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Maryland situation
Maryland has a seven day waiting period for background check, applicable to handguns and some long guns. But State Police have been taking around 100 days to perform the check. Surprise, the Baltimore Sun runs with the headline "Guns Released to Buyer with Criminal Histories."
When asked why not just go with the standard NICS check system, the reply is that Maryland has other prohibited person categories beyond the Federal, with the result that a check requires consulting 16 different databases. Let's see ... amend the law, or hire more people (the article says the backlog started building up in January, so there was plenty of warning), sounds like a solution to me.
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Of course, the Maryland State Police have made it clear that any dealer that DOES release a handgun before the results of the check will lose their license to sell handguns in Maryland...
Massachusetts law mandates that the state either approve or deny license applications within 40 days. Of course most applications currently take around 100 days before the supplicant gets a response. People and significant number of legislators have been complaining for several years, but both the administration and the legislature have refused to address the problem. After all, laws are made for the little people, not the rulers.
...and I can walk into my local gun shop and walk out with the handgun of my choice in less than 20 minutes. Why isn't there blood running in the streets?
I would think that presumption of innocence would apply and the burden would be on the government to deny for cause rather than investigate the innocent. The way it's set up now, it's a secret trial with the police as the judge and jury.
It's not just this law; there are a whole bunch of laws, covering any number of activities, passed to get around that "pesky" presumption of innocence thing. Instead of the government having to prove that a person has committed an actual malum in se crime, the person has to keep records, or undergo background checks, or fulfill reporting requirements to show that he hasn't committed the crime. And if he messes up on the record-keeping or reporting requirement, he gets nailed - never mind that he never committed the actual crime that the law was supposedly passed to address.
"A spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O'Malley said the state is hiring more people to address the backlog and is working to automate the system."
Uh, yeah. Fine idea. Carry on, clam diggers. At least the law says the dealer can sell the gun after a week of no denial from the system.
On the good side, My Accokeek Beretta just acquired collector status.