Gun Control Backers Release Ad Supporting New Firearm Restrictions

Gun control advocates hope to launch a new radio ad praising strict new gun restrictions that go into effect in Maryland on Oct. 1.

The ad is created by Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, and was played for reporters during a news conference on Tuesday at the Episcopal Diocesan Center in Baltimore.

The ad features Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson, Jenifer Pauliukonis, a Parkville resident and member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and Bishop Eugene Sutton, of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. 

"I’ve never been prouder to be a Maryland [resident] until the day that this passed. I feel safer knowing my children are going to live in a state where the best law in the country for gun violence exists," Pauliukonis said during the news conference.

Vincent DeMarco, president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, said his organization has yet to make an ad buy, but vowed the commercial would be heard on radio stations in the Baltimore market. 

He also said the timing of the announcement of the ad and Monday's shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. was coincidental. 

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, House Speaker Michael Busch (D-Anne Arundel County) and Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery County) also attended the news conference.

"We have a public health crisis in the United States, and it’s gun violence. It is an epidemic and what we did very simply in the General Assembly is to try to implement best practices from across the country," Frosh said.