Legislative Alert: "Rapid Fire Trigger Activator" Ban Bills Hearing - Joint Hearing Room (Department of Legislative Services Building, 90 State Circle, Annapolis) 2/28 1:00pm.
These proposed bills would prohibit a person from transporting a certain rapid-fire trigger activator into the State or manufacturing, possessing, selling, offering to sell, transferring, purchasing, or receiving a certain rapid-fire trigger activator. They define "rapid-fire trigger activator" as any device, part, or combination of devices or parts that is designed and functions to accelerate the rate of fire of a firearm beyond the standard rate of fire for firearms that are not so equipped, including a bump stock and trigger crank. This language could be construed by a zealous prosecutor to include a replacement competition trigger for an existing, perfectly legal rifle, as such a modification could conceivably "accelerate the rate of fire" by some small amount over the trigger that came with the gun. And does anyone actually know what is meant by "standard rate of fire?" Note that this is a possession offense and there is no grandfather clause, so the bill would apply to all prior purchases of such "devices" covered by the bill, regardless of when such purchases took place.
MSI encourages our members and all who care about firearms rights to contact the committee members and your legislators to voice opposition to this proposed legislation.
On the day of the hearing, witness sign up will be available until 12:30 p.m. in the House Judiciary Committee (House of Delegates Building Room 101). Written testimony can be submitted between 10:00a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to the Joint Hearing Room on the day of the hearing.
Resources:
- House bill 0888 details
- House Judiciary Committee contact information - Shows who the committee memebers are, and has links to ech individuals information
- Senate Bill 0707 details
- Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee contact information - Shows who the committee memebers are, and has links to ech individuals information
- AGC email tool. - One can use this to easily send emails to all legislative committeee members at once
- How to Testify in Annapolis - Whether one is new to this or not, this has valuable information on giving testimony and is a recommneded read
Other bills will be heard in The Senate that day as well. See the MSI gun bill tracker for details on those.
