advocating anything other than democratic means, just demonstrating the viability of an armed populace resisting tyranny.

You want people to turn in their guns? Cool, go ahead. I don't want you armed either, you're not on our team.

Are you seriously comparing the tactical situation in an agrarian, non-industrialized mountainous region to the tactical situation in an urbanized, post-industrial country?

Are you comparing the mission in Afghanistan--to subdue a large militarized faction with international support on foreign soil on the other side of the world--with the mission in the Fantasy America you imagine--to put down an armed rebellion of anarchists in Harford County?

Yikes! I am glad I haven't friended you on Facebook or walked by the same security camera.

I don't care if you turn in your guns or not. My point is that your guns are irrelevant. Guess you could go to Afghanistan to make your last stand.

That train has left the station time after time. It left when capitalists began using private armies to prevent workers from organizing. It left when our forbears left the farm for the city and money. It left when McCarthyites encouraged the FBI to investigate Reds. It left when eavesdropping became possible and rapidly applied. If left when we turned over ours lives to digital infrastructure. It left when we allowed the military to operate in the dark to develop weaponry and tactics for use on enemies, which can now be turned on the citizenry.

Our armaments are as useless as spitballs.

Oh, and did the Founders intend any of this?

The NRA argues that it is evil people and not money hungry corporations that are causing the bloodshed in American streets. While they seem to have grown comfortable overlooking dead school children in order to protect profits, one question they are not comfortable answering is this: What influenced the son of NRA head David Keene, who fired into the car of another motorist in 2002?

The New Yorker previously reported on how Keene’s served jail time for his misuse of a firearm.

In 2002, Keene’s son David Michael Keene was driving on the George Washington Memorial Parkway when, in a road-rage incident, he fired a handgun at another motorist. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for “using, brandishing, and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.” I asked Keene if this private tragedy had left him uncertain about what the N.R.A. had wrought. He said no: “You break the law, you pay the price.”

Look I'm guaranteed my right to own and protect myself with a fire arm it doesn't matter what it looks like as long as does what it's suppose to when the time counts. I live in Maryland and hate the fact that I can't express my right to carry outside of my home because of the strict stipulations imposed. I gladly express all of my rights given to me, if you don't express your second amendment right then why try and take that right from me. I've personally been robbed jumped twice, once by Baltimore city police officers (yeah the same ones that "Protect and Serve"). I fear no man, but doesn't my family deserve protection? Don't my woman who can't fight a man off who has a gun or a knife have that right to defend herself? I want anyone who believes I don't need my 2nd amendment to come to my house and walk around after 10 minutes if we aren't robbed, assaulted, battered, stabbed or shot. I will personally pay you a thousand dollars and vote for more gun legislation. But that's just it, that won't happen. So don't take my rights just cause you don't practice it.