Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan isn't exactly someone that most of us spend a lot of time talking about. He's out of office and while he's running for a new one, it's a Senate race in Maryland. While he's got a good shot, it's not one of those seats most of us are really spending a lot of time and attention on.

But in Maryland, it's understandably an important race.

It's also not shocking that some op-eds are going to pop up to try and bash the various candidates, such as Hogan. One such op-ed, however, did a lot more than just bash the former governor. It made me want to be more active in supporting the man.

The Trump administration also systematically gutted firearm background check laws. It allowed people with active arrest warrants and half a million people flagged as “fugitives from justice” by federal law enforcement officials to buy guns. It even stopped the Social Security Administration from helping identify people with mental health conditions that could make it dangerous for them to own firearms. These and other actions increased the number of guns on the streets, making communities across the nation less safe.

The Maryland General Assembly fought back. We voted to strengthen background checks by requiring them for long gun purchases, and we put handgun permit reviews in the hands of judges. These commonsense measures were designed to stem the tide of gun violence and keep Marylanders safe.

Hogan again stood with Trump, with the National Rifle Association, and with the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. He vetoed bills to strengthen background checks and depoliticize handgun permit reviews. He stood with the Trump administration and the gun lobby and against Maryland’s values.

Of course, despite this op-ed appearing on the internet, there's a distinct lack of links supporting any of these claims. 

Shocking, I know.

But let's start with the whole thing about warrants and fugitives for a moment. I vaguely remember that going on, and mostly it dealt with the fact that most of these people haven't been convicted of any felonies, thus still retain their constitutional rights. I understand the sentiment here, but rights don't just vanish because someone has been accused of wrongdoing, which is all an arrest warrant really is.

As for the Social Security Administration thing, Hogan was right to back Trump on that.

People who apply for disability benefits may suffer from some kind of mental health condition, but Social Security doesn't evaluate for whether someone is dangerous or not. They evaluate for whether someone can work or not. That's it. As such, they have no business playing any role in determining whether someone may or may not be dangerous.

No one should be comfortable with them deciding which rights people get to enjoy simply because they can no longer work. That's even more true when you consider that people who need disability may end up trying to downplay their conditions to keep their gun rights and end up torpedoing their ability to get the help they so desperately need.

In fact, at every point, all I see here is that Hogan deserves the support of the Second Amendment community. "Maryland's values," though, aren't Maryland's values. Those are Baltimore's values, and those values have turned the state into an anti-gun region and still done nothing to reduce violent crime in Baltimore itself. Hogan likely knew this and that's why he opposed new gun control measures. It was the right call.

I get that they're trying to bash Hogan, but this makes me want to send his campaign money.