ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - The House of Delegates is considering a bill that would link Maryland's gun registry to its criminal database.
Del. Luiz Simmons, D-Montgomery, the chief sponsor, says right now Maryland State Police can't systematically identify criminals who are required by law to surrender their guns.
State law requires gun owners to surrender their weapons if they're convicted of certain crimes. State Police estimate that if they created a new database by linking the existing ones, within the first year they might find that 10 percent of registered gun owners, or 110,000 people, had committed disqualifying crimes.
The Department of Legislative Services estimates a cost of $300,000 to create the database and a little more than $1 million to operate it each year.
