Makeup of the 2011 Senate Judiciary Committee?

MD Senate Judiciary Committee

What is the deal with the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee? Does anyone know what the makeup is going to be, and how many pro 2A votes there will be? We were up 6-5, including the two pro rights Democrats Stone and Brochin, but I recently read this:

http://www.ammoland.com/2011/01/23/...senator-frosh-steps-up-attacks-on-gun-owners/
We no longer enjoy a 6-5 majority in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee (JPR) and the voting mix of the House Judicial Proceedings Committee (JUD) is uncertain.

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http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?id=6124
The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee which handles all firearm related legislation was altered to give the Chairman of the Committee, anti-gun Senator Brian Frosh, a 6-5 majority of anti-gun votes. The Chairman might be encouraged to test his new committee majority and quickly move anti-gun bills to the Senate floor.

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According to the website of the General assembly, the committee assignments have not been set yet.

http://mlis.state.md.us/Other/Roster/Roster.htm
http://mlis.state.md.us/Other/Roster/Committee.pdf
The 2011 Session Roster will be posted as soon as assignments are finalized and official.

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WTF is going on??

It's been assigned. We don't have as many friends as we did during the last four years, so blocking bad legislation will be harder. As usual, we need to bring the heat early and often.

The official website isn't updated yet, but yes, we no longer enjoy a majority.

That said, there are a few new people on the committee who we may be able to sway with polite letters.

Maryland was the only state to become more democratic after 2010.

All those people who said Omalley would be better than Ehrlich because Ehrlich was a RINO, you guys better be doubling up your prayers, cause now we get to test your theory.

The composition of the committee is indeed 6-5 against us, thus emphasizing the fact that it is going to take a concentrated effort from everyone in this community to be engaged and active this year if we expect to even hold out ground.

We have been spoiled for the last couple of years, if you can imagine that, because we have successfully beat back every single major attack on our rights. Those of us that were around in 2004 and 2005 remember how precarious things were.

Since we've dismembered the anti-gun groups' in this state, we've had no serious opposition to our voices.

This year, we have one of the last few remaining protections, that being the 6-5 majority that we used to have in the Senate committee, removed and the brutal fact is that if they are determined to get an anti-gun bill passed there isn't much we can do about it.

We've known for a couple days that Frosh is coming at us with everything he's got.

It's going to be a bad session, indeed.

Supporting 2A

I just sent this to:

Joseph Vallario, Jr. - Chairman
Kathleen Dumais - Vice Chair
Curt Anderson
Sam Arora
Jill Carter
Luke Clippinger
Frank Conway
Susan Lee
Kiefer Mitchell Jr
Luiz Simmons
Geraldine Valentino-Smith
Kris Valderama

using the "Civic Action System"
http://actionmail.ksconline.net/index.php?id=20
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Esteemed Delegate,

I am taking from my busy day to request your support for HB 9.

I once was of the mindset that guns are evil and dangerous, and since we could go to the store to buy the food we need, that they were wholly unnecessary in society and represented only a mechanism for accidental injuries and deaths. After being victimized on more than one occasion and being the focus of a stalker, I followed the advice of my (then) local police department, and investigated the option of becoming a gun owner. It was frightening and required a complete re-working of my perspective and life view. Now I understand that the laws are only respected by a portion of the population, and that I do not fear that portion because they are law-abiding citizens. It is the criminal that poses the threat, not the rest of us. They do not care what laws are passed. They can get what they want, when they want, and use it for a nefarious purpose. Please recognize that more lives are lost to cars, and alcohol than guns in America. We would never consider banning cars, or regulating which cars can cross our borders, which styles people could buy, etc. We learned a difficult lesson with regards to alcohol. Neither of these items are rights protected expressly by the constitution, as firearms are. We have over 40 states that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, and I think we can all agree that blood is not running in the streets as a result. Though they rarely get any recognition on the news, average law-abiding citizens frequently use firearms in the lawful defense of themselves and their families on a regular basis. Please consider allow those citizens of our neighboring states, who have been vetted by their respective states and have legal and lawful rights to carry concealed weapons, to come to our state and carry here legally as well. It is my belief that you will find that there will be more gain than loss to us here in the great state of MD.

thank you for your consideration.
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We have about 24 hrs left to let them know our wishes!

Current Senate Judicial Proceedings (JPR) list is here:

http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/05sen/html/com/05judp.html

House Judiciary committee here:
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/html/com/05jud.html

Gazette article on the new House Judiciary members:
http://www.gazette.net/stories/01212011/polinew205835_32541.php

The only one that I couldn't peg on the Senate JPC was ROBERT A. (BOBBY) ZIRKIN from Baltimore County, but his credentials look pretty scary.

Norton said:

This year, we have one of the last few remaining protections, that being the 6-5 majority that we used to have in the Senate committee, removed and the brutal fact is that if they are determined to get an anti-gun bill passed there isn't much we can do about it.

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It looks then like we're pretty much screwed, especially if O'Malley pulls a Glendenning and opens up on us with both barrels (pun intended). Given the recent current events in Arizona, and the emotion based nature of the left, it looks like the stars are aligning against us.

This could be a perfect storm, and it looks like there's not much that we can do about it.