The Mayor and Board of Aldermen of Frederick, Maryland, held a workshop on July 17, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. to discuss a proposed amendment to City Code Section 15-17 that would prohibit the possession, carrying, brandishing, and sale/transfer (especially to minors) of air guns, BB guns, replica firearms, and similar weapons. The Frederick Police Department (FPD) presented the ordinance, emphasizing public safety, the prevention of tragic officer-involved shootings, and the need to close legal gaps. No formal vote was taken; the workshop was intended to gather board input and direct staff to consult with the State’s Attorney’s office before bringing the ordinance to a public hearing.
Good afternoon. Welcome to the Mayor and Board of Alderman Workshop for the 17th of July. We begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge through the flag of the United States of America and through the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God with Liberty and Justice. We do expect Aldwoman Nash to be joining us. Alderman Shackelford and Alder Woman Kazemchak had previously indicated that they are not available today. We have one item on our workshop agenda today, and that is consideration of a proposed amended ordinance to prohibit the possession carrying of air guns, BB guns, replica firearms, and associated weapons. Within the city of Frederick, I'm going to turn this over to the Frederick Police Department, Sergeant Murphy, to take us through this proposal. Good afternoon, Mayor Board. If you can hit the buttons there you go. Good afternoon, Mayor Morgan. Pull the microphone a little bit closer just so that we can hear you here and out there. Sounds good. Are we good? Thank you. All righty. So I'm Sergeant Murphy with the Frederick Police Department on behalf of the Frederick Police Department, accompanied by Chief Jason Lando and Mike Fry from City Legal. The reason we're here is to propose an amendment to 15-17, which is now the discharge of firearms and guns within the City of Frederick. So essentially what brings us here today is the current section prohibits the discharge of any gun. It's very vague in the definitions, covers firearms, uh mentions air guns and things like that. But there's a lot of in between, there's some there's some missing definitions that are important to an ordinance like this. Um as what constitutes a dangerous weapon is important, so we need to add some language to distinguish uh the difference between these types of guns and what their capabilities are. Um it's going to include imitation, firearm, replica guns, BB guns, uh, paintball guns, so on and so forth. Um the current ordinance addresses only the discharge of these type of types of weapons, so we have to wait um until these firearms and other weapons are discharged before we can do anything about it as far as enforcement. Um so brandishing, possessing, concealing the sale and transfer uh specifically to minors, um, and removing safety devices on toy weapons to make them look like real firearms are um great concerns from the public safety standpoint, so we felt it was important to address. Uh in 2002, the the Maryland General Assembly wrote in law the seriousness of the handgun violence and gun-related crimes. Um they have not addressed any uh legislation or definitions in regards to BB guns and other types of similar weapons. Um there is a dangerous weapons uh statute, but it is very fluid depending on the jurisdictions, which has led to numerous municipalities and local governments moving towards their own legislation to fill those gaps, if that makes sense. Um my training knowledge and experience, I can tell you that these types of guns and other firearms are carried and used in the commission of crimes. Um very misdemeanor stuff to malicious destruction of property all the way up to you know robbery and and serious assault. So we have to get together and get a comprehensive update to modernize the the public safety article. Can I ask you a practical question on that? If someone in the commission of one of these other crimes, uh a threat of robbery or something like that, brandishes a B B gun, which you find out later is a B B gun and not an actual firearm is defined in the law. Is there a difference in what you can charge under those circumstances? So depending on the jurisdictions. Um here in Frederick, it's it's hit or miss as to who's prosecuting it. Um but if it is perceived to be the gun, a real gun, um, they will pursue um the robbery charges because it's what the the victim perceives at that moment in time. But in order to catch, say a perpetrator or an offender ahead of time, we would have to encounter these individuals. And we handle it as if it was a real gun. So if we get a call, you know, a person's possessing a gun and we go out there, do a terrifrisk, which is a pat down of the individual recovery the the BB gun. There's really no recourse for that. I mean, we're getting the BB gun saying don't do that again, and in many cases, giving it back to them and say, you know, go about your business. And as I'm gonna mention later, this is you know, juveniles, which you know, I'll mention later the dangers that are associated with that, but also felons, gang members, and things like that. So being able to take enforcement is is super important. Thank you. So from the FPD standpoint from 22 to 23, we had 58 total crimes committed with BB guns. That's the ones that were documented in reference to malicious destruction of property, assaults on people and animals, uh, robberies, um, controlled dangerous substance offenses. That's your your drug dealers, um, possessing them in public, which really we can do nothing about, and disorderly conduct based on their actions. Um these like I like I said, these projectiles that were fired from these types of weapons were at you know, people, animals, and property committing these other crimes along with it.