Arundel councilman fights to roll back gun sale reporting

[jpak]

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-06-16/news/bs-md-ar-gun-sales-20110610_1_gun-dealers-gun-sale-strictest-gun-control-laws

He owns a .40-caliber pistol, is a member of the National Rifle Association and the rural district he represents as a member of the Anne Arundel County Council is home to scores of hunters.

With all that in mind, Councilman Jerry Walker is adamant about amending a recently passed county law in order to exempt licensed secondhand firearms dealers from having to report their acquisitions to Anne Arundel police.

The county requirement is duplicative, said Walker, because state law requires gun dealers across Maryland to document all transactions — though the state police are only required to audit the information every three years. The county law, similar to other nearby jurisdictions', including Baltimore's, requires local law enforcement to examine the information on a daily basis.

"They're being singled out," Walker, a Republican edit: Cling-on who represents South County, said of the secondhand stores. "I'm pro-Second Amendment. I'm concerned about big government having data they don't need. And the impact it's going to have on small business."

<more>

[WCGreen]

1. Drivers are being signaled out to.....

Why should I have to have to a license to drive a car...

[onehandle]

2. Here in Georgia a Republican is trying to do away with Driver's Licenses all together.

He's an NRA favorite and claims to be "the most conservative member of the Georgia General Assembly."

Papers are for 'brown people.'

[PavePusher]

4. Huh? Does his proposal apply only to whites? n/t

[gejohnston]

5. meme of the week since

rednecks for Al Qaida did not pan out so well.

[gejohnston]

3. kind of redundent

because all of those have to be recorded for the feds. If I sell a gun to a pawn shop, the feds know it and the locals can just go ask. In Florida, if you buy or sell anything at a pawn shop, you are finger printed.

[petronius]

6. I can't really tell from the article, but it sounds like the law covers all second-hand items,

not just fire-arms. As I read it, they're extending pawn shop regulations to all stores that deal in used goods.

I can see the logic of excluding gun stores if the state- and federally-mandated material completely duplicates what the county asks for, but I can also see the logic of giving police a single, consistent database to search for stolen items. I'd have to know how onerous the reporting process is to weigh those points.

At the same time, and I never really thought of this before - the vast majority of those transactions will be legal and honest. As laudable as it is to want to return stolen goods, it's a bit intrusive-sounding that every private commercial transaction of this sort has to undergo official scrutiny.

I wonder if there would be a way to reverse the flow: have police keep a stolen-property registry, and open just the description section to merchants to run queries on items they purchase...