[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6256-2001Oct17.html[/url]
Handgun sales in Maryland have plunged this year and are on pace to reach their lowest annual total in more than a decade, the result of a new gun-control law that has slowed firearm shipments into the state.
Although demand for firearms has risen since the terrorist attacks last month, records show that the number of people seeking to purchase revolvers and pistols since Jan. 1 has dwindled dramatically, primarily because of the law requiring Maryland State Police to collect ballistics information about each new handgun sold.
During the first nine months of the year, state police processed 17,909 applications to buy handguns. At that rate, fewer than 24,000 people would apply to buy handguns this year -- a 30 percent decline from 2000.
It would also be the lowest annual total in at least 12 years, according to state police statistics.
"There's been a spike in the past few weeks, but things were pretty slow before that," said Sanford Abrams, owner of Valley Guns in Towson and vice president of the Maryland Association of Licensed Firearms Dealers. Abrams said he used to sell 200 to 300 Glock pistols annually but expects to peddle fewer than two dozen of that brand this year.
The drop in sales is not universal. In Southern Maryland, dealers reported steady demand for handguns this year.
For instance, Tom Bennett, owner of Southern Maryland Firearms in Leonardtown, said the Maryland shell casing law has not caused sales at his store to decrease.
Though not as many new handguns are finding their way into Maryland, Bennett said, used gun sales have more than made up for any losses.
"We're selling about 10 times the amount of used guns," Bennett said.
He said many of his customers have purchased guns as a display of defiance to the intentions of the law.
"About half of my customers are professionals. They know the laws and they resent the government we have in Annapolis for having this agenda," Bennett said.
The statewide sales decline marks a sharp reversal from the past two years. In 1998, 27,667 people had applied to buy guns. Gun sales soared higher in 1999, when 33,038 people applied to buy handguns in response to millennial fears. They continued to rise last year, partly in anticipation of the passage of more gun-control laws in Maryland.
But handgun purchases began to drop soon after Oct. 1, 2000, when the new ballistics rule took effect. The measure, part of a broader gun-control law passed by legislators last year, requires firearms manufacturers to provide state police with a shell casing test-fired from every new handgun sold in Maryland. Rifles and shotguns were exempted from the requirement.
The spent shells contain markings and grooves that are unique to each gun, similar to fingerprints from the human hand. By scanning microscopic images from the casings into a database, police can sometimes determine that ammunition used in different crimes was fired from the same gun.
Maryland was the first state to enact a "ballistics fingerprints" law, although New York has since followed suit and other states, including California, are considering similar measures.