BALTIMORE — After hours of debate Monday that saw tensions rise on the House of Delegates floor during the final day of the General Assembly session, delegates approved a bill to restrict where guns can be carried in public in Maryland.
The Senate was poised to give the bill final approval before midnight and send it to Gov. Wes Moore. The Democratic governor didn’t commit to signing the legislation during a conversation Monday afternoon with reporters, but said the General Assembly was passing “common-sense gun policies and ways of showing that Maryland is going to lead” on the issue.
The Senate, meanwhile, acted on scores of bills with little debate. That included final approval of Senate Bill 781 to facilitate more offshore wind energy projects in the coming years. Senators also worked on part of the budget (House Bill 201) that would authorize $1.2 billion in capital projects, such as improvements to universities, libraries and other public or private developments.
In the House, Republicans slowed the action on the gun control bill (Senate Bill 1) to a crawl at one point. Following several days of discourse on the bill, there was little patience in the chamber for the two-hour debate.
“Before I call on the next person, I just want to clarify that the last three days, we’ve had three hours of debate,” House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, said sternly. “Three hours.”
The legislation, sponsored by Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Jeff Waldstreicher, a Democrat from Montgomery County, seeks to ban people licensed by the Maryland State Police to carry firearms in public from bringing them to certain locations. Those include polling places, schools, certain health care facilities and places where people consume alcohol or cannabis, including bars and restaurants.
The bill would provide exceptions for some people to carry handguns without a license, including law enforcement and correctional officers, security guards and members of the armed forces who are on duty or traveling to and from duty.
Democrats in the legislature have worked furiously to pass the legislation because Maryland’s concealed-carry policy was struck down in June by a related U.S. Supreme Court case. The previous law required applicants to give state police a reason for their desire to carry a firearm.
Echoing arguments made since the bill’s introduction in January, members of the House minority party said that if the bill became law, it would put more Marylanders in danger and likely wouldn’t stand up to challenges in state court.
“This only regulates the people who are the good guys,” said Del. Matt Morgan of St. Mary’s County. “A firearm levels the playing field for those who are weaker, smaller, against a stronger attacker.”
Republicans including Morgan, Baltimore County Del. Kathy Szeliga and Del. April Fleming Miller of Frederick County lobbed amendments at the bill, attempting to remove a provision banning guns at bars and restaurants and add provisions to allow victims of domestic violence to carry firearms in certain circumstances and to require property owners to post signs indicating guns are not permitted on the premises. Del. Nino Mangione, also from Baltimore County, offered an amendment that would have required state police to compile a report about crimes committed by people with concealed-carry permits.
To Republicans’ chagrin, each of their attempts to alter the bill failed.
“As someone who has a carry permit, I can tell you it’s the last thing I ever want to do is have to use that firearm. But I will be damn glad to do it to protect my life, my children’s lives and most of yours,” Anne Arundel County Del. Nic Kipke told his colleagues. “Bills like this make Marylanders less safe.”
Though Republicans had more amendments to offer, Jones accepted a motion from Del. Aaron Kaufman, a freshman Montgomery County Democrat, to force a final vote on the bill, stopping debate on the bill short.
Republicans declared the limitation inappropriate and unfair.
“We’re at the 11th hour, we have amendments that we’ve worked very hard to offer — that we feel warrant debate and warrant a vote — but we’re being silenced unfairly,” Cecil County Del. Kevin Hornberger argued.
Amid the slew of Republicans who stood to explain their votes against the bill, Democratic Del. Caylin Young, a freshman from Baltimore City, rose to talk about his vote in favor.
“I don’t vote ‘Yes’ because I like this bill,” Young told his fellow lawmakers. “I vote ‘Yes’ because I expect it to be struck down.”
Young, who represents a portion of Northeast Baltimore, said his district has been the scene of recent shootings, including one right behind his home that resulted in four fatalities. He said that his constituents often walk by people with illegal ghost guns.
Though he believed the bill needed to pass in some form, Young believed some of its measures would be overly restrictive for what he called “law-abiding” citizens.
“Help me understand how those individuals who live in a war zone are going to feel safer,” he said. “When we talk about gun violence, we’re talking about my district. I know it’s a lot of talk and we hear it on the news, but it’s the streets for me.”
The bill ultimately passed out of the House chamber on a vote of 93-42. The Senate was poised to give the bill final approval before midnight.
The governor said officials have a responsibility to use every tool at their disposal to tackle gun violence.
“We have to be able to address the fact that it is far too easy for people to get access to these destructive weapons,” Moore said.
As of Monday evening, the General Assembly’s final day developed without much drama beyond the extended, hourslong gun debate in the House. Most of this session’s landmark bills — setting up a referendum on protecting abortion rights; providing gender-affirming care for transgender individuals; raising the minimum wage to $15 earlier than scheduled; giving legal remedies to victims of child sexual abuse — were settled days or even weeks earlier.
A framework to create and regulate a recreational cannabis industry, another major and complicated issue this year, mostly wrapped up Saturday, with just a few formal votes needed Monday.
The cannabis industry bills, if signed by Moore, would kick-start an industry that Maryland voters approved with broad support during a ballot referendum last year. It would allow for some recreational cannabis businesses to get up and running by July 1, the date that possession of up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis will be legal.
The Child Victims Act, which would allow more survivors of child sexual abuse to sue those who abused them, also crossed the legislative finish line last week, on the same day the attorney general released a sweeping report on the history of 80 years of abuse in Baltimore’s Catholic archdiocese.
Moore has said he’s eager to sign that bill as well as the Trans Health Equity Act, which would require Maryland Medicaid to cover gender-affirming procedures for transgender patients.
Those are among the first bills Moore, a first-year governor, is expected to sign Tuesday. A bill-signing ceremony is scheduled for noon; others will be scheduled over the coming weeks.
In between meetings and a scheduled break to play chess with his 11-year-old daughter, Mia, the governor said he was pleased with what he determined was a successful session.
“We’re really excited about where we are,” Moore said.
