By Rob Morse

Maryland’s Attorney General Brian Frosh filed a recent amicus brief with the US Supreme Court justifying the state’s ban of modern sporting rifles because those weapons have sometimes been used to commit mass murder. The ban is being challenged in Bianch v. Frosh a case seeking cert by the high court.

As the Mountain States Legal Foundation describes the case . . .

Maryland outlaws many common semiautomatic rifles, on the premise that these are “assault weapons” ordinary citizens should not own. Many of the features banned by Maryland increase the rifles’ usefulness and safety in emergency situations. These arms are legal in 44 states, where they are among the nation’s most popular models. 

“Assault weapon” is a politicized catchphrase with no fixed meaning, invoked by politicians and anti-gun activists to frighten the public and criminalize constitutionally protected arms.  Even courts have bought into this fiction—falsely claiming that the arms in question are essentially military weapons, and can be banned for ordinary citizens based on a gross misreading of Supreme Court precedent.

In his argument, Frosh mentioned violent attacks that happened outside of Maryland. For some reason the Attorney General failed to mention the far larger number number of cases in which honest citizens used a rifle for justified self-defense. If this is an omission, it’s an oversight the size of the Grand Canyon.

The AG’s brief goes back a decade to chronicle 150 deaths that were attributed to a mass murderer who used an “assault weapon” at some time during his attack. What isn’t clear is why the Attorney General stopped there.

Why didn’t the AG also mention that rifles like these are in common use and are routinely used for armed self-defense? I am not saying that black rifles could be used for armed defense. I’m saying that they were used, are used, and will be used for armed defense every day.

You’d think the Supreme Court Justices would like to know that. I suspect they would also like to know why the Maryland Attorney General chose to exclude those facts.

How disingenuous was the Attorney General’s argument? We know more than 20 million people report owning a modern rifle in the US. We know that ordinary US citizens use firearms for armed defense about 1.7 million times each year. We know they use a rifle in those defensive encounters about 13 percent of the time.

I don’t know how many of those rifles we used in armed defense situations were the scary models that the Attorney General wants to keep Marylanders from buying. I don’t know if each one of those self-defensive encounters would have resulted in death since bad guys almost always run away when they sees that grandma is armed.

Those subtleties are interesting but they are overwhelmed by other facts. Firearms in the United States are used hundreds of thousands (millions?) of times more often for self-defense than they are to commit mass murder.

It is hard to know precisely which type of firearm is likely to be used in a crime because the firearm isn’t recovered in every case. In this case, the evidence is overwhelming. Rifles represent a fraction of the guns owned by honest citizens, but they’re still used ten times more often in armed defense situations than any firearm is used in any murder.

Let’s put what we know into perspective. Each day, honest citizens in the US use a rifle to prevent death or great bodily injury. Armed citizens save many more lives with rifles each day than are lost to mass murderers each year.

Should we do what we can to reduce mass murder? Of course we should. So why haven’t we? In particular, why hasn’t the Maryland legislature fully funded state-sponsored treatment of the mentally ill?

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh used to be a Maryland State Senator. Perhaps the voters will ask him.

 

This article originally appeared at Slow Facts and is reprinted here with permission. 

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68 COMMENTS

    • Common Sense Gun Control amounts to Common Sense Racism, Common Sense Genocide, etc. After all history has confirmed Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is an agenda rooted in racism and genocide. There is no way to put lipstick on the Gun Control Pig. It is what it is.

    • And aspiring for further political office. Just like any other politician. The grand vision always beats reality.

    • He’s a fuh king lawyer; of course he’s dishonest… They all are; every fuh king one of them

  3. We never refer to the gun itself as the mass murderer. We don’t call these rifles weapons of mass destruction like bombs or rockets or missiles. So, to prevent mass murder we should ban fast food, automobiles, airplanes, many commonly prescribed medications, COVID and pandemics in general, Chinese made products, earthquakes, forest fires, alcoholic drinks, smoking and tobacco products – the list goes on. Fact is, the 2nd Amendment gives American citizens the right to own and bear arms – period.

    • “What happens in Maryland, better stay in Maryland.”

      Don’t sweat it, see the video just below.

      It looks like Leftist Scum heads will start exploding like popcorn in the very near future, thanks to Merrick Garland and the ‘NY Pistol’ SCotUS decision that may be authored by Justice Amy Coney-Barrett or Saint Clarence Thomas… 🙂

      • Oh, and it’s just announced, Elon Musk has bought Twitter.

        Let more Leftist Scum heads explode in pointless frustration…

        “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Mr. Musk. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

        https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1518677066325053441?cxt=HHwWgsCyrduvtpMqAAAA

    • Maryland is wrong even if everything stays in Maryland. Read a story couple years ago, Maryland state trooper ran the plates on an out of state car. It came back to a person who also had a registered weapon. Cop pulls the car over for no other apparent reason, than to search for that out of state weapon. The weapon was not found, cops wouldn’t accept the driver’s explanation that he left his weapon at home BECAUSE he was traveling through a communist state. I don’t remember how the story ended, but out-of-state boy lost a couple days, being hosted in Maryland jail houses. All around stupid.

      • That is why the state of Georgia does not maintain a database of Weapons Carry Licensees, what they don’t keep can not be handed out to slave states like MD, NY, CA, Et Al. I tend to trust the local cops and the GSP, not so much other states, and then there are the Stasi who work for places like MD and CT.

        • Remarkably NY does not have a centralized pistol permit database either. Every county (not sure on NYC) has their own permitting office that may or may not share information with the state. In theory the state police would not know if someone has a permit when pulled over and no duty to inform. The more I learn the less sense this state makes.

        • SAFEupstateFML I beg to differ. The State Police have the records of all issued pistol permits in the State of NY. Each county has to give the pistol permit info to the SP’s . The individual officer or trooper does not have access through NYSPIN but there is a central location where the information is kept.

        • I *really* hope the ‘NY Pistol’ decision (if it goes our way) deals with that kind of crap, interstate travel by non-prohibited persons.

          If the right to carry exists outside the home, it had better exist in all 50 fvcking states (and Guam and Puerto Rico).

          Mark, did you see the YouTube ‘Armed Scholar’ video where he believes Coney-Barrett or Thomas will be the decision’s author? Any thoughts?

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNPTimzLSF4

      • Long ago I decided to never drive my car in any of the communist controlled states for just this reason. Cops running out of state license, find gun permit then stop and search.

        This example demonstrates what LEOs in those states think of 2A.

        I have friends in some of those states and they know what I think.
        They can come visit me or we can meet in some other free state.

  5. A few days back, in that unmitigated disaster of an over 300 page ATF ‘ruling’ about frames and receivers, someone found a bit of good news.

    It seems that Merrick Garland and the BATF (and really big fires) has *admitted* that a magazine-fed semi-automatic firearm ‘ban’ will most likely be found to be un-constitutional by the high court.

    The ‘money shot’ starts at 2:00 in –

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CveXGWNHu0

    • There’s an NFA tender tid-bit in that video, at about 18:00 in –

      It looks like concerning suppressors, the BATF is ruling that only the main ‘tube’ of a typical suppressor will be considered the registered part. To me, this is important, because as things are now, the BATF considers possession of *any* part of a can to require registration and a tax stamp.

      This potentially has *massive* implications for 2 types of suppressors, the ‘oil filter’ variety like the 75-dollar ‘Econo-Can’ by Cadiz Gun Works, and rubber-baffle ‘wipe’ suppressors like the legendary .22lr “Pill Bottle” originally developed by Gemtech several decades ago (GSL is making them now, and I have one in NFA ‘jail’).

      For the Cadiz ‘Oil Filter’ suppressor, the filter gets ‘shot out’ after a few dozen shots, and gets progressively less effective the more times it’s exposed to a muzzle blast.

      For the Gemtech ‘Pill Bottle’, the first shot is the quietest, and follow-up shots get increasingly louder.

      As it is now, for 20 dollars, Cadiz will stamp a replacement filter and ship it back to you. GSL (the company manufacturing the ‘Pill Bottle’ can today) will replace the rubber ‘wipe’ for a fee and return it to you (or any other 07 FFL, as I understand it).

      This is potentially very good news for those type of ‘consumable’ suppressors, if the end user (stamp holder) is allowed to self-service their legally-registered suppressors. Imagine the experimentation that can take place! 🙂

      Can anyone who actually knows comment on this?

  6. With the crime rate being what it is in Baltimore – which, if I remember my basic geography, is located in the state of Maryland – you’d think the state AG would have other things to do rather than waste the tax payer’s money, his, and the Court’s time with frivolous lawsuits based on the color and shape of a semi-automatic rifle…but hey, what do I know? Not having a law degree or an elected position I obviously cannot understand his deep-level of thought and concern…though maybe I can achieve it…after, say, ramming my head into a brick wall a few dozen times!

  7. quote——————Should we do what we can to reduce mass murder? Of course we should. So why haven’t we? In particular, why hasn’t the Maryland legislature fully funded state-sponsored treatment of the mentally ill?———–quote

    The answer to that question is that in most states the REPUBLICANS block such social programs because they will not spend the money. The more money the spend on social programs means they have less money to steal from the peoples paid taxes.

    In other States that are poor the money is just not there which is exactly why we need A FEDERAL PROGRAM that pays for Health Care which again HAS ALWAYS BEEN BLOCKED BY REPUBLICANS who are paid millions by the drug and Insurance Companies to block any legislation that helps the people and prevents the rip off of the public for health care expenses.

    The nefarious Republics know that its far cheaper just to ban guns then pay far civilized social programs, even though they pretend to support gun ownership.

    The high capacity assault rifle should be heavily regulated and put on the NFA list. This would prevent second hand sales to criminals and psychopaths. The NFA has worked well with machine guns and with silencers and would also work well with assault rifles. History has already proven it beyond all doubt.

        • Wrong again, dumbass. Young people are turning from the national socialists. I’ve used some of your fascist comments to help turn them from the dark side.

          All those comments you make about people being too immature to have good judgement until they’re 25. Makes the young crowd a little spicy towards you.

          And midterms are coming in november. Whether you wish to believe it or not your side has hit its high water mark. From here on out it is downhill for you guys.

          Thanks for playing, though. I honestly don’t think we could have won without you.

        • Jethro your nonsensical diatribe fantasies does not change the facts. We socialists drove the inept Freedom Convoy out of the bay area, that is fact.

        • You act like I’m invested in the freedom convoy. And what’s this ‘we’ stuff? You were no where near any of this.

          You national socialists with your ss/antifa storm troopers manage to do nothing but sell another million guns and ensure the gop will be in charge come november.

          ‘We’. Talk about stolen valor.

        • You may have won over the “Rebels without a clue” crowd but many youth know what is going on and simply go with the flow doing the least to avoid being targeted as an outsider. My son spotted the “Progessive” anti white Male agenda when he was 11. He has also picked up on the political slant in the media. You may think you have won over the youth. In reality they are waiting for when they can speak out without the wrath of the groupthink.

        • Dacian- “You socialists” are facing a grand come-uppance. I hope I am around to help deliver it.

        • “We socialists” Antifistas may be run out of the country, let alone the Bay Area. Hope I am there to help.

    • Well maybe if the democrats demand a 100% take over of healthcare by the government then maybe they could get some motion on that. Of course none of you leftoid FREAKS don’t even understand that the reason American healthcare is so bad. Which is because the government use their regulator powers to give the medical insurance industry free range to just set all the prices as high as they want them. And it’s the DEMOCRATS that built this system, not the GOP.

    • Deport progs – what we can do to improve all aspects of American life.

      Perhaps to Haiti or the fictional enclave of “Palestine”.

  8. If it wasnt an MSR it would be something else. Some of these politicos just hate guns period and think only the military and LE should have them. What would be interesting to know if the AG was this rabid anti gun before he got elected to senate or after losing that position (I assume) and running for AG and if he was then they, the people of MD got the AG they deserve.

    • Frosh helped usher in the Maryland Firearms “Safety” Act of 2013. I believe he chaired the MD Senate Judiciary Committee. It was not until this bill was made into law (doing nothing to actually address crime, I just KNEW it wouldn’t pass) that I started paying attention to gun laws or even guns in general. Only after the FSA 2013 passed did I buy my first gun. I suppose I should thank Brian for opening my eyes.

      It is unfortunate that Baltimorgue, Murderland homicides have doubled since 2013. Their answer of course is more gun control.

      That’s the long way of saying Frosh was a gun-grabber even back in the day.

  9. Ignorant, dishonest, and I’d add malicious given his obvious disregard of a citizens right to self defense.

  10. The TL;DR answer to this question is ‘dishonest’. They know EXACTLY what they’re doing. Using dishonest claims and tactics to keep the 2A as a privilege and now the enumerated right that it is.

    Most gun laws in the US are hinged off of two courts. The 2nd and the 9th. The full 9th, as we all know, is stacked enough with partisans that they just make up whatever BS they want. The 2nd has a different tact, even if it’s usually the same result. The 2nd court, historically speaking, just refused to hear any gun cases what-so-over. They just let whatever the lower courts decided stand as is and they’re all stacked with deep blue partisans.

  12. Yes the Maryland attorney general is a dishonest man. He should work on banning Vehicles powered with internal combustion engines. Which was the stated goal of Vice President Al Gore (D) many years ago. Since they kill more people in Firearms do.

    1. Nice attack: At least 84 killed by lorry at Bastille Day celebrations

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36800730

    2. Low-Tech Terrorism: The Threat of Vehicles and Vehicle-Assisted Attacks

    https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/low-tech-terrorism-threat-vehicles-vehicle-assisted-attacks/

  14. The part that so often gets overlooked (possibly on purpose) is that if AR15’s were ‘military only’ firearms then people could not go to their local gun store to buy one. Not to mention that they would come with a much higher price tag.

    • The AR15 isn’t a military firearm and never has been. You apparently, perhaps knowingly, conflate the AR15 with the military M16/M4 series of rifles. They are the same only in looks.

  16. He is neither. He is advocate for the state arguing and presenting the “evidence” upon which the State relied in enacting the ban in the first place. His personal opinion or knowledge is irrelevant; he is bound to uphold the law. He does not have the independent authority to argue against the ban. The people to blame are the politicians in the State Legislature.

    If you want to see deceit and dishonesty, look instead to the California DOJ which is using its regulatory power to make it as difficult as possible to own various configurations of ARs and AK, particularly those configurations that the State has deemed “assault weapons.” The system to register these arms was set up to fail, and required the submission of far more information than is necessary, and having that information, including specifically posed photos, submitted solely through the internet. It was so bad that Court ordered it to reopen registration. IN fact, it can be argued that it was made intentionally difficult to assure that those wishing to register instead of modify to comply with the law would fail, and their arms banned.

  17. “Is Maryland’s AG Ignorant or Dishonest on ‘Assault Weapons’?
    ———————

    I see no reason to limit the question whether he is ignorant, or is he dishonest. A person can be both things. It is very common among all politicians of all political persuasions to be both ignorant and dishonest at the same time.

  20. The State of Maryland has a Defense Force in addition to their National Guard. I highly doubt that Maryland has a stockpile of M16 or M4 for them.

    Every state Guardsman I know has an AR15 pattern rifle and a 9mm or .45 cal sidearm, including the JAGs, Surgeons and Chaplains.

    I doubt Maryland’s Guardsmen are different.

  21. “Is Maryland’s AG Ignorant or Dishonest on ‘Assault Weapons’?”

    The AG is simply being a lawyer; fashioning an argument to fit his desired outcome. It would be quite the thing for him to argue against his interests.

  25. It’s a legal tactic so of course it is disingenuous.

    They are arguing within the framework of the 2nd Amendment being a second class right; namely, one that does not bring ‘strict scrutiny’ when he government infringes upon it.

    Until that is changed, he’s making a legally valid argument.

  26. Oh my, the military uses them, and if the military uses them that means the citizens cant.
    The Right to Bear Arms, Shall Be Infringed

  28. I’ll take E.

    “Ignorant, stupid, arrogant, dishonest and probably a furry but certainly a fan of John Bolton”.

  29. As far as I can determine, the second amendment specifically protects the right to own military weapons.

  30. Both, but also bear in mind he’s making a claim that’s meant to immediately tie in all sorts of other not-yet-banned firearms…

  31. “You Make the Call: Is Maryland’s AG Ignorant or Dishonest on ‘Assault Weapons’?”

    As others above have pointed out, it isn’t “either/or”. Embrace the healing power of “and”. Like our own resident idiots, dacian the stupid and MajorStupidity, he can be BOTH ignorant and a liar. As most politicians, PARTICULARLY Dimocrat Leftist/fascists, are.

  34. Using the Maryland Attorney General’s “logic”, maybe we should ban knives, hammers, screwdrivers, etc.

    • Ladders, swimming pools, automobiles, over-the-counter medications (hey, you can OD on vitamins or NSAIDs). Ban everything!!!!!

      But, first, can we ban dacian the demented dips***, and MajorStupidity??? It hasn’t killed me, yet, but every time they start blathering, my stupid bulls*** detector goes off the scale. MajorStupidity USED to at least be semi-articulate; now he’s just demented. dacian, of course, has always been demented, but does seem to be getting worse.

  35. This forum has gone to the socialist dogs. No longer an honest gun forum- hijacked by liberal censors. Maybe Elon will buy it and institute freedom of speech.

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