County residents should brace themselves for higher crime rates, since police always adjust operations to maximize whatever it is for which they are rewarded, and Ivey’s mandate means cops will focus on people carrying guns, not thugs commiting crimes. While Ivey’s office claims they won’t ask mandatory minimums on any gunowner in an innocent situation, all that means is they plan to offer such suspects the option of giving up all his guns (permanently) in return for not going through the system. Cops already stake out gun shops and ranges to see who comes and goes … and where they go. We’ve witnessed it first hand. Stop for a Big Gulp at 7-11 on the way home from the range and you could end up a poster child for Ivey’s purge. Remember: in most circumstances, it is illegal to transport handguns except between your home and either a range or shop. If you take a handgun to a friend’s house to compare collectibles … or to a friend’s farm to give him informal instruction … or even transport one from a relative’s estate for safe keeping … you committed a crime, and Glenn Ivey wants you in jail.
Ivey is known to have ambitions for higher office, and like any candidate wants all the free media exposure he can get. Tyrades over guns get him ink. Earlier this year he fabricated a story about how ballistic fingerprinting finally solved its first crime in Maryland (it didn’t.) Last legislative session he was one of the few holdouts who hadn’t yet abandoned ship as the assault weapon ban sank into the murkey waters of failed policy. There he was with the hard core of the left yapping about grabbing guns. (Most officials who previously supported the ban avoided the press conferences, knowing the federal ban lifted last year without any of their predictions about bloodshed in the streets coming true.)
In 1994 Ivey wrote: “We also should recognize that banning assault weapons alone will not bring an end to the senseless shootings that occur every day. Not only should we continue to move toward banning all firearms that are not used for hunting (including all semiautomatic handguns), but we have to step up our efforts to collect and destroy guns that are already privately owned.” Ivey’s latest announcement is simply another step in the policy he endorsed 11 years ago.
As a candidate for higher office, Ivey terrifies the adults among Democratic leadership. He should. Pundits know gun control doesn’t switch votes to their candidates or improve turnout of a liberal base. It will not elect a candidate – but it can un-elect one, because it activates our base. (That’s you!) Ivey got his media attention, but it should be at the expense of any other ‘D’ wanting to share a ticket with ‘Poison Ivey.’ (Okay, so someone had to be the first one to say it.) Prince George’s is a key 2006 battleground, and turnout rates will depend on whether leadership responds to Ivey by just breathing into a paper bag or taking him out behind the shed for a stern talking to about party message and his effect on fellow candidates.