Maryland - New website dedicated to CCW Reform

Other than establishing a website, what else are you planning to do to promote "shall issue CCW" permit?

Also, are you familar with the Maryland attorney and talk show radio host Bob Sher? Last I heard he was suing MD to loosen up their CCW permit requirments. Sher sometimes sits in for G. Gordon Liddy on Liddy's radio talk show on AM 570 WTNT which comes on Mon-Fri at noon.

You might want to contact Liddy and see about getting on his radio program. Liddy is very pro-RKBA and he lives in MD.

Are you familar with Dr. James Purtilo and his RKBA website www.direct-action.org and his newsletter "Tripwire"? Tripwire has a 25,000 subscribers last I heard, and it is free.

Also, have thought of having a table at gunshows to promote CCW? Silverado Promotions hold gunshows in MD in case you were not aware.

What we're doing

Lots planned... and lots more to do.

I'm aware of Bob Scherr - planning on contacting him and Ron Smith next week.

Jim Purtilo is interesting. I sent him an email about us but he didn't respond. I saw him a week later at the Giannetti fundraiser, introduced myself and gave him a card. He acknowledged that he knew who I was and walked away.

Purtilo could get the word out for us and swell our support very quickly, but apparently he doesn't want to do that. I don't know why. It'll be much harder to grow to the size we need without him.

We've got 10,000 bumper stickers. Free for a SASE - details on http://www.marylandshallissue.org

Also in the works are a survey sent to every legislator; press releases; articles and letters submitted to the press. The survey should let us know who we can count on; who might be persuaded; and who is not worth wasting time on.

Once the session starts we'll be visiting with legislators in their offices in Annapolis.

We'll be sending to every legislator a fact sheet, or white paper outlining the benefits of shall issue, and countering the objections.

I'll be manning a table at the next two Silverado Gun Shows - Jan 8 & 9 in Cambridge, MD; and Feb. 19 & 20 at Upper Marlboro. Stop by and visit with us.

Other/better ideas gratefully accepted.

Ditto to everything Spot77 already said. Marylanders, please visit the website and help in any way you can. Write letters to your elected officials, write to the newspapers, donate time and/or money, make some noise. (the noise serves a dual purpose in that it helps get things done and with everyone else making noise, maybe no one will notice my boys being so crazy in the Senate buildings)

Hooray! Best wishes to our brothers and sisters in Maryland, the soon-to-be Free State!

Build, educate, each one, teach one.

Girlwithagun,
As I remember,your boys were very cool while we were at the hearings. Hope you can bring them back in 2005,we can sit you and the boys right now front. Maybe get one of them to go and kick Frosh in the ankle.

I got my supply of bumper stickers in the mail yesterday. Thanks Henry. I'll be handing them out in the Hagerstown area to those who will display them proudly. As soon as the letter writing starts, I'll be doing my part and I'll be there for the hearings. Maybe just maybe...

You have my support. PM me if you need some additional help. I'll get a check in the mail after the holidays. I hit most of the shows and can take paperwork to them if you need that.

I doubt I'll still be in MD when it gets passed. However, out of principal I'll do what I can.

It's sad but I'm actually looking very seriously about moving to VA to escape the stupid gun laws here. (and I can get moved for free) Will still have to work here but won't have to spend my liesure money/time/taxes in such a state!

I wish you all the best with this! Again, PM me with specifics that you may need.

Purtilo could get the word out for us and swell our support very quickly, but apparently he doesn't want to do that. I don't know why. It'll be much harder to grow to the size we need without him.

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I don't know for sure either and there are a few people on THR more politically attuned to the bickering (I mean politics) of the various gun rights groups in MD. He's not the only unenthusiastic one with a large list of contacts. My understanding is that "they" do not think it has a chance of passing here. There may be other reasons that I am unaware of. The CCW issue was originally selected from a possible 8 - 10 items. This and repeal of the ballistic fingerprinting were my top choices. I'm sure if you talked with Steve D he could provide some more insight.

See you-all in Annapolis, or hopefully sooner.

Write Ehrlich

CCW reform may not be your hot button issue, but consider what it will do. With shall-issue CCW any law-abiding citizen will be able to get a concealed carry permit. When they trust any law-abiding citizen to carry loaded guns in public then how could they consider that law-abiding citizens would have to have integral locks on their guns; or couldn't be trusted with semi-automatic rifles with pistol grips; or that they would have to wait 7 days to get another gun (while they are already wearing one) .... CCW reform changes us from always being on the defensive concerning gun rights - to making them prove their position. If CCW reform passes then suddenly the gun control folks will look quite silly to everyone.

Please take a moment to write Governor Ehrlich. Use this model letter, or use your own words:
==========

Governor Robert L. Ehrlich
100 State Circle
Annapolis, MD 21401-1925

December 27, 2004

Dear Governor Ehrlich,

As I'm sure you already know, Maryland is #3 in violent crime, #2 in murders, and has more robberies per capita than any other state in the nation. Criminals here can and do carry guns, but the average law-abiding citizen cannot carry a gun to defend themselves.

Thirty-seven states now have shall-issue CCW laws, including most of our neighboring states - all of which have far lower rates of violent crime than we do. While Maryland is #3 in violent crime, Pennsylvania is #23, Virginia is #36 and West Virginia is #42. Are the people of these surrounding shall-issue states so different from our Maryland residents, or is the lower crime due to law-abiding citizens being able to defend themselves with shall-issue concealed carry? Isn't it time we tried following their example?

The idea that allowing law-abiding citizens to have CCW permits will result in more gun use and killings is not supported by facts. In reality, the experience of thirty-seven states over more than a decade proves otherwise. Maryland will give permits to businessmen who handle cash, but not to citizens to protect their lives. Is money more valuable than life?

Law-abiding Maryland residents can easily get CCW permits from Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia that combined will permit them to carry in 30 states - including every state touching Maryland - yet they cannot get permits to defend themselves in Maryland. Why do 30 states trust Maryland residents more than Maryland trusts her own law-abiding residents? What happens when some Maryland resident who is permitted to carry in other states, but is turned down for a permit here, is injured or killed because they are unable to defend themselves?

It is my understanding that a simple directive from you to the Maryland State Police could loosen the requirements of "a good and substantial reason" to where law-abiding citizens could get permits here in Maryland the same as they can in most other states. Please send that directive to the Maryland State Police. Also please make it known that you want to see CCW reform legislation passed in the current session to ensure a permanent solution.

Sincerely yours,

Full Name
Street address
City, State Zip
phone number

=================

Additional methods of contacting the Governor:
phone 800-811-8336
fax 410-974-3275
email [email protected]

=================

FREE BUMPER STICKERS! "Self-Defense for MD: www.marylandshallissue.org" - just send a SASE to: Maryland Shall Issue, P.O. Box 314, Libertytown, MD 21762

Also please visit our web site often for updates: http://www.marylandshallissue.org

Scott - just a mutter of encouragement and pride. This sounds like it just might get somewhere - and with Grady and Erica on the case too, and drawing in a goodly number of others ... there has to be a chance.

On the one hand - I daily count my blessings being in PA .... on the other - I feel all but incensed at the way things are there re lack of shall issue (amongst other crazy gun restrictions!). I guess a determined fight is about the only way to help kick this stupidity.

May 2005 see some real results achievable.

The 'skeptics' section is very good. I intend to use it when I have those oh so common arguments with the anti-gun folks I hang around with.

Scott - good idea yeah ... a letter on that could well add some value. I can state with total honesty - that I DO avoid trips into MD for this very reason ... as I am not prepared to be ''denuded'' of my rightful means of self defence.

If you can - to save me searching - drop me a PM with Gov's name and correct addy --- to make sure I get it right. Oops sorry - dumb*** had forgotten to read above and note. Duh!

Have you checked into California efforts?

Search on the users name "Jim March" and see some of the directions they have been moving over the last few years. Lot of set up and prep for public records access and wirking with state administrators and staffs.
Until the whole country can carry as easily as Ak and Vermont our rights to bear arms are infringed. Among many other laws as well.
Good luck.

Scott - I have done a letter - and hope it is not sounding too odd, being written by an ''outsider''!! I reproduce same below ... and it will not go in the mail until tomorrow now so any comments, criticisms, please bring em on. Not sure if the copy'n'paste has quite held the formatting - I think it has.

Dear Governor Ehrlich,

I am aware of a high degree of frustration with many of my aquaintances in Maryland, regarding the lack of "shall issue" concealed carry provision. Something they fervently wish to see corrected.

I feel it might be useful to write to you as a Pennsylvania resident to include my own perspective on the matter.

Pennsylvania currently has I believe one of the highest state uptakes of CCW, at around 6.7% and yet, to the best of my knowledge has a crime rate that is at a substantially lower level than seen in Maryland and some other states with no "shall issue". Putting that another way, despite this high number of permits we do NOT see evidence of either abuse of CCW or "rivers of blood", even though detractors of concealed carry will it seems invariably decide (erroniously) that the armed citizen is a danger to society. Logic dictates that the criminals however will regardless, always be potentially well armed.

Let me say also - I take great pains to not have to enter Maryland, even though I have friends there and from a simple "tourist" perspective would enjoy travelling many parts. I find it discomforting when I realize that - before I can enter the state, I have to remove my gun from its holster, unload it, place said gun in one place and the ammunition in another - rendering me defenceless. Furthermore, as I understand it, I find that I am in breach of Maryland law if I have to stop at a gas station whilst having a gun or guns in my vehicle and then perhaps technically and necessarily leave it briefly unattended (even if locked).

To return to my prime point I do ask that every possible serious consideration be given to enable a "shall issue" carry permit to become fact and thus then the law abiding residents of Maryland be able to at last enjoy their rightful means of self protection, practiced safely by so many other states. I would comment finally also that, as far as most can tell, the police cannot be there to protect us during the sometimes very short time it takes for a criminal to harm or kill - that is something only the suitably armed individual can undertake, and it is his right.

Yours sincerely

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OK my friend ... it is done.