On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed Bill 4-21 to place unnecessary restrictions on Maryland’s centuries-old practice of home-building firearms for personal use.
Bill 4-21 prohibits individuals from possessing, manufacturing, or assembling home-built firearms in the presence of minors. Current county ordinances and state law already prohibit transferring firearms and ammunition to minors. Though the county does not prohibit a parent from teaching gun safety and marksmanship to their child, this ordinance singles out hobbyists who like to design and build their own firearms. It restricts them from sharing this pursuit by prohibiting a parent and child from building a project together and prohibiting a parent from taking their child to the range to shoot a home-built firearm under supervision, even though they can legally go to the range together with a factory mass-produced firearm.
It also prohibits manufacturing, possessing, or transporting home-built firearms or computer code for the creation of a firearm by 3D printing within 100 yards of places of public assembly, which includes public parks and schools. There is no exemption for possessing a home-built firearm in a private residence within that zone. Citizens may violate this ordinance by merely having such digital files on their phone or laptop while going through this zone when driving on public roads. There is no similar prohibition on computer files for manufacturing firearms by lathes and milling machines.
This is not at all surprising coming from Montgomery County. Lawmakers from Montgomery County have been behind the assaults on the Second Amendment in Annapolis and they continue to push for more and more restrictions on law-abiding citizens, while doing nothing to hold criminals accountable for their actions. The General Assembly is still in session, so please stay tuned to www.nraila.org and your email inbox for further updates.
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