Sounds like a heavy barreled AR-16 to me 
Looks like a noble destination for my $5.
Check out the priceless comments by his Lordship, the Governor. Sample: "He doesn't mind hunting rifles so much . . ."
Thank you, m'lord.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51745-2000Aug7.html
Firearm Lobbyists Plan to Raffle Off Rifle
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 8, 2000; Page B01
After losing a bruising battle over trigger locks last session to Gov. Parris N. Glendening, Maryland gun advocates are bracing for a fresh battle next year in the Maryland State House, funded in part by a Christmas Eve raffle featuring a $2,200 semiautomatic rifle described as the
"ultimate varmint gun."
Leaders of the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association hope to raise as much as $10,000 by raffling off the weapon, a custom-made .223-caliber rifle used for shooting groundhogs, prairie dogs and other pests. Last week, raffle tickets went on sale for $5 each.
With the money, the gun association plans to mobilize its 3,500 members, build grass-roots support and send more activists to Annapolis next session to fight gun-control legislation. The group, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, also hopes to push a bill modeled after a program in Virginia known as Project Exile that ranks high on the NRA's national agenda.
J. Edward Kiser Jr., a top official in the gun association, said the group decided to hold its first raffle and renew its lobbying efforts after more than 80 anti-gun bills were introduced in Annapolis last session. Among them was Glendening's Responsible Gun Safety Act, which made Maryland the first state in the nation to require built-in locks for all new handguns, starting in 2003.
Glendening (D) "is trying to eliminate firearms altogether in this state," Kiser said. "We want to send more people to Annapolis to actually keep an eye on what's going on down there."
Gun control activists predicted the effort would have little impact.
"I think people's views about this are pretty set. Especially because we've been focusing on gun safety, and there's hardly anybody that's against gun safety," said state Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman (D-Baltimore), chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget and Taxation.
But Glendening had to fight hard to get the gun safety act through the legislature. In the Senate, his supporters were forced to resort to a rare parliamentary maneuver that blasted the bill out of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where the chairman, Sen. Walter M. Baker (D-Cecil), had vowed to prevent the bill from coming to a vote.
The gun group hopes to raise serious questions about the efficacy of Maryland's enforcement of gun laws, Kiser said. Project Exile in Richmond is a strict program that mandates five-year sentences for a range of gun infractions, including possessing a gun and illegal drugs together. A study conducted by the Richmond Times-Dispatch found that 40 percent of the people prosecuted under the law in the last year were convicted.
During the past three years, homicides have dropped 46 percent, gun crimes 65 percent and overall violent crime 35 percent in Richmond, said Mike Costigan, director of Virginia Exile, an expanded statewide version of the program enacted last year.
Baltimore, by contrast, is still clocking more than 300 homicides a year, one of the highest rates for a large U.S. city, Kiser said. Through early June, the city had recorded 134 slayings, virtually all of them committed with handguns, he said.
Many of those killings were drug-related. Though Maryland law already mandates a five-year term for criminals who use a gun in the commission of a felony, it does not cover simple possession of drugs, which is a misdemeanor.
The gun safety act sets a five-year mandatory term for felons caught with a handgun, as Project Exile does. But Kiser and other gun advocates say the act does not go far enough "to help the gun owners in this state by taking the criminal off the street."
Glendening spokesman Michael Morrill said the governor supports tougher gun legislation such as the Project Exile provision for drug offenses.
"We don't rule out anything that strengthens the law to reduce inappropriate and illegal use of firearms," Morrill said. Unfortunately, such a bill "won't come as part of the governor's package, because to get the gun safety act through he promised not to introduce another gun package next year."
As for the raffle, Morrill said, the governor opposes such events that feature handguns, as a controversial raffle held by the Carroll County Republican Party did this year. He doesn't mind hunting rifles so much, Morrill said.
"On this, however, the governor would be concerned about what they consider a varmint," Morrill said. "If they're out there on Christmas Eve to shoot Santa Claus or the reindeer, then he's not for it."
"Nice guy! That's how smart he is," Kiser responded. "We're not hardly going to do that, if that's what he calls a varmint. This gun is for shooting groundhogs, which farmers really don't like too well."
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
Looks like a noble destination for my $5.
Check out the priceless comments by his Lordship, the Governor. Sample: "He doesn't mind hunting rifles so much . . ."
Thank you, m'lord.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51745-2000Aug7.html
Firearm Lobbyists Plan to Raffle Off Rifle
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 8, 2000; Page B01
After losing a bruising battle over trigger locks last session to Gov. Parris N. Glendening, Maryland gun advocates are bracing for a fresh battle next year in the Maryland State House, funded in part by a Christmas Eve raffle featuring a $2,200 semiautomatic rifle described as the
"ultimate varmint gun."
Leaders of the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association hope to raise as much as $10,000 by raffling off the weapon, a custom-made .223-caliber rifle used for shooting groundhogs, prairie dogs and other pests. Last week, raffle tickets went on sale for $5 each.
With the money, the gun association plans to mobilize its 3,500 members, build grass-roots support and send more activists to Annapolis next session to fight gun-control legislation. The group, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, also hopes to push a bill modeled after a program in Virginia known as Project Exile that ranks high on the NRA's national agenda.
J. Edward Kiser Jr., a top official in the gun association, said the group decided to hold its first raffle and renew its lobbying efforts after more than 80 anti-gun bills were introduced in Annapolis last session. Among them was Glendening's Responsible Gun Safety Act, which made Maryland the first state in the nation to require built-in locks for all new handguns, starting in 2003.
Glendening (D) "is trying to eliminate firearms altogether in this state," Kiser said. "We want to send more people to Annapolis to actually keep an eye on what's going on down there."
Gun control activists predicted the effort would have little impact.
"I think people's views about this are pretty set. Especially because we've been focusing on gun safety, and there's hardly anybody that's against gun safety," said state Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman (D-Baltimore), chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget and Taxation.
But Glendening had to fight hard to get the gun safety act through the legislature. In the Senate, his supporters were forced to resort to a rare parliamentary maneuver that blasted the bill out of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where the chairman, Sen. Walter M. Baker (D-Cecil), had vowed to prevent the bill from coming to a vote.
The gun group hopes to raise serious questions about the efficacy of Maryland's enforcement of gun laws, Kiser said. Project Exile in Richmond is a strict program that mandates five-year sentences for a range of gun infractions, including possessing a gun and illegal drugs together. A study conducted by the Richmond Times-Dispatch found that 40 percent of the people prosecuted under the law in the last year were convicted.
During the past three years, homicides have dropped 46 percent, gun crimes 65 percent and overall violent crime 35 percent in Richmond, said Mike Costigan, director of Virginia Exile, an expanded statewide version of the program enacted last year.
Baltimore, by contrast, is still clocking more than 300 homicides a year, one of the highest rates for a large U.S. city, Kiser said. Through early June, the city had recorded 134 slayings, virtually all of them committed with handguns, he said.
Many of those killings were drug-related. Though Maryland law already mandates a five-year term for criminals who use a gun in the commission of a felony, it does not cover simple possession of drugs, which is a misdemeanor.
The gun safety act sets a five-year mandatory term for felons caught with a handgun, as Project Exile does. But Kiser and other gun advocates say the act does not go far enough "to help the gun owners in this state by taking the criminal off the street."
Glendening spokesman Michael Morrill said the governor supports tougher gun legislation such as the Project Exile provision for drug offenses.
"We don't rule out anything that strengthens the law to reduce inappropriate and illegal use of firearms," Morrill said. Unfortunately, such a bill "won't come as part of the governor's package, because to get the gun safety act through he promised not to introduce another gun package next year."
As for the raffle, Morrill said, the governor opposes such events that feature handguns, as a controversial raffle held by the Carroll County Republican Party did this year. He doesn't mind hunting rifles so much, Morrill said.
"On this, however, the governor would be concerned about what they consider a varmint," Morrill said. "If they're out there on Christmas Eve to shoot Santa Claus or the reindeer, then he's not for it."
"Nice guy! That's how smart he is," Kiser responded. "We're not hardly going to do that, if that's what he calls a varmint. This gun is for shooting groundhogs, which farmers really don't like too well."
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
