(8-22-2005) At their latest meeting, Governor Ehrlich's new appointments to the Handgun Permit Review Board (HPRB) validated gunowner concerns about the administration by turning away the renewal of a permitee who even the anti-gun Glendening administration had supported to carry a gun.
In the August Tripwire we reported community concerns that gun groups had no input into Ehrlich administration appointments to the Handgun Permit Review Board. Later, a Gazette article quoted an administration spokesman as defending these choices, saying they were made to "strike a balance between divergent factions in the gun community." He went on to say the administration supported "intelligent gun control."
Soon after that story ran, the magnitude of their comments dawned on officials, who circled the wagons for a fight. Officials contacted the Gazette, persuaded the editor to run a 'do-over', and changed the story from lack of gunowner appointment input to an article saying gun owners complained about appointees who turned out to be pro gun. Gone were embarassing remarks about supporting "intelligent gun control" - the administration spin became a slam on gun groups.
Well, the administration aggressively talked the talk. Does it walk the walk? The answer came on August 17th. That evening was the HPRB's first meeting with an all-Ehrlich board. We frankly expected a slurpy pro-gun love fest. After all, what better time for an applicant's case to come up for consideration than right after the NRA challenged the Governor's pro-gun credentials? It simply didn't turn out that way.
The very first applicant to come before the HPRB was Linda Plummer. Politically there could be no safer applicant for the administration to give a carry permit. Ms. Plummer is a Montgomery County resident (where the GOP badly needs votes), a professional (no image problems), African-American (a key demographic into which the party must make inroads), and a member of the board for Ceasefire, the state Brady organization. (It would be pretty hard for anti-gunners to complain about Ehrlich approving carry permits when the first applicant in line is one of their own.)
Best of all, Plummer sought renewal of her unrestricted carry permit first issued years ago. As former president of the county NAACP, she is an award-winning civil rights advocate whose volunteerism over the years was rewarded with threats. Her documentation was so good even the gun-grabbing Glendening administration agreed she had "need" for a permit, and it was issued as such. Now that it was time for her to renew it, all Bob Ehrlich had to do was simply agree.
No such luck. The "pro-gun" Ehrlich administration denied Plummer's permit application. She appealed to the HPRB, where after hearing her case, and without objection from fellow Ehrlich appointees, the board chairman panned her appeal and sent Plummer back to state police to study whether her job might justify getting a limited carry permit. At least Plummer gets to try again, if she has the patience and money.
In this single move the Ehrlich administration did something we would never have thought possible: it alienated voters in Ceasefire, NAACP, the African American community, up-scale Montgomery County and NRA ... all at the same time!