The Associated Press
PIKESVILLE, Md. (AP) - Handgun sales in Maryland fell nearly 8 percent during the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to state police figures.
State officials attributed the drop in part to a state law that took effect in October 2000, requiring a ballistic fingerprint for every gun manufactured for sale in the state.
Maj. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said 12,780 handguns were sold in the state between January and June, compared with 13,844 during the same period a year ago.
The decline followed a surge in handgun sales after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. During all of last year, 31,060 handguns were sold in Maryland, Shipley said.
The drop in the first half of this year echoes the drop that occurred after Maryland limited gun sales to one per person per month starting Oct. 1, 1996. Handgun sales plunged nearly 27 percent the first full year that law was in effect, to 21,500 in 1997 compared with 29,281 the year before.
Maryland was the first state to adopt ballistics fingerprinting - New York has since passed similar legislation and other states are considering it. Under the law, every handgun must be test-fired and the shell casing turned over to state police before the weapon can be sold.
Although most suppliers provided the ballistic fingerprints, a few stopped shipping to Maryland vendors rather than incur the costs of meeting the state law. Dealers say the requirement has added about $20 to the average price of a handgun in the state.
Matt Bennett, spokesman for the Washington-based Americans for Gun Safety, said ballistics fingerprinting was an important advance.
“Maryland and New York are really trailblazers in enacting that law,” Bennett said.
Sanford Abrams, owner of Valley Guns in Towson and vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, said gun sales may fall further after Jan. 1, the effective date of a law requiring all guns sold in Maryland to be equipped with built-in locks, or what lawmakers have called “integrated mechanical safety devices.”
Gun retailers say the state has not provided manufacturers a definition for how the integrated locks should function. Without that information, they say, manufacturers cannot incorporate them into the guns’ production.
“There’s going to be a serious lack of gun models available,” Abrams said. “How can we abide by a law they’ve set no parameters for?”
He said that if the law is not clarified before it takes effect, gun sales in the state may be halted completely.
State officials say there is no problem with the new law.
“There are certain letters in the legislative file that make it pretty clear,” said Rob McDonald, of the Maryland attorney general’s office. “They are fairly detailed letters.”