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Maryland’s attorney general and local prosecutors will be able to sue gunmakers and sellers who “knowingly” harm the public or create a public nuisance under a new state law, one of the more than 130 that take effect Saturday.
But don’t expect Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) to immediately appear at a courthouse.
“The bill goes into effect June 1. You’re not going to see us in court on Monday morning,” Brown said in an interview Thursday.
“Just like all the other authorities I have … when we see harm done to the public, it’s our responsibility to investigate and bring whatever appropriate enforcement actions there are,” he said. “This is [an] additional tool that we have to hold firearm industry participants accountable for their conduct.”
Opponents say they are almost certain to challenge the law if it is enforced.
Mark Pennak, president of the gun rights group Maryland Shall Issue, continues to maintain that the law is unconstitutionally vague and that it intrudes on Second Amendment rights. He also said the law will impose a financial burden on small businesses that will have to defend themselves just for doing business.
In meantime, Pennak said he is hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a case this fall that could affect the Maryland law.
That case, Mexico vs. Smith & Wesson Brands Inc., involves a suit by the Mexican government against Smith & Wesson, other U.S gun manufacturers and a gun distributor that Mexico claims have helped facilitate illegal gun trafficking into that country.
If Smith & Wesson wins, Pennak said, the ruling would likely deem Maryland’s gun industry act “unconstitutional.”
“This is a big deal,” Pennak said. “It has huge consequences on a major industry in the United States. It has huge consequences on the Second Amendment rights in the United States. If you put the dealers and manufacturers out of business, you will limit or curtail the ability of people to acquire firearms.”
But Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy (D) defended the law, which she compared to restrictions on businesses such as liquor stores that incorporate measures to ensure alcohol isn’t sold to minors.
“I think that’s what the bill would require. Not that [it] blames manufacturers for all the crimes that have occurred,” Braveboy said Wednesday. “It’s really about making sure that your industry is offering with some efficacy that you are ensuring that minimum standards are in place so that you can ensure that you are not selling to individuals who would not qualify to own a weapon.”
The Gun Industry Accountability Act will allow the attorney general, county attorneys and the solicitor in Baltimore City to file civil suits against members of the firearm industry that “knowingly” create public harm.
Industry members, which include gun sellers as well as manufacturers, will soon be required to implement “reasonable controls on the sale, manufacture, distribution, importation, marketing, possession and use of” firearms and related products.
Reasonable controls are defined as policies to prevent the sale and distribution of a product to a straw purchaser, a firearm trafficker, a person whom the business has reasonable cause “to believe intends to use the firearm-related product to commit a crime or to cause harm.”
Maryland joins several other states, including California, Delaware and New York, that enacted similar legislation.
Other bills taking effect this weekend include:
Part of the Judge Andrew F. Wilkinson Judicial Security Act, which creates a task force to make recommendations on minimum security standards at courthouses around the state. The bills, Senate Bill 575/House Bill 664, are named after the late Washington County judge who was shot and killed in October in front of his home following a divorce proceeding. The killer had started a search for Wilkinson’s address three months earlier.
The Growing Apprenticeships and the Public Safety Workforce, also known as the GAPS Act. The law, which grew out of House Bill 597/Senate Bill 470, were part of Gov. Wes Moore (D)’s legislative agenda this year. It would reform the state’s existing apprenticeship programs to encourage more people to serve in law enforcement. Under the one-year program, a police department or correctional services office could get up to a $5,000 grant for candidates who enroll in the agency’s apprenticeship program.
A bill to prohibit local governments from imposing stringent zoning restrictions on cannabis businesses. House Bill 805 prohibits cannabis dispensaries from locating within a half-mile of another dispensary. The law also prevents local governments from imposing zoning or property use restrictions on cannabis businesses that are more strict than those governing retailers under the state’s alcohol and cannabis laws; and it grants the right to protest or appeal a license renewal if it is signed by at least 10 people, all of whom must live or work within 1,000 feet of the licensed cannabis business.
House Bill 1524, the latest effort to save horse racing in Maryland. The law includes $400 million for the demolition and rebuilding of Pimlico Race Course. It establishes the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, which will take over track operations from the Stronach Group, as well as new efforts to revitalize the Park Heights neighborhood near the track.
An increase in fines and points for street racing or “exhibition driving” near crowds of people – which includes squealing tires, engine racing or driving with a passenger outside the car. Violators of House Bill 601/Senate Bill 442 would face up to 12 points on their licenses for such driving that involves an injury. The law would also make the ban on exhibition driving on public roads statewide.
– Maryland Matters reporter Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.
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