Anne Arundel & Prince George's Counties, MD - On Tuesday, voters in a Democratic Primary in Maryland State Senate District 21 resoundingly rejected an incumbent candidate who had sided with the gun lobby repeatedly during his time in Annapolis. State Senator John A. Giannetti, Jr. was defeated by Jim Rosapepe, a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Rosapepe has pledged to work with gun violence prevention advocates to make his district and the state safer.

In 2004 Giannetti cast a vote that killed a measure, SB 288, which would have banned assault rifles in Maryland (state law currently bans only 17 specific models of assault pistols). He did this despite polling that indicated that 82% of his constituents supported banning assault weapons. This legislation was extremely important because the federal ban on assault weapons expired just a few months later in September of 2004. A recent study by Ceasefire Maryland, Inc. found that one semiautomatic assault rifle is traced to a crime every 48 hours in Maryland.

"The voters spoke on Tuesday," said Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Executive Director Joshua Horwitz, "and the message was, 'we want a senator who will get assault weapons off our streets.' John Giannetti put his friends in the gun lobby ahead of his constituents and ignored the violence plaguing his district. Thankfully, Maryland's families will no longer have to count on him to keep them safe."