Md. House Passes Gun Education
Vote on Compromise Bill Is a Victory for Grieving Parents

By Tracey A. Reeves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 6, 2001; Page B07

A bill to teach gun safety to Maryland’s schoolchildren passed the House of Delegates yesterday, paving the way for the state to become the first in the nation to require firearms instruction.

In a 98 to 32 vote, lawmakers handed a bittersweet victory to John and Carole Price, the parents of a shooting victim, who suggested the legislation and hope it will become a memorial to their son.

The Senate has passed similar legislation, but because of differences in the bills, a House-Senate conference committee will have to meet to mold the two measures into one.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) has said he would sign the bill if it came to his desk.

“It’s fantastic,” said Carole Price, who drove an hour with her husband and daughter from their Carroll County home to witness the vote. “It came a week shy of my son’s 16th birthday. I just hope it helps all children to realize the dangers of guns.”

The House bill’s passage was something of a surprise to the Prices and other supporters, because it had been sent back to a committee after disagreements between the National Rifle Association and gun control groups about the lessons.

“That was horrible, just crushing,” said Carole Price.

But backers of the bill never gave up, reworking the language until both sides could live with it. In the end, delegates produced a bill that would require students in kindergarten through grade 6 to learn about firearms safety. Students in grades 7 through 12 would be offered either a firearms safety lesson, hunting lesson or both.

The state Board of Education would write guidelines for the program, but local school boards would decide what program to teach and how. The bill says school systems could use the NRA’s “Eddie Eagle” program or the “In a Flash” or “Star” programs, which were developed by gun control groups. School systems also could develop their own programs.

The Senate version also would have the state school board write guidelines and local school boards decide what programs to use. But the Senate bill has no hunting provisions and would require students in kindergarten through grade 12 to be taught firearms safety. The Senate bill also would make gun safety a part of the health curriculum.

Lawmakers said neither bill would require intensive instruction. The lessons, which might use workbooks or animated videos, could last as little as 15 minutes.

Before passing the gun safety measure in the House, supporters fended off several attempts to amend the bill.

Yesterday, Del. Brian R. Moe (D-Prince George’s) reiterated his opposition, saying it is unfair for the legislature to require schools to add to their already stretched lesson plans without giving them money to do it.

Del. James W. Campbell (D-Baltimore), chairman of the House Ways and Means education subcommittee, responded that existing gun safety programs offer materials free. Campbell also defended his committee’s conclusion that even though the public is not crying out for gun safety legislation, the need for it is there.

The argument made sense to the Prices, whose 13-year-old son was killed when a 9-year-old playmate accidentally shot him in the head with a handgun he picked up in the house of his father’s friend.

John Price remembered getting a call at work from his wife that August afternoon in 1998. She was hysterical. “I couldn’t understand her,” he recalled. “It was something about a shooting.”

By the time Price arrived at the home the family was living in outside Baltimore, police cruisers were up and down the street; helicopters were hovering. The oldest of his three children had died instantly.

Shortly after burying their son, the Prices became activists and persuaded Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman (D-Baltimore) to introduce gun safety legislation.

As lawmakers merge the House and Senate bills, the Prices want them to consider one more change: Naming the program for their dead son, John Joseph Price.