MD Governor Lets slip that law abiding Citizens are being tracked.

O'Malley's Gun Owner Mapping Technology & Ammunition Registration
On Wednesday, February 18, 2009, Governor O'Malley was the keynote speaker at the ESRI Federal Users Conference in Washington, D.C.
His topic was the Geospatial Information System (GIS) in Maryland.

The GIS press announcement reads as follows:
"Pioneering Leader Will Discuss Using GIS for Performance Measurement and Transparency in Government
Redlands, California- On Wednesday, February 18, 2009, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley will deliver the Keynote Address at the ESRI Federal User Conference (FedUC) in Washington, D.C. O'Malley is a longtime advocate of using geographic information systems (GIS) for improved accountability and transparency in government. He will discuss his successful GIS-based performance measurement initiatives and how this approach can be used in federal government.
"GIS is a powerful tool for tracking our progress as a state and improving performance for the citizens we serve. It has become an indispensable tool for government accountability and transparency," said O'Malley. "In Maryland, our GIS applications make public the state's goals, progress, and effectiveness on a variety of public programs and services."
O'Malley began his first GIS-based program, CitiStat, when he was the mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. As governor, he has supported the use of GIS to develop similar GIS-based accountability programs including StateStat, BayStat, GreenPrint, and MD iMap. These online Web mapping applications allow government staff and citizens to evaluate the effectiveness of state government projects, assess Chesapeake Bay restoration projects, and improve planning and decision making related to land conservation and growth. MD iMap is a newly announced Web portal that provides an authoritative basemap with seamless, geocoded statewide centerlines and six-inch imagery of the entire state. Users can access GreenPrint via MD iMap, and government agencies can use a secure login to obtain data from across the state. Eventually, MD iMap will serve as a portal to all accountability programs."

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This all sounds rather benign until you learn what else this system is being used for: specifically, tracking Maryland citizens who own firearms.
An AGC club member who was present during the event reported:
"Near the end of the speech he (O'Malley) said they were keeping information on the location of felons and those with carry permits. He then casually mentioned the GIS system has the location of homes with guns. It was very matter of fact with no information on where or how they are collecting the information."

On February 19, 2009, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown provided written testimony which reads in part: "Of those 7,146 protection orders, 75 respondents had regulated firearms registered with the Maryland State Police and 95 had hunting licenses issued by the Department of Natural Resources." This statement confirmed our long standing suspicions that the Maryland State Police and the Department of Natural Resources are sharing information between the two agencies as well as the Governor as part of a much large effort to identify gun owners in Maryland.

Next we have HB 1446 Public Safety - Sales of Ammunition - Records being filed at the request of the Maryland State Police. This bill seeks to legitimize and expand the current questionable MSP and local law enforcement practice of coercing gun dealers into keeping a "tattle-tale" record of ammunition purchases.
This bill would pretty much close the noose around the necks of gun owners. When you combine the data from regulated firearm purchases, with the data on hunting licenses, plus ammunition purchase registration list you have a very effective and accurate list of the legally owned guns, who owns them, and where they can be found.

The Governor's speech can be found by clicking here. The Power Point Presentation that accompanied the speech can be viewed by clicking on the icon at the beginning and end of the Governor's speech.

I Know it is a long read. But it comes down to the fact that the Government is wasting no time in taking this opportunity of Democrat rule to turn this into a police state. Tracking innocent people because they own guns or bought ammo. The Constitution is being shredded and thrown out the window now that there is no conservative power in office to stop them. It's going to be a long, long 4 years. Unless people get their heads out of their behinds and do some serious voting when congressional elections come up. NOTE The portion of this in Green came from an AGC news letter. Couldn't figure out how to attribute it properly and there was no where to link to it.