.22 cal assault weapons banned in Maryland...

[spin]

Maryland State Police Define .22 Rimfire Rifles as “Assault Weapons”
Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 7:07 pm

Maryland --(AmmoLand.com)- In its infinite wisdom, the licensing division of the Maryland State Police has determined that certain .22 caliber rimfire rifles are “assault weapons” based solely upon there cosmetic resemblance to some firearms that are defined by Maryland law as “assault weapons.”

****snip****

Until the opinion of the Attorney General is published relating to this matter, the Maryland State Police Licensing Division believes it is in the best interest of the public in general to continue to process the purchases of the .22 caliber Rimfire Rifles in accordance to the statutory requirements for purchases of regulated firearms.”

The real problem is: The Maryland State Police have apparently not issued a formal written bulletin to the firearms dealers informing them of this new requirement. It is entirely possible for a dealer and/or buyer to be arrested, charged, and prosecuted for violating an unwritten policy established in secret by Maryland State Police Licensing Division.
http://www.ammoland.com/2009/09/07/maryland-state-police-define-22-rimfire-rifles-as-assault-weapons/

[virginia mountainman]

1. And they prove how silly they are....NT

[rd_kent]

2. "It is entirely possible for a dealer and/or buyer to be arrested, charged, and prosecuted for

violating an unwritten policy established in secret by Maryland State Police Licensing Division."


Uh, that is scary!!!

[Euromutt]

12. One would hope a judge would throw out such a case

It's an obvious violation of the basic principles of the Rule of Law to prosecute citizens for offenses of which they have no way of knowing that it's an offense. Laws have to be specific, and they have to be published to be legitimate.

The problem is that I'm far from convinced all judges abide by these principles.

[dashrif]

3. I

have an ap15 and an ap74 and they are fun to shoot and have an evil bayo lug }( I can kill 20 squirrels with out reloading hell with a M-7 fixed (yes it fits it's so evil) squirrels drop dead at the sight of it :eyes:

[Caliman73]

4. Wow, they surpassed California on that one...

Even here 22lr's are exempt from the AWB. I have to find wood to knock on quickly.

[proteus_lives]

5. Expect crime rates to plummet!

:sarcasm:

[gorfle]

6. Just goes to show the true intent there.

It's all based on appearances.

[JonQ]

7. You mean those things were legal at one point!

These deadly *automatic military style assault* weapons have to be banned immediately or else the blood will be flowing in the streets.

Trust me, this vague and confusing law will *guarantee* a reduction in all crimes, across the board.

Also people will be nicer to each other and cats and dogs will get along.

[spin]

8. Strangely, my cat and three dogs get along in my house...

and the house has what many would call an arsenal.

Quite often one Boston Terrier will chase the cat down a long hallway, then the cat will turn and chase him backup the hallway.

The cat does get a little pissed when all three Boston Terriers decide to gang up on him. He still holds his own against them. Of course, it's all play.

[57_TomCat]

19. Seriously...

you need another cat. :)

[spin]

21. Thats a thought...

I enjoy animals. I consider the cat my best friend. This cat was a kitten that a neighborhood kid brought to our house as she said her dad had found the cat in the engine compartment of his car and he intended to kill it. (He is an ex Baptist minister.)

The kitten was so tiny he could fit in the palm of my hand. At first he lived in our back yard and under our house. We provided water and food. He was very friendly and enjoyed playing with our Boston Terriers and with a fairly large Rottweiler puppy that belong to a roomer. One time I remember the Rottweiler had picked up the cat and was carrying him around in his mouth.

We named the little guy Grim as his chances for survival were slim. But he had such a great personality that we decided to keep him as an indoor cat. Cats in our neighborhood have a short life expectancy because we live by a main road and feline leukemia is common. Plenty of feral tom cats wander trough the neighborhood and occasionally fight.

My daughter and her husband were concerned about the possibility that the cat might damage the eyes of their Boston Terriers so after talking to the vet I reluctantly had the kitten's front paws declawed. Of course the cat was neutered. All worked out well and Grim is just over a year old and weighs 13 pounds. He's not fat as he gets plenty of exercise with the terriers. He seems coordinated and the lack of the front claws has had little effect.

Who knows, maybe another stray kitten will turn up.

[backwoodsbob]

34. you need a

Maine coon cat.

He would chase all three terriers

[spin]

35. Those cats are BIG...

I understand they can easily weight 20 lbs. Damn.

[Tim01]

9. Hey, look, Maryland is being run by idiots. nt

[yost69]

10. Well we all know how many people are

killed every year with a .22 caliber "assault weapon" they are after all the criminals favorite type of weapon. If I am not mistaken they rank right up there with the .30-30 that are also known as "cop killers" according to animal planet. :sarcasm:

Oh the horror :sarcasm:

[benEzra]

11. They're following in New Jersey's footsteps.

Bringing a preban Marlin Model 60 .22LR squirrel rifle into the state of New Jersey will get you 5 years in the state pen.

[spin]

13. What happens if you are caught illegally carrying a firearm...

in New Jersey? Can you plea bargain and reduce the sentence?

And what characteristic caused the Marlin Model 60 to be banned?

[benEzra]

14. Capacity. The magazine tube held 17 rounds...

making it an evil military-only weapon of war designed to kill as many people as possible without reloading.

:sarcasm:



The case:

http://www.precydent.com/citation/NJ%20App/a339-95

Postban Model 60's with reduced-capacity magazine tubes are NJ-legal, though. For now, anyway...

[spin]

15. Sure doesn't look like an "assault weapon"...

I wonder how many lives were saved by the ruling.

[benEzra]

16. No lives saved; just one life ruined.

The owner, who had a squeaky clean record, got a felony conviction, a five-year sentence, lost his job/livelihood/savings, and had his civil rights revoked for life.

[Statistical]

17. Now that is progressive. n/t

[spin]

18. I wonder what type of sentence a person gets...

if when arrested, he is found to be illegally carrying a handgun.

Let's go further and assume he has a long felony record.

If it's less than the five-year sentence that individual that you mentioned got, something is seriously wrong with our justice system.

edited because I can.

[Statistical]

25. Felony possession of a firearm is max of 5years (federal law).

[DonP]

36. I have four of those in my safe room ... now.

I had 5 Model 60's, 4 of them held 17 rounds the newer ones hold 15, but every time I take my kids shooting it seems one of the rifles wanders off with one of them.

I love 'em. I've bought them used for as little as $25, and had Marlin totally re-work the action for another $25. Great service.

They are far more accurate than they have any right to be. They just don't have all the "doo-dads" that you can get for a 10/22. But for a cheap plinker I guess I can live without a Camo stock, bayonet lug and flash arrestor.

I believe that Cook County and Chicago also considers them AWs as well based on magazine capacity.

[spin]

20. How about gun trafficking in New Jersey...

Gun trafficking kills in New Jersey. It kills cops.

It's a federal issue. For years, gun control advocates like Miller have complained about the failure of federal authorities here to prosecute gun trafficking that results in the kind of shooting sprees erupting in Newark and Jersey City.

"The effort has been weak," he says.
Mel Evans/APGov. Jon Corzine with Attorney General Anne Milgram today at a news conference on illegal guns used in crimes in the state.

It's fine to send politicians to jail, but federal prosecutors also should go after people who sell guns on the street to those who randomly shoot passers-by. A few years ago, a Newark teacher who ran a gun-selling ring got only three years after pleading guilty; his wife, an Irvington cop aware of the operation, got a suspended sentence.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2009/07/honor_fallen_officer_marc_dina.html

You can pass all the laws you want, but the key is enforcement of those laws.

[Israfel4]

22. I once heard that when you "rack" your pump action shotgun.......

Your dog will explode just from hearing the sound it makes!!!! :rofl:

[Euromutt]

23. No, don't go there...

You might unleash another one of those interminable back-and-forths on the merits (or lack thereof) of letting an intruder hear you pump the slide. I'm not invested one way or the other; I don't think it's guaranteed to scare anyone off, but I buy the whole "you're going to give away your position" guff either. Yeah, the intruder now knows I'm at the other end of a cocked shotgun with a round chambered.

One of the most gratuitous comments on this had to be on the Box o' Truth (http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot3_2.htm):

Lessons learned:
<...>
4. I "racked" the shotgun several times during the tests, and no bystanders lost control of their bowels.
Conclusion: Racking a shotgun will not make the bad guy faint.

Uh yeah, nobody's going to be concerned about a shotgun being cycled then they know they're not at risk of being on the receiving end of what comes out of the muzzle. Try pointing it at a random stranger and "racking" it, and see what the results are then. (NOTE: This is not a serious recommendation; I'm just sketching a hypothetical test protocol that would more closely approach reality.)

[spin]

24. The sound of racking a shotgun travels a long way...

One night the burglar alarm was blaring in the auto parts store across the street from our home. We called the alarm in and sat outside to watch the response. The first police car pulled up to the side of the building. The officer jumped out and grabbed his shotgun.

I have poor hearing from many years of shooting and working in a noisy environment and I was 20 to 25 yards away from the officer. But I heard the sound of the shotgun being cycled plainly even though the burglar alarm was blaring.

[GreenStormCloud]

26. About 40 years ago, I heard a young deputy sheriff tell this story.

One night, he had responded to a silent alarm, to a country store. The burglar took off running across a field behind the store. The began chasing him and racked the shotgun as he ran. (The reason for that was to be ready in case the burglar suddenly turned to fight and produced a gun.) The burglar heard the rack and immediately stopped and surrendered.

[jeepnstein]

27. It doesn't work that way.

When you learn to use a shotgun as a fighting weapon, you cycle it as you are getting ready to fire. As in you pump it while raising it to your shoulder or the tucked position. Making like it's some kind of lethal maraca that will tame the savage beast is simply foolish.

[spin]

28. I'm considering buying a double barreled shotgun...

for home defense. Probably a coach gun. I like the simplicity, but the fact that it holds only two rounds is a disadvantage. A double barrel is easy to reload.

[benEzra]

29. A pump is even easier to reload...

and you don't have to open the action to do it. You can shoot 2, reload 2 with a shell still in the chamber.

[spin]

30. A good point...

I developed this sudden interest in a coach gun after watching the western movie Appaloosa where one of the main characters carries an 8 gauge shotgun.





The simplicity of a double barrel shotgun appeals to me.

BTW I would have no desire to fix a 8 gauge shotgun even if one were available. A 12 gauge would work fine for me.

[benEzra]

31. Coach guns are neat, and as compact and portable as any NFA Title 1 long gun can be.

For me personally, I'd prefer a magazine-fed gun, though; a 2-round capacity sort of requires that everything go your way. I can't find the cite, but I recall Massad Ayoob mentioning some years ago that a major police department (NYPD?) used to use 12-gauge side-by-sides, and that their hit percentage with shotguns was under 50%. The inference he drew was that yes, shotguns are extremely lethal with a well-aimed shot, but even if you assume 100% incapacitation, if you limit yourself to a 2-round capacity and find yourself attacked by two people instead of one, you can't even miss once. And once you've fired two shells, you are temporarily disarmed until you can load more ammunition, nor can you top off the magazine without disabling the gun to do so.

Having said that, the "cool factor" of a coach gun is hard to beat... :)

[spin]

32. The best solution is to buy a coach gun and a pump shotgun. (n/t)

[benEzra]

33. That'll work! (n/t)

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

37. google "Serbu Shorty" (n/t)