Following The Baltimore Sun’s reporting on the state’s handgun roster board, two bills are set to be introduced in the Maryland legislature that would revamp the way the board works, adding what advocates of the bills say are structure and guidance to the process of deciding which guns can be bought and sold in the state.

A Second Amendment supporter, however, sharply criticized the bills as unnecessary.

“All it does is add a layer of bureaucracy … to a process that already takes many months,” said Second Amendment advocacy organization Maryland Shall Issue President Mark Pennak.

“This is a solution in search of a problem.”

Sponsored in the house by Baltimore City Del. Elizabeth Embry and in the senate by Montgomery County Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher, both Democrats, the bills would restructure the state’s handgun roster board, a group of governor-appointed citizens who determine whether a gun makes the state’s “roster,” a list of guns Marylanders can purchase or sell.

The bill would provide “more guidance to the board, structure to safety testing, how often someone can apply, how to interpret safety testing [and] if it fails, what that should mean,” Embry said in an interview. And, she argued, the changes would improve the safety of her constituents.

“Gun violence is one of the biggest public safety and public health issues in Baltimore City,” she said. “We’ve seen amazing improvements but we have a long way to go in terms of gun safety. Having the handgun roster board live up to its potential … that can only help protect the citizens of Baltimore.”

What is a handgun?

Both SB 830 and HB 1339 would require petitions undergo legal review before being presented to the board, as well as codifying requirements to test the guns. Bill advocates say this would ensure short-barreled rifles are not approved under the provision for handguns and would guarantee that the guns approved function as intended.

Board member and Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said that although he believed Marylanders should be able to own guns, he hoped this bill would address his main concern with the board: competing definitions of a handgun.

“I do think this bill is able to accomplish one of the things that I’ve been concerned about: are we meeting the definition of a handgun?” Bates said. “I want individuals to be able to have weapons legally.”

Several amendments would also allow board members to reevaluate previously approved handguns, something Bates suggested could be applied only to new purchasers of models that have been removed from the roster.

“I think you definitely want to make sure you grandfather in people who already had the gun,” he said. “They did everything the right way … and I don’t think you necessarily penalize them because the state didn’t have everything correct on its end [in the first place] and now you feel these weapons are illegal.”

‘A rubber stamp’

The Sun reported on the gun board and its practices in 2025. Criticized by some as “a rubber stamp,” the board approved 95% of handguns put before them between 2018 and 2025, near-uniformly denying a gun’s addition to the list only if it did not fire or misfired in testing.

During those seven years, the board added nearly 2,500 new gun models to the roster, including, controversially, short-barreled rifles.Many short-barreled rifles come with braces — meaning they could be fired from the shoulder — additional barrels or long stocks. They’re more powerful, can cause more damage and are more dangerous in the wrong hands, gun control advocates say.

The federal definition of a handgun says a gun can be held and fired in one hand.

Board members said they and petitioners alike were often confused by vague requirements guns must meet for inclusion on the roster, leading to guns being passed through that shouldn’t be.

But Second Amendment advocates say the board is already too restrictive and that the state has no business preventing people from buying or selling whatever guns they like within its borders.

Pennak said he believed these bills were put forward to force the state’s gun roster board to echo the handgun roster board in California, which requires both legal review and independent accredited laboratory testing of handguns petitioners have put forth. That, he said, was a mistake that could end the existence of Maryland’s roster board altogether.

“If they do this, then it will come under attack,” Pennak said. Too, Pennak worried that the amendment allowing members to re-evaluate handguns on the roster would strip people of guns they lawfully own.

“The Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to purchase firearms that are common use for lawful purposes,” Pennak said. “The guns they want to exclude have already been found [lawful] by virtue of being on the roster board.”

‘No subjective analysis’

Embry and an anti-gun violence advocate said The Sun’s 2025 articles on the roster board shed light on the challenges the board faced, inspiring them to write and sponsor these bills.

“I’ve been trying to get legislators’ attention on this for years,” said Karen Herren, who leads the nonprofit advocacy group Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence.

The Sun’s reporting on the matter “made a huge difference getting leadership attention … and a senate sponsor,” she said.

“The legislation doesn’t expand or restrict Maryland gun laws; it’s merely trying to create a process whereby current Maryland law is upheld,” Herren said. “Right now, the board is not functioning as the consumer protection filter it was designed.

“We want to see that petitions are reviewed by legal experts for compliance with all Maryland and federal laws and make sure that the product itself is considered safe under regulated product safety standards.

“If both of those hurdles are met, then there’s no subjective analysis going into whether or not the firearm makes it onto the roster,” she said.

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