Governor Martin O'Malley signed a measure Thursday that gave Maryland some of the strictest gun-control laws in the country, the Washington Post reports. The law will require potential gun owners to submit their fingerprints to the state police before obtaining a license. The National Rifle Association has already announced that they plan to fight the law in court.
The law was proposed by the democratic O'Malley in response to the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. O'Malley emphasized the success similar laws have had in reducing gun deaths in other states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts.
"States with similar licensing provisions have substantially lower gun death rates than states that do not, so if we want better results we have to make better choices, and this legislation is part of that series of the better choices that we are making," O'Malley said.
In a statement from Jacqueline Otto, an NRA spokeswoman, the gun advocacy group said they will take legal action to strike the law from the books, although the statement was unclear about which aspect of the law they would be challenging.
"The National Rifle Association's position and concerns will be made very clear when we file our law suit," Otto said.
According to the Associated Press, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler has reviewed the law and believes that it's constitutional and defensible against suits, such as the one the NRA is planning.
In addition to the fingerprinting requirement, the new law will also ban 45 types of assault weapons and limit the size of a magazine to 10 bullets. The law will not require people who already licensed to submit fingerprints nor will it require people who currently own one of the banned assault weapons to turn them in, according to the Washington Post.
In an effort to make the bill sound more palpable to opponents of gun-control, the O'Malley administration emphasized the many things this law doesn't do. The law does not require additional licensing procedures for hunting rifles nor does it force companies who produce assault weapons to move their business out of the state, according to the Associated Press.
Vincent DeMarco, the president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, discussed the reasons behind his group's decision to run ads supporting legislators who voted for the law with the Baltimore Sun.
"We know that the other side will be attacking the legislators who voted for it, and we want people to know those legislators were doing the right thing to save lives in Maryland," DeMarco said.
