Wes Moore has 2 weeks to sign bills. What’s left on table?

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Gov. Wes Moore has about two weeks to enact bills passed by the General Assembly with his signature, per the Maryland Department of Legislative Services.

In Maryland, the governor has the power to sign bills, veto them or let them go into effect without his signature.

According to the Maryland General Assembly website on Friday afternoon, Moore has approved 593 of the over 3,000 bills filed between the House and the Senate. He has until June 2.

But what among the thousands does he have left to sign?

Of note, Moore, a Democrat, hasn’t approved legislation that would ban Glocks and other machine-gun-convertible pistols.

Sponsored in the House by Del. Nicole Williams, D-Prince George’s, and in the Senate by Sen. Sara Love, D-Montgomery, the legislation would ban the manufacture, sale, purchase, receipt or transfer of machine-gun-convertible pistols, including Glocks.  

Those who legally acquired these firearms would be able to sell or transfer them to “immediate family members,” including spouses, children, stepchildren, parents, stepparents, siblings or stepsiblings as long as they are not prohibited under law from owning a firearm.

Machine-gun-convertible pistols are semiautomatic firearms with cruciform trigger bars that can easily be turned into machine guns by installing or attaching a pistol converter as a replacement for the slide’s backplate. Maryland State Police would be required to adopt regulations to implement the legislation, including the publication of a list of banned machine-gun-convertible pistols.

If signed, a violation would be punishable by up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of $5,000.

Republicans have railed against this policy, asking Moore to veto it.

“Once again, we are creating an imbalance where compliant Marylanders bear the burden of the law while criminals and bad actors remain unaffected,” the House Republican Caucus wrote in a letter this month. “Senate Bill 334 will not impact a criminal’s activity just as banning fertilizer would not prevent a bad actor from using it to create a bomb.” 

Mark Pennak, the president of the Second Amendment advocacy group Maryland Shall Issue, called the bill “blatantly unconstitutional” and said he’s already drafted a legal complaint against it.  

Moore also has yet to sign legislation that would bar any law enforcement officers – federal, state or local — from wearing masks during their regular course of duty.

Sponsored in the House by Williams and in the Senate by Senate President Pro Tem Malcolm Augustine, D-Prince George’s, the bill would require the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission to establish a uniform policy prohibiting law enforcement officers — including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — from wearing face coverings in the normal course of duty. The legislation provides carveouts for officers who are undercover and in the case of cold weather.

Members of law enforcement who violate the policy would be subject to a $1,500 civil citation — an arrestable offense — and subject to police discipline.

ICE does not have an agency-wide masking policy.

But the governor can — and likely will — still get a lot signed in these last couple weeks. He, Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, have held a few bill-signing events featuring special guests and commemorative pens.

At his last such ceremony Tuesday, Moore signed over 200 bills, which included the No Kings Act, which would make it easier to sue federal officials; storm infrastructure reform; a sweeping energy package; and legislation to make creative expression, such as rap lyrics, inadmissible in most criminal and juvenile court cases, among others.