Posted on 06/03/2013 8:46:35 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Maryland's new gun control law, signed in May by Gov. Martin O'Malley, has survived its first challenge.
Organizers of a petition drive to get the law onto the ballot in 2014 failed to turn in any signatures by Friday night's deadline, said Steve Ackerman of the Office of the Secretary of State.
A referendum would have kept the law from going into effect on Oct. 1. To get one, opponents would have had to submit roughly 18,600 signatures.
While the National Rifle Association is still expected to battle the law in court, gun control groups celebrated news that the petition drive had failed.
"We think it's terrific this life-saving law is going to take effect on Oct. 1, as planned," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence. "The focus is now on making sure this works well and becomes a national model on preventing gun violence."
The Firearm Safety Act of 2013 bans the sale of 45 military-style assault weapons and limits magazines to 10 bullets. It also requires a license for handgun purchases and requires gun owners to submit to fingerprinting to get a license.
The bill passed the state Senate, 28-19, and the House, 78-61.
While the group MDPetitions.com declined to attempt to petition the law onto the ballot, another organization, Free State Petitions, was formed to do so. Sue Payne of Free State Petitions could not be reached Saturday.
MDPetitions.com led efforts that put three referendums, including one challenging the same-sex marriage law, on the 2012 ballot. All three were rejected by the voters. The organization most recently worked on a failed attempt to petition the state's death penalty repeal onto the ballot.
(Excerpt) Read more at gopusa.com ...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Nanny State PING, since the article involves tobacco-tax-loving sleazeball Vincent DiMarco.
There might just be a time to fight these laws by just saying “screw it” and not follow them or find a way around them. Of course, criminals do that all the time but them again, the more laws you make, the more criminals you make so there are hazzards but if enough people do it, the point is moot, you can only catch a small percentage. Think of it as part of going Galt.
Isn’t Maryland the state where they tax you for your house blocking the rain from soaking into the ground? ROTFL! The Sheep State!
This is actually good news. You don’t want to put the Constitution up for a vote in goofy states like MD or CA. Such a vote would be utterly meaningless, but it would get played up as though it mattered. Think Sore/Looserman and their we-won-the-popular-vote schtick. The Constitution says that the popular vote doesn’t matter; the Electoral College vote is what matters. But the willing whores in the media went along with Man-Bear-Pig. Likewise, the Constitution says that there is a right to keep and bear arms. The opinion of a bunch of whackjobs in Baltimore or San Francisco doesn’t count. It’s far better to fight this in the courts where the law and the Constitution (eventually) matter.
Thanks for the ping!
The Constitution matters in every State, even though a few States refuse to recognize this fact.
Easy for me to say I guess, I live in Texas.
My grand parents grew up adults during Prohibition. http://www.1920-30.com/prohibition/ Heard that he made homemade brew. As story went, after they arrived home from a vacation, bottles of brew fermenting in the windows had blown the shades up. “OMG, we are going to be arrested”, was what my granny said as they returned to their home and saw the bottles of brew in the front window.
” It’s far better to fight this in the courts where the law and the Constitution (eventually) matter.”
You are very right, and we are going to have a number of court battles if any of the current bills in our “legislature” here in CA pass both houses.
That statement should be carved into the tombstone of every person shot and murdered after the law goes into effect.
What a nerve, to speak of it becoming a “national model”.
Liberals have tunnel vision. The world beyond their echo-chambers and worldview does not exist to them.
From my cold, dead hands...
I wonder if the IRS went after the petition drive folks?
The petition to put this to referendum (on the ballot in 2014) would not have affected the court case at all.
If the petition had been successful, it would have delayed implementation of the law until the election of 2014. Gun rights advocates (of which there are many in MD) would have been motivated to "get out the vote" in 2014, based on this one issue. You also had to be a "registered voter" to sign the petition and there was a link to register on the petition site.
Of course, with a lawsuit (that is not challenging the 2nd amendment but rather MD's excessive gun control law), you stand a good chance of getting a judge that sides with the control group. And, I believe, MD has the longest wait period for appeals court.
A successful petition would have been a big positive for conservatives in Maryland and all delegates are up for reelection in 2014.
That's always the goal, nationalization. Thankfully, we have a federal, not a national government.
That's a critical distinction, not taught publicly or mentioned politically.
A successful petition would have lead to an unsuccessful election.
In 1982, California voters rejected a ballot initiative to require that handguns be registered. That same initiative would likely pass today. This is why you won’t see California gun owners putting their rights to a vote.
Your rights aren’t something you leave up to your neighbors’ whims.
All three were rejected by the voters.
***
Through voter fraud.
“A successful petition would have been a big positive for conservatives in Maryland and all delegates are up for reelection in 2014.”
We have the same problems with the Initiative Process here in California, and it is exacerbated by the RAT Secretary of State getting to “title” any initiative before it goes on the ballot, and the strong liiklihood of some RAT judge overturning whatever the people decide if it goes against what the RATs want. Just look at what was done by a Federal Judge to our Prop 187.
My great grandparents made moonshine after they came over from Russia. My grandmother told me a story where she and her sisters had to tend the still and were harrassed by some local boys so her father gave her a revolver, she was like 6, maybe 10 years old, just in case they needed protection. It’s interesting to know she packed heat when she was a kid. She passed away at 95 in 2010.
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