Lets not forget the Ehrlich was responsible for the brilliant Omega lock compromise.
As annoying as the Omega lock was, please remember that the alternative would have been essentially a ban on most handguns guns (except post-lock S&W and maybe Steyr handguns) in MD.
TrojanMan has summed it up for us before: these laws are intended as essentially "death by 1,000 cuts" measures. Each one makes it just a little more challenging to own a gun in the state, and each time, there are a few citizens who will simply decide it isnt worth the hassle. The shell casing thing didnt prevent or solve a single crime. But it did manage to keep a few handguns out of the state, and was mis-interpreted by some FFLs (probably still is) in refusing to do transfers.