Pro 2A Politician in Maryland

[kazzaerexys]

There have been several threads around lately describing numerous proposed 2A related bills in Maryland, both good and bad. Well, I wrote to every member of the House Judiciary Committee, which is where all these bills start. I picked the four pending Castle Doctrine related bills plus the one that would remove the 'finding' requirement from the CCW law (essentially making MD 'shall issue').

Of the dozen or so committee members, I got five responses. Three were very generic, "Thank you for your input," with no comment on agreement or disagreement. One was a sort of form letter response on gun issues telling me what that Delegates positions were. His positions weren't terrible, but they weren't exactly a ringing endorsement of the Second Amendment, either.

Then I got a response from Delegate Don Dwyer, Anne Arundel County, District 31 (alas, not my district ). His response was but a single line:

Thanks for the email. I agree and I will support these bills.

Buoyed by that firm response, I thanked him for the reply and added my firm belief that he would, therefore, be voting against HB 517, the proposed ammo serialization bill. To that I got a response in less than ten minutes:

I am against HB 517. This is obviously a de facto gun ban. Thanks for your kind words, I have been in the past and will continue to be an outspoken and strong supporter of Second Amendment rights and right to carry for law abiding citizens. I will never vote to infringe those rights.

Thanks again for your email.

Constitutionally Yours,

Del. Don Dwyer, Jr.

Wow.

I will definitely be keeping this gentleman's name in mind, in hopes that I see it appearing on ballots for higher offices.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[falcon1]

Clone him...fast!!

[walvord]

I didn't know a politician of this sort existed in MD. - good to see.

[P95Carry]

Another WOW! A mongoose in the snake pit

I wonder if he knows of (I think link is right) http:Maryland Shall Issue (might be dot net or dot com I forget.)

[press1280]

Not bad-Anne Arundel is an inbetween county-the big kicker is going to be the cluster of politicians in PG,Montgomery, and around Baltimore counties. They control the state,essentially, and usually kill any pro-2nd Amendment bills. Even if there were enough votes for it,these libs won't let it out of comittee.
Too bad,because if MD became "shall issue" (w/out of state permits),I'd be sending them a check right now!

[rstickle]

Wish we had a whole bunch of him in the other MD Counties, like PG and Baltimore for example.

[kazzaerexys]

I wonder if he knows of (I think link is right) http:Maryland Shall Issue (might be dot net or dot com I forget.)

I suspect he is. He gets some very good press on MD Citizens for RKBA. It is also there that you can see that there is some sort of ongoing foodfight with a different organization, called Marylanders for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership (MPFO). It's a PAC and their honcho is a guy named Jim Purtilo.

It's always a little hard to see through all the propaganda on things like this, but it seems to me Purtilo is the one with the axe to grind. GOA named Dwyer as their "Legislator of the Year" a couple years back.

Oh, and the MCRKBA site also pointed out, unsurprisingly, than in my rather suburban part of AA county I am surrounded by Dem delegates who do not have, shall we say, a very favorable record on gun issues.

[HKinNY]

He is a guy that you can put some money behind.

[Norton]

Dwyer is one of our strongest supporters in the House. The other first stringer on that committee is Mike Smiegiel.

Smiegiel absolutely skewered the alleged expert on the ammo encoding bill yesterday:

Smiegiel: "Sir, are you the patent holder on this technology"
Ford: "Yes, I am."
Smiegiel: "Sounds like you stand to make a lot of money should this bill pass"
Ford: "Well, it is a for-profit business"
Smiegiel: "I, for one, hope your business never makes a cent"



Round two with the Delegate sponsoring the bill, Burns.

Burns: "What we have here is a tool that we can use to assist law enforcement"
Smiegiel: "Delegate, with all due respect, if you want to reduce crime in a meaningful manner you should support the Right To Carry legislation currently before this body"

[BigEFan]

He is a guy that you can put some money behind.

And you probably should if you want to keep him in office!

[Norton]

And you probably should if you want to keep him in office!

Money isn't what made the difference in Dwyer's re-election this time (though I strongly agree with your assertion that financial support is crucial).

A handful of Maryland Shall Issue members and people from the Maryland Shooters Forum wore out the soles of their shoes banging on doors and waving signs for Delegate Dwyer.

He won by just 36 votes.

[kazzaerexys]

A handful of Maryland Shall Issue members and people from the Maryland Shooters Forum wore out the soles of their shoes banging on doors and waving signs for Delegate Dwyer.

Were you one of those folks, Norton? If so, thank you very much. Not much chance of getting anyone like these gentleman to represent my little slice of AA county...

[Norton]

Were you one of those folks, Norton? If so, thank you very much. Not much chance of getting anyone like these gentleman to represent my little slice of AA county...

I stood in a couple of thunderstorms waving signs from the bridges of greater District 31. Nothing like getting flipped off by people you don't even know.

I don't even live in his district, but District 30 where I am was pretty much pre-determined this time around. I want to get rid of Claggett next election.

[P7fanatic]

This is copied from his website....

Why should voters elect you?

"Because I have a lot of unfinished business to tend to: Maryland's marriage amendment, proof of citizenship to vote and voter ID at the polls."

Local homeboy from Glen Burnie.
You could use a few more like him. Why am I not surprised he's a Republican.