PERSONAL OPINION You may express your opinion on this bill by letter, card, telegram, or telephone to the sponsor, your senators and delegates in the general assembly and to any or all members of the committee listed below. (If you do not know the names of your lawmakers, you may obtain this information from your city or county clerk.) Your legislators may be reached at the State House, Annapolis. F. C. DANIEL, Secretary. MEMBERS OF COMMITTEE Delegate Thomas Hunter Lowe, chairman, Talbot County. Delegate Noel Spier Cook, Alleghany County. Delegate Irma George Dixon, Baltimore City, District No. 4. Delegate Sol J. Friedman, Baltimore City, District No. 5. Delegate Frank H. Harris, Cecil County. Delegate Carter M. Hickman, Queen Anne's County. Delegate Martin A. Kircher, Baltimore City, District No. 3. Delegate Chester G. Kosakowski, Baltimore City, District No. 1. Delegate Robert Charles Bibby Long, Somerset County. Delegate H. Kemp MacDaniel, Baltimore County. Delegate Frank J. McCourt, Baltimore City, District No. 2. Delegate Wilbur W. Magin, Carroll County. Delegate Richard M. Matthews, Dorchester County. Delegate Frank G. Perrin, Charles County. Delegate Mark O. Pilchard, Worcester County. Delegate Edgar P. Silver, Baltimore City, District No. 5. Delegate Norman R. Stone, Jr., Baltimore County. EXHIBIT No. 98 U.S. SENATE, Hon. THOMAS J. DODD, DEAR SENATOR DODD: I am enclosing a copy of a letter which I recently received from Lt. Gen. Milton A. Reckord, the adjutant general of the State of Maryland. In his letter, General Reckord takes issue with certain statements made by Leonard S. Blondes in his testimony on June 8 before your subcommittee with respect to the proposed firearms legislation. I would certainly appreciate your incorporating into the hearing record of the subcommittee General Reckord's letter to me. Since Mr. Blondes refers to General Reckord in his testimony, I think it is only fair that General Reckord's recollections of his conversation with Mr. Blondes, which are at variance with Mr. Blondes' recollections be incorporated into the record of the hearing. Sincerely, JOSEPH D. TYDINGS. ་་་་་་་་་་་་༞ ༞་་་་་་་ JUNE 16, 1965. Hon. JOSEPH D. TYDINGS, Havre de Grace, Md. DEAR JOE: My attention has been invited to the fact that Mr. Leonard S. Blondes, a member of the Maryland Legislature representing Montgomery County, testified on June 8 at the hearings on the proposed amendments to the Federal Firearms Act. I am writing you, as a member of the committee before which the hearings are being held, to advise you that certain statements made by Mr. Blondes are not true; and I request that you take the necessary action to correct the record. Specifically, I refer to Mr. Blondes' statement regarding a conference had with me. Mr. Blondes has never had any conference whatever with me on any firearms legislation, and I wish to categorically deny his statement: "After lengthy discussions with the gentleman I felt that I really had a partner in my firearms legislation." In reading Mr. Blondes' statement before the committee, it appears to me that he made an attempt to discredit the National Rifle Association, as well as myself. rather than to give testimony for or against the bill now under consideration. You may or may not know that for approximately 25 years I was the administrative head (executive vice president) of the National Rifle Association and. for at least that number of years, I have been very much interested in reasonable firearms legislation. I am still interested in the proper control of firearms, and at the past session of our Maryland Legislature I appeared with many other citi zens of our State in opposition to at least six bills on the subject of firearms-one of which was presented by Mr. Blondes. Joint hearings were held on these bills in the house chamber, and in my statement in opposition thereto I said very frankly I considered we needed a statewide bill in Maryland and that if the six bills were referred back to the committee and an interested group was assembled to study the problem, I believed a reasonable bill could be prepared which would be passed by the legislature. This was done; but, unfortunately, the day the committee assembled to rewrite the bills I was ill at home and could not attend the meeting. However, a bill was prepared which did pass the house, but it failed in the senate and did not become law. I am still of the opinion we should have a reasonable State law covering firearms. The trouble seems to be that the bills presented are not reasonable; it fact, most of them are unreasonable. That, I believe, is where the trouble lies. I think this statement applies specifically to the bill now before Senator Dodd's committee. A year ago, the National Rifle Association (represented by Mr. Franklin Orth) supported Senator Dodd's bill and assisted materially in amending it and gaining the support of the NRA members. I am told this bill has subsequently been materially changed, and Mr. Orth has indicated to Senator Dodd that he and his organization cannot now support the language as presently written. It is my honest opinion the bill in its present form is unnecessarily severe. While I am not conversant with the actual changes that were made in it, I am at a loss to understand why a bill that was agreed upon a year ago has been so materially altered as to now be unacceptable to the NRA and its members. In an effort to do something constructive in this matter and to be helpful in the situation, I suggest that you permit me to arrange a meeting for you with Mr. Orth, at your convenience, in order that he may explain in detail to you a a member of the committee, the provisions of the bill to which there is considerable objection. After hearing from you, I will be glad to arrange such a meeting if you agree with me that it will be advisable. In the meantime, will you correct the record with respect to the statement made by Mr. Blondes as it refers to me personally. With best regards, I am, Sincerely yours, MILTON A. RECKORD, Lieutenant General, the Adjutant General. EXHIBIT No. 99 HOUSE OF DELEGATES, Annapolis, Md., August 19, 1965. Hon. THOMAS J. DODD, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR DODD: The past several days I have had the opportunity to review the comments made by Franklin L. Orth in a memorandum to you dated June 22, 1965. I feel that this is a perfect example of the "rifling" ways and means of the NRA. There is no question that I made an error in my presentation as to the contents of house bill 233. But, did it really make any difference? Review their memorandum as to house bill 233. As to the introduction of house bill 1072, I did make a technical error: The NRA Bulletin came out on the same day the bill came out on the floor of the house, not on the actual day of introduction. Might I mention that I intend to further discuss with General Reckord our previous conversations. I am sure that he will recall the time we spent working together on house bill 1072. I would also like for you to note that the letter from NRA suggested compulsory training. However, when such a bill was introduced, NRA used and misused a technical misinterpretation in tearing the bill apart. Regardless of their suggestions, it always seems that you have either misunderstood or misinterpreted and "let's" start again. But, by that time the session is near an end and another year lost. If there is anything at any time that I can help with, please feel free to call upon me. Sincerely yours, LEONARD S. BLONDES. STATEMENT OF ANGELO F. PALMISANO, ASSEMBLYMAN, ANNAPOLIS, MD. Mr. PALMISANO. That is correct, Senator. With your permission, before I read my prepared statement and at the very outset I would like to make this statement. Prior to my election to the Maryland House of Delegates, it had become aware to me the promiscuous acquisition of firearms by irresponsible and unaged teenagers and with the alarming rate of crime in the city of Baltimore, I had decided that, after thorough investigation, there needed to be some legislation in this area that controlled the promiscuous acquisition of firearms and to not make it so easy such as going to the corner drug store for a Coca Cola or milkshake. My statement has to do with the great pressures that have been brought upon me as a result of my participation in this area. In 1963, January 16, I introduced house bill 82 in the Maryland Legislature which would have controlled the interstate shipment of firearms in the State of Maryland and also a prerequisite of making an application where, upon investigation, there would be an issuance of a permit before an individual, provided he met the qualifications as set forth in the bill, could purchase a weapon. Shortly thereafter, I had received many telephone calls and I had been completely ignorant of the fact as to how it had become known that I was interested in this area and as a result of that, a personal friend of mine paid me a visit one day and brought me a legislative bulletin here that was released to all of the NRA members of the State of Maryland requesting them to contact me either by phone or otherwise to make their position clear in the area of firearms. Let me say that my life has been threatened. I had received anonymous phone calls throughout the night to the point where my wife had pleaded with me to abandon this fight. I was determined to go along with it and as a result of this original legislation that I had introduced in 1963 prior to the late President Kennedy's assassination I testified before the house judiciary committee and was not treated too cordially and they reported the bill unfavorably. Shortly thereafter, I introduced a resolution in the house that requested the legislative council to study this problem of firearms and there was no action taken on my resolution. I have had the support of the past State's attorney of the city of Baltimore who is now a supreme court judge of Baltimore City and have the present State's attorney's support and I have documents here that substantiate that and also of the police commissioner of the city of Baltimore. Senator DODD. I would like to have a copy of that legislative bulletin. Mr. PALMISANO. You may have it, Senator. Senator DODD. I mean the one that you referred to. Mr. PALMISANO. You may have it. Senator DODD. When was that dated? Mr. PALMISANO. That was dated January 23, 1963. Senator DODD. Does it bear a serial number or is it identifiable? Mr. PALMISANO. It is not serialized. It is just a legislative bulletin by the NRA. Senator DODD. Thank you. I would like to have that. (The bulletin referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 100" and is as follows:) EXHIBIT No. 100 [Legislative Bulletin, National Rifle Association, Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 1963) To: All NRA members and clubs in Maryland. Subject: A bill to amend the law concerning the sale and delivery of pistols and revolvers. Proposal: House bill No. 81. Sponsor: Representative Angelo F. Palmisano, Baltimore City, district No. 3. Status of proposal: Introduced in the Maryland House of Delegates on January 16, 1963, and referred to the house committee on the judiciary. PRINCIPAL PROVISIONS (1) No person under 21 years of age may buy or receive a pistol or revolver. (2) No person may deliver a pistol to another except upon written order of the superintendent of State Police, dated not more than 60 days prior to delivery (3) Application for a written order must be made at least 5 days before issu ance of written order. (4) The application necessary for such a written order must contain a complete personal history of the applicant together with his fingerprints. (5) During the 5-day waiting period before issuance of the written order, the superintendent will conduct an investigation involving the background of the applicant. Upon failure to disclose any negating factors, the superintendent wh sign the order authorizing the applicant to receive by purchase, transfer, or gift. a pistol. (6) A permanent record of such transaction will be retained by the State police. (7) Every person who has in his possession any pistol within 90 days after the passage of this bill, must register the pistol with the superintendent. (8) After 90 days from the date of the enactment of this bill, no person may possess an unregistered pistol or one for which an order for its purchase, trass fer, or donation has not been obtained as provided by law. |