Delegate Peter Murphy…working for you each and every day
Education
All of our children deserve an excellent education taught in safe schools. I supported legislation requiring schools to be proactive in preventing bullying and gangs. My support of the Interstate Compact helps to ease school transfers for children of military families. As your Delegate, I have ensured that Charles County Schools have the tools necessary for our children’s success.
Working Families
People working hard deserve elected officials who work just as hard for them. I have supported legislation to protect workers’ rights by banning the improper classification of employees. I also supported a living wage for workers on state contracts. To help small business owners, I backed legislation that now makes it possible for business owners to pay their property taxes on a semi-annual basis—all steps toward improving the quality of life for you, our working families.
Environment
Preserving natural resources for our children is a high priority for me. I have supported legislation that ensures we have clean air and adequate water supplies; that the health of our Bay and its tributaries is restored; and that our schools use green cleaning products that will reduce the amount of toxic pollutants entering our waterways, as well as protecting our teachers, students and support staff from exposure to dangerous chemicals.
Public Safety
Feeling safe at home and in our community is a right that I have worked to protect. I voted for legislation providing for lifetime supervision of sex offenders and the seizure of property used in human trafficking. As your Delegate, I helped pass the creation of a statewide DNA database to help get violent criminals off the streets. And to keep our roads safe, I backed legislation banning text messaging while driving.
Seniors
The contributions and sacrifices of our senior population must be valued and respected. They form the very foundation of our community. I worked to increase income tax exemptions for the blind and elderly and credits on property taxes for seniors. I also supported legislation to create income tax credits for the retirement income of “hometown heroes.” To assist in the care of family members, I voted for the income tax check-off for Developmental Disabilities Organizations.
Constituent Services
As your Delegate, making government work for you matters to me. I have responded to numerous requests for assistance from Charles County residents, resolving issues where individuals encountered difficulties or were unable to get any results. Through many town hall meetings, newsletters and my website, I have engaged citizens on a daily basis, both from Annapolis and my District Office in Waldorf. You can be sure that when you call for help, I will be there for you.
Hi
Thank you for supporting legislation requiring schools to be proactive in preventing bullying and gangs. Also for supporting the Interstate Compact helps to ease school transfers for children of military families.
Please help and support the meidicaid adult dental programs. These cuts are devastating and people are going to end up in the emergency.
Thanks
Camile
Ms. Mason,
I appreciate getting your input on these matters. It is important to me that my constituents let me know what is important to them. The programs you mentioned are worthy of consideration for the health and well being of our citizens and I will be looking at them carefully.
Peter F. Murphy
District 28, Charles County
Hi Peter,
Can you comment on your positions regarding the current gun-control legislation under discussion? I personally have some concerns with the proposals on the table; it seems to me that they will do very little to nothing to prevent the tragedies being used to promote the ideas, yet will have negative impacts on innocent, law-abiding citizens of our state.
Clearly, there ARE ways to prevent things like the Newtown tragedy, but are we really ready as a society to have an all-encompassing, universal government database of all mental health diagnoses? Combining that with a registry of every single firearm, and then cross-referenced to allow Sheriffs to confiscate every gun at the same address as every person who has seen a mental health professional, would do the trick.
Will Americans stand for that? What is the purpose of other measures that completely fail to address this issue?
Thank you for your time and attention!
Best Regards,
Aaron
Dear Aaron,
Thank you for sending me your comments on the gun safety debate. There isn’t a final bill for Maryland legislators to vote on yet, however, on Friday, March 1st, the Judiciary and the Health and Government Operations Committees, will be holding a joint hearing on the “Firearm Safety Act of 2013” bill. There has been a tremendous amount of interest in this bill and I expect a spirited hearing.
In its present form, this bill is 38 pages long and covers a variety of issues. I will summarize the bill for you as I understand it but please know that because of the many items contained in the bill and the likelihood that there could be a number of amendments, the final bill could look much different in the end. With that in mind, these are some of the highlights of this bill:
As drafted, this bill will:
- Not prohibit lawful citizens from obtaining or owning a handgun and keeping it in their home.
- Not require additional licensing procedures for hunting rifles and shotguns.
- Not force citizens who lawfully possess an assault weapon to surrender their weapon.
- Not prohibit authorized personnel from carrying or transporting a hand gun.
- Not require current lawful gun owners to retroactively obtain a license.
As drafted, this bill would:
- Ban military-style assault weapons.
- Reduce the allowable magazine capacity from 20 rounds to 10 rounds.
- Implement a system of:
Licensing requirements for handguns with age restrictions; mandatory safety training requirements; a background check; mandatory fingerprinting; and an attestation that a person is not prohibited from purchasing or possessing handgun under State or Federal law.
If you would like to follow the progress of this legislation, I encourage you to go to http://www.mgaleg.maryland.gov. In the meantime, I look forward to fair and complete hearings that will produce a bill that provides for safe communities while protecting the rights of responsible gun owners and enthusiasts.
With best regards,
Delegate Peter Murphy