[Archers] Crossbow Laws ...

[Siegfried Sebastian Faust]

Greetings fellow archers, I have a call for information/discussion about 
crossbow laws.

A while back I did a slow tedious crawl through all of Maryland state law 
about crossbows ... mostly due to my every now and then hearing it said 
that: "Crossbows are considered firearms and therefore are illegal to have 
on public property (such as at an event in a public park, or in a school, etc.)

Besides being a crossbow fanatic in general, when I went to start making 
crossbows for sale, I got REALLY interested in this, as if this was true, I 
could be considered a firearms manufacturer/dealer ... which would have 
some pretty serious ramifications.

Anyway, after crawling through all state law, I found nothing about 
this.  There were some bans on crossbows being used to hunt frogs/fish, and 
so on.  But nothing about them being considered a firearm, and nothing 
about them being banned from public property then.

[Ok, that was the background, here is the deal]

Today I get copied a message from the University Chancellor that says:

>Please inform the person who is organizing the Archery track that no
>crossbows are permitted on site. The county considers crossbows to be a
>firearm and therefore, no crossbows are permitted on any county-owned
>land or facilities.

Ok, now granted, I didn't check every single COUNTIES laws, because I 
didn't think that they would differ on such a major point from the 
state.  But considering it a possibility, I just went to check into it.  So 
I looked through Anne Arundel counties laws/code (the county where the next 
university is being held ...)

And I find nothing.

In fact, I find 'better than nothing', in that I find a specific statement 
that refutes the claim:

>§ 4-101.  Possession or discharge of firearms.
>b0f1591.jpg
>
>(a)     In this section, "firearm" includes a rifle, handgun, or shotgun 
>as those terms are defined in Article 27, § 36F of the State Code.

Having checked the state code, I know that crossbows are not included in 
the definition there, and therefore, crossbows are NOT considered firearms 
by Anne Arundel County ...

[On a side note, even if they were, the rest of the laws in that section go 
on to only say that the discharge of a firearm is illegal on county 
property, not possession.  Which makes much more sense anyway.]

So, I have questions for everyone out there ...

A) Do you have conflicting information to present to me in reference to 
Anne Arundel County?

B) Does anyone in Lochmere here know anything about this rule (obviously 
someone in Lochmere thinks that this rule exists, to pass it on to the 
Chancellor, and I would like to talk to that person.)

C) Does anyone think they know of any other county in Maryland that has 
this law?

Thanks,
Siegfried
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