Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is joining a chorus of other Democratic governors in seeking a tightening of his state’s gun laws in the wake of the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

O’Malley, who appeared at a conference on gun control in Baltimore today with New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg—who is one of the most outspoken government executives on firearms regulation—will introduce later this week a set of regulations that, if passed, would give Maryland one of the strictest sets of gun laws in the country. The Washington Post reports that O’Malley’s proposals would compel prospective handgun owners to submit their fingerprints to police, complete state-approved gun safety courses and undergo a seven-day waiting period.

The Post writes that O’Malley began working on his own response to the killing of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School within days of the massacre:

O’Malley, who first made his name in politics as a tough-on-crime Baltimore mayor, signaled his intent to develop a gun- control package just days after the Newtown shootings, telling reporters, “I think we have too many guns, and I think we have too much killing.”

“You look at some of these guns, and it’s just hard to conclude that these guns should be in the hands of anyone who isn’t a soldier on a battlefield or a law enforcement officer sent into a tactical situation,” O’Malley said at the mid-December news conference, which took place shortly after he pulled several Cabinet officials together to start looking at a response.

Currently, only people applying for a concealed weapons permit are required to provide their fingerprints to Maryland State Police. O’Malley’s proposal would extend that requirement to all gun owners except people who buy shotguns and rifles for hunting; handgun owners would also submit to fingerprinting. It would also introduce a new ban on the sale of assault weapons like the Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle used by Newtown shooter Adam Lanza.

“We need a comprehensive approach that puts the focus on the practical, common sense things that we can do together to save lives,” O’Malley said in his remarks introducing Bloomberg. “Perhaps there is no way to completely prevent the next Newtown tragedy. But then again, perhaps there is.”

While O’Malley’s neighbors in Virginia have responded to the shooting in Connecticut by buying more guns, affirming the National Rifle Associations call for the deployment of armed guards in all schools and, in the case of one state legislator, introducing a bill that would require teachers to come packing heat, Maryland’s reaction has been more pro-gun control.

A poll published today by The Baltimore Sun found that 62 percent of Marylanders favor a new ban on assault weapons, while 71 percent would approve banning the sale of ammunition units greater than 10 rounds. The survey, which was conducted by the Annapolis firm OpinionWorks, surveyed 800 voters from across the state.

O’Malley’s measure would also take steps to reduce the accessibility to guns of people with mental illness. In addition to people who have histories of violent behavior or clinical confinement of more than 30 days, the Post reports that O’Malley is also seeking to prevent people under guardianship from obtaining firearms.

In his remarks at the conference today at Johns Hopkins University, O’Malley also said that rather than order all schools to hire armed guards, his legislative proposal would use the Maryland’s capital schools budget to upgrade security at educational facilities around the state.