The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Maryland’s handgun qualification law as unconstitutional, but it remains in effect pending a state appeal.
The law requires a burdensome process for handgun purchasers, including background checks, training, and waiting periods.
Governor Wes Moore has vowed to continue fighting for the law, while the NRA and Maryland Republican Party Chairwoman Nicole Beus Harris have criticized it. (Trending: Bombshell Email Uncovered Between Joe Biden And Hunter)
🚨 BREAKING: Democrat-run Maryland will continue to enforce a wide-reaching handgun licensing law, even after a federal appeals court ruled that it was unconstitutional.
DEMOCRAT CORRUPTION AT ITS FINEST!!!https://t.co/eBPEcsUQzk
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) November 28, 2023
“Maryland’s handgun qualification law is … the most severe of anywhere in the country by far,” Mark Pennak, president of Maryland Shall Issue.
“It is the most burdensome of any enacted anywhere,” added Pennak, who is one of the parties that filed the lawsuit.
Maryland State Police issued in-department guidance that said “the HQL law remains in effect and there are no immediate changes in the process to purchase a firearm in Maryland.”
“Their decision to push this radical left, anti-gun agenda is political grandstanding, which does not save lives in Maryland, while they continue to ignore tough-on-crime measures that would help our citizens,” said Maryland Republican Party Chairwoman Nicole Beus Harris.
The court ruling found the 2013 law restricts law-abiding citizens’ ability to possess handguns and fails the Supreme Court’s test.
“If you live in Maryland and you want a handgun, you must follow a long and winding path to get one,” the ruling said.
“The challenged law restricts the ability of law-abiding adult citizens to possess handguns, and the state has not presented a historical analogue that justifies its restriction; indeed, it has seemingly admitted that it couldn’t find one. Under the Supreme Court’s new burden-shifting test for these claims, Maryland’s law thus fails, and we must enjoin its enforcement,” the ruling said.
“In Maryland, if you are a law-abiding person who wants a handgun, you must wait up to thirty days for the state to give you its blessing. Until then, there is nothing you can do; the issue is out of your control,” the ruling said.
“Maryland has not shown that this regime is consistent with our Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. There might well be a tradition of prohibiting dangerous people from owning firearms. But, under the Second Amendment, mechanism matters. And Maryland has not pointed to any historical laws that operated by preemptively depriving all citizens of firearms to keep them out of dangerous hands,” the decision read.
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