Glendening Vetoes Gun-Safety Education Bill
Bob Culver of MCSM Responds
By SHEILA HOTCHKIN
Associated Press
BALTIMORE - Gov. Parris N. Glendening vetoed a bill yesterday that would
have made Maryland the first state to require public schools to
teach gun safety to students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The governor said he would have signed the bill into law if the General
Assembly had not added provisions allowing educators to take middle-
and high-school students to gun ranges and to work with organizations
such as the National Rifle Association to develop the courses.
``I support efforts to create responsible gun-safety programs in our
schools,'' Glendening (D) said. ``However, this bill would create a clear
appearance of the state encouraging young people to handle weapons and
potentially furthering their interest in a time when we are trying to
fight the scourge of gun violence.''
Allowing a community or civic organization to work in conjunction with the
school board on the program raises ``the specter of the National
Rifle Association taking busloads of 13-year-old boys and girls off to a firing
range for a day of shooting,'' the governor added.
The NRA did not immediately return several calls seeking comment.
State Sen. Barbara Hoffman, who drafted a similar measure earlier in the
session, said she thought the governor ``had a gut reaction to the
shooting ranges, which I don't think he thought through.''
``I'm sorry that he vetoed the bill because this is an epidemic,'' said
Hoffman, D-Baltimore, who plans to try again next year. ``It's a public health
crisis and it's another year lost.''
The bill, approved by a wide margin in the General Assembly, had the
support of an eclectic group that crossed political and ideological lines.
Many teachers, however, had called the governor's office to question the
measure's cost and the shooting range provision. Educators have been
among the strongest political supporters of Glendening, a former college
professor.
The bill was almost derailed in the session's final month when Marylanders
Against Handgun Abuse and the NRA could not agree on the
content of the courses.
Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse said that the NRA was trying to
dictate curriculum, while the NRA said the gun-control group wanted to
use the classes to spread an antigun message.
The measure was revived by a compromise brokered by House Speaker
Casper R. Taylor Jr., D-Allegany, that allowed local school systems to
determine their classes' content and draw on courses developed by the
NRA and by national gun-safety groups.
Ginni Wolf, the executive director of Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse,
said her organization will fight next year for a bill closer to the
original.
``The original bill, which the governor did support, was a very good bill,''
Wolf said. ``Unfortunately, there were compromises made throughout
the session this year, and we were just hoping to get some kind of gun-
safety education in the schools.''
The measure was among 18 vetoed by Glendening yesterday. The governor
also killed a bill that would have allowed those enrolled in
health-maintenance organizations to designate nurse practitioners as their
primary-care providers.
MedChi, the Maryland state medical society, had lobbied against the bill.
``Simply put, we do not believe the training of nurse practitioners is an
adequate substitute for that of a primary care physician,'' said Albert L.
Blumberg, MedChi's president.
Glendening also vetoed a bill that would have changed the home builders
code, saying he supported the measure, but objected to a provision that
would have exempted custom home builders from hazardous waste
disclosure requirements.
This Information Is From The Associated Press
Bob Culver of MCSM Responds
Letter To The Editor Of Montgomery County Journal
Be Careful of What You Wish For
For much of the later part of 2000 and early
this year the various political powers that be in
Maryland have been planning and negotiating
legislation for the general assembly to encourage;
no, to require, firearm safety education in Maryland
Schools. The purpose? Why of course, to teach
firearm safety to children and thereby to lower the
incidence of accidental injury.
Several programs were proposed, including
the well known Eddie Eagle program, now over ten
years old and already used in some Maryland
Counties. Alternatives also included "STAR" and
"In a Flash", two less well known generalized "risk is
bad" behavior modification approaches.
A lot of work and political capitol was
expended to finally hammer out a compromise in bi-
partisan legislation which required the county school
boards to begin a firearm safety education
program. The county schools could choose from
one or several or parts of the programs.
Essentially, the counties had so much latitude, they
may have well have had autonomy on how to teach
the subject; they just had to teach it. The legislation
was brought to a vote and passed quite handily in
the past legislative session.
Now, however, Governor Glendening is
having second thoughts on what he formerly wished
for. Not just thoughts, he has delivered the
gubernatorial equivalent of the death penalty, THE
VETO.
I guess safety education for children is not
really that important. I guess the anticipated "cost"
is too high for some school boards. I can state with
some certainty that if a county school system
wanted to teach the Eddie Eagle program, it would
be supplied by sponsor individuals and agencies at
almost no cost!
I guess the social cost would have been too
high, children might learn about firearms and hence
develop some type of irresistible urge to use them
unwisely and to commit crimes with them.
I guess the moral cost is too high where
youths, in grades 7 through 12 might participate in
hunter safety training by actually seeing, studying
and shooting firearms, outside of school at
recognized firing ranges, with certified firearm
instructors.
No, who am I kidding! The political risk was
just too high. If the legislation had been allowed to
stand, an issue would have been lost and safety
training may have succeeded in BOTH teaching
safety and in fostering a rational understanding of
firearms. The real cost, which can not be paid by
Maryland politicians, is the possibility that some
schools might NOT create the secretly desired fear-
of-firearms course, the one that teaches safety by
creating a psychotic aversion to firearms might not
appear. Teaching safety by teaching fear and hate
for objects and by extension for firearm owners
might not result. The cost was too high. What if
sanity might prevail and a logical, non-judgmental
multi age / multi faceted training program may
encourage firearm respect, while teaching safety.
I guess the real answer to that first question,
why teach firearm safety to children in school, is that
"children" and "safety" are just puff words, used by
politicians to cloak real intentions in this case.
The true cost, and intent, of Glendening style
firearm safety training "for the children" is now
apparent. Since Maryland will not be teaching
firearm safety, MCSM will. Come and learn at
upcoming gun-shows and the June Gathering. See
the MCSM web site at www.mcsm.org for
information you can live with.
Bob Culver, Secretary MCSM
Montgomery Citizens for a Safer Maryland (MCSM)
is an organization dedicated to personal safety and
all aspects related thereto, including the
unrestricted safe and legal use of firearms.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message
is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
|