We urgently ask your help on the Right-to-Carry legislation – SB 762. This will probably be the last action needed this year, but it is the most important. If you care about CCW for self-defense, we need your help. If you are a woman we especially need your help. Women have been the key to getting CCW passed in many of the states that have been successful.
The House Judiciary hearing on Friday March 9 on HB 228 went really well! Suzanna's Gratia-Hupp’s testimony was riveting and definitely moved the legislators. The dozens of women who also testified helped amplify and put a Maryland face on Suzanna’s testimony. We're hearing from committee members that this year they may actually vote on it, and hearing from some of the Judiciary members who we never expected would be in favor of it … that they may vote FOR concealed carry.
Also, we got some great press coverage –
* MSI Press Release: http://tinyurl.com/2kr76q
* an article in the Balto. Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/2lrr38
* WBAL Radio: http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=54934
* WBAL-TV (video): http://www.wbaltv.com/video/11216116/index.html
I’m not aware of CCW getting positive news coverage in Maryland ever before. We’re making progress!!
Besides the press coverage, in our favor is the District Court ruling last Friday that the DC gun ban is unconstitutional! The DC case (Parker v. D.C.) didn't rule on concealed carry, but it does strengthen our case while keeping guns and self-defense in the news.
However, to keep the momentum going, we have to do it again (going down to Annapolis to testify) on Wed. March 21st at 1 PM when the Senate hears their version of the shall-issue CCW bill SB 762 http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/billfile/sb0762.htm
http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/bills/sb/sb0762f.pdf. It'll be tougher ... we won't have Suzanna; and the Chairman Brian Frosh (he’s in the WBAL-TV clip), is very much anti-gun. We will have to move Brian Frosh in order to get a vote in the Senate Committee… and moving him may be the key to getting a vote in the House as well.
Please watch that video clip again.
Frosh says "I don't think the average person needs a concealed weapon. I just don't get it."
We're likely to be incensed at that remark and want to attack Frosh. However, let me suggest something else. I think what he said is 100% true and accurate, and I think that's the key to moving him. He can single-handedly block or allow a committee vote on SB 762. We want him to allow a vote, and we won't accomplish that by attacking him - he'll just become more defensive. Certainly when he said that to the news camera he was already prepared for a fight. He's been through this for many years (cosponsoring a bill in 1994 to ban all handguns from Maryland). I think he's changed some since then, and I think he can change more. In previous years Frosh would bring in extra security for gun bill hearings, and he'd leave the room and not come back. He would also be rude to gunnies. I've seen almost none of that this year. This year for the huge AWB crowd there was no extra security. Frosh joked, in a pleasant way, with some of us. He left the room, but came back several times. He has clearly softened. Attacks on him or rudeness towards him will only harden him again.
"I don't think the average person needs a concealed weapon. I just don't get it." It's true. The average person does not need a gun. Heck, I've heard the average cop may only have to pull his gun out once in 30 years. The average cop doesn't need a gun. It's not about averages ... and Frosh, by his own admission, doesn't get it.
What has a chance of opening his mind so that he "gets it"? He needs to see who does need a gun, but can't get a permit. He needs to see LOTS of polite, friendly, law-abiding citizens who are not 'average'. We need to put a face on it for Frosh. He needs to see the nurse who gets off late at night with no protection; the citizen who gets mugged in his own neighborhood; the real estate agent who meets total strangers in remote locations; the woman who is threatened by neighborhood drug dealers. The more real, individual, people Frosh sees the more likely he is to see that the 'average' is not appropriate. Numbers are going count. We'll need large numbers to persuade Frosh, and large numbers will send a message to the rest of the legislature to not mess with our rights ... so they don't think they can pass any of the Brady anti-gun trash.
Please mark the 21st on your calendars if you can make it. If you have any questions just contact me and I will fill you in on how to get there, where to go, what to expect, etc. Guys are not nearly as effective as women, but definitely needed too!
If you can’t possibly be there in person please submit written testimony. You can email it to me by the 19th, at [email protected] and I’ll print the necessary 20 copies and turn it in on Wednesday. You might consider sending a photo along with the testimony. Frosh simply needs to see lots of friendly, law-abiding, individuals ... and not see us as some mythical 'average'. Please come to the hearing, and bring a friend.
Thanks!
- Henry Heymering, President
Maryland Shall Issue, Inc.
P.O. Box 314
Libertytown, MD 21762
240-446-6782
http://www.marylandshallissue.org
[email protected]
The House Judiciary hearing on Friday March 9 on HB 228 went really well! Suzanna's Gratia-Hupp’s testimony was riveting and definitely moved the legislators. The dozens of women who also testified helped amplify and put a Maryland face on Suzanna’s testimony. We're hearing from committee members that this year they may actually vote on it, and hearing from some of the Judiciary members who we never expected would be in favor of it … that they may vote FOR concealed carry.
Also, we got some great press coverage –
* MSI Press Release: http://tinyurl.com/2kr76q
* an article in the Balto. Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/2lrr38
* WBAL Radio: http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=54934
* WBAL-TV (video): http://www.wbaltv.com/video/11216116/index.html
I’m not aware of CCW getting positive news coverage in Maryland ever before. We’re making progress!!
Besides the press coverage, in our favor is the District Court ruling last Friday that the DC gun ban is unconstitutional! The DC case (Parker v. D.C.) didn't rule on concealed carry, but it does strengthen our case while keeping guns and self-defense in the news.
However, to keep the momentum going, we have to do it again (going down to Annapolis to testify) on Wed. March 21st at 1 PM when the Senate hears their version of the shall-issue CCW bill SB 762 http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/billfile/sb0762.htm
http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/bills/sb/sb0762f.pdf. It'll be tougher ... we won't have Suzanna; and the Chairman Brian Frosh (he’s in the WBAL-TV clip), is very much anti-gun. We will have to move Brian Frosh in order to get a vote in the Senate Committee… and moving him may be the key to getting a vote in the House as well.
Please watch that video clip again.
Frosh says "I don't think the average person needs a concealed weapon. I just don't get it."
We're likely to be incensed at that remark and want to attack Frosh. However, let me suggest something else. I think what he said is 100% true and accurate, and I think that's the key to moving him. He can single-handedly block or allow a committee vote on SB 762. We want him to allow a vote, and we won't accomplish that by attacking him - he'll just become more defensive. Certainly when he said that to the news camera he was already prepared for a fight. He's been through this for many years (cosponsoring a bill in 1994 to ban all handguns from Maryland). I think he's changed some since then, and I think he can change more. In previous years Frosh would bring in extra security for gun bill hearings, and he'd leave the room and not come back. He would also be rude to gunnies. I've seen almost none of that this year. This year for the huge AWB crowd there was no extra security. Frosh joked, in a pleasant way, with some of us. He left the room, but came back several times. He has clearly softened. Attacks on him or rudeness towards him will only harden him again.
"I don't think the average person needs a concealed weapon. I just don't get it." It's true. The average person does not need a gun. Heck, I've heard the average cop may only have to pull his gun out once in 30 years. The average cop doesn't need a gun. It's not about averages ... and Frosh, by his own admission, doesn't get it.
What has a chance of opening his mind so that he "gets it"? He needs to see who does need a gun, but can't get a permit. He needs to see LOTS of polite, friendly, law-abiding citizens who are not 'average'. We need to put a face on it for Frosh. He needs to see the nurse who gets off late at night with no protection; the citizen who gets mugged in his own neighborhood; the real estate agent who meets total strangers in remote locations; the woman who is threatened by neighborhood drug dealers. The more real, individual, people Frosh sees the more likely he is to see that the 'average' is not appropriate. Numbers are going count. We'll need large numbers to persuade Frosh, and large numbers will send a message to the rest of the legislature to not mess with our rights ... so they don't think they can pass any of the Brady anti-gun trash.
Please mark the 21st on your calendars if you can make it. If you have any questions just contact me and I will fill you in on how to get there, where to go, what to expect, etc. Guys are not nearly as effective as women, but definitely needed too!
If you can’t possibly be there in person please submit written testimony. You can email it to me by the 19th, at [email protected] and I’ll print the necessary 20 copies and turn it in on Wednesday. You might consider sending a photo along with the testimony. Frosh simply needs to see lots of friendly, law-abiding, individuals ... and not see us as some mythical 'average'. Please come to the hearing, and bring a friend.
Thanks!
- Henry Heymering, President
Maryland Shall Issue, Inc.
P.O. Box 314
Libertytown, MD 21762
240-446-6782
http://www.marylandshallissue.org
[email protected]