State Police tell Judiciary Committee Gun Center now mandatory, recommended nearly 30,000 charges in 2024

Annapolis — The Maryland State Police told the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 9 that the Maryland Gun Center now operates 24 hours a day to support law enforcement across the state and recommended nearly 30,000 criminal charges in 2024.

Lieutenant Colonel Rosemary Chappell of the Criminal Investigation Bureau introduced the briefing and said the Gun Center’s command staff would “share with you insight into their division's operations.” Detective Sergeant Michael Sauer, assistant commander of the Maryland Gun Center, described the unit’s work in vetting firearm-related arrests and providing information to local police and state’s attorneys.

The Gun Center, Sauer said, was made mandatory for all Maryland law enforcement on Oct. 1, 2022, and its responsibilities were expanded on Oct. 1, 2023, to require notification when firearms are seized in connection with final protective orders. “The Maryland Gun Center is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week operation that is here to support all law enforcement within the state,” Sauer said.

Why it matters: committee members were given statistics and operational details that affect how arrests, firearm returns, protective-order checks and prosecution recommendations are handled statewide. The change from voluntary to mandatory use of the Gun Center was singled out as a structural shift in how firearm information is collected and routed.

Sauer described the Gun Center’s core services: vetting arrests that result from traffic stops, search warrants and shooting investigations; conducting background checks before returning firearms; validating handgun permits; and performing mental-health checks tied to weapon seizures. Investigators rely on roughly 15 different databases to determine whether a person is legally permitted to possess firearms.

On case volumes, the presenters gave percent and count snapshots for 2024. The Gun Center reported almost 30,000 recommended charges statewide for the year, with Baltimore City accounting for nearly 11,000 of those recommended charges — roughly a third of the statewide total, Sauer said. The briefing also listed the five departments that most frequently used Gun Center services: Baltimore County Police Department, Maryland State Police, Baltimore City Police Department, Prince George’s County and Anne Arundel County.

The committee asked both about the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision and a recently raised federal case referenced in the hearing (transcript: “Rami”). Sauer and other presenters said Maryland statutory prohibitions and existing state practices limited the immediate impact of Bruen on seizures and disqualifications in many scenarios; Maryland already prohibits possession after certain assault convictions and under other state rules, they said.

Members also questioned how the Gun Center tracks juvenile involvement and whether multiple people found near an illegal firearm are routinely charged. Sauer said the center’s case-type categories are assigned after investigators speak with arresting officers; whether multiple people are charged for a firearm found in a vehicle is a prosecutorial and local-enforcement decision. Committee members requested follow-up data on juvenile dispositions and demographic breakdowns by county.

The briefing noted additional operational tools: daily conviction data feeds, live-scan fingerprint notifications for arrests, ATF e-trace assistance for firearm tracing, and a record recheck process implemented Oct. 1 that re-runs checks at midway points of original and renewal permit periods.

The committee closed the session by asking the Gun Center to return follow-up datasets requested during questioning, including demographic breakdowns and age-specific reporting for juvenile cases. Lieutenant Colonel Chappell and the Gun Center team said they would provide additional data to the committee as available.