Lots of things to be optimistic about lately, fellas.

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Nov 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday declared that Maryland's licensing requirements for people seeking to buy handguns were unconstitutional, citing a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that expanded gun rights.

A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote blocked enforcement of a 2013 Maryland law that required people to undergo training and background checks before applying for licenses to buy handguns, saying it violated the right to "keep and bear arms" under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

The Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in a case called New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen required gun laws to be "consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation" in order to survive a Second Amendment challenge.

"Maryland has not shown that this regime is consistent with our nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation," U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, wrote in the ruling.

Richardson called the Maryland law an "additional, preliminary step" that subjected law-abiding people to a 30-day waiting period before they could begin the usual process to acquire a firearm through a separate background check system.

Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legal Action, its lobbying arm, called it "a significant ruling for the Second Amendment and every American who cherishes our constitutional freedoms."

The NRA backed the lawsuit that challenged the law and covered the legal costs of the litigation, an NRA spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Maryland Attorney General Andrew Brown, a Democrat who is defending the law, said his office was "weighing options for next steps in this case."

At issue was a handgun qualification licensing requirement adopted as part of Maryland's Firearm Safety Act of 2013, a broader gun control measure.

Prospective handgun buyers were required to submit fingerprints for a background investigation and take a four-hour-long safety training course. They would then wait up to 30 days before undergoing the rest of the usual process to buy a gun.

A gun rights group called Maryland Shall Issue sued in 2016 along with two individuals and a gun store, arguing that the restrictions violated the Second Amendment. But a lower court judge twice rejected their claims, prompting the appeal.

Richardson on Tuesday said the Supreme Court in 2022 "effected a sea change in Second Amendment law" when it struck down New York state's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home. The test set out under that ruling has led to a series of court decisions striking down federal and state restrictions on firearms.

Maryland had said its law mirrored historical limitations on "dangerous" people owning firearms. But Richardson said no historical laws worked by "preemptively depriving all citizens of firearms to keep them out of dangerous hands."

U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, dissented, saying the court majority's reasoning "would render presumptively unconstitutional most non-discretionary laws in this country requiring a permit to purchase a handgun."

https://www.reuters.com/legal/...rt-rules-2023-11-21/

Nice! Not sure the 9th Circus would reach the same conclusion, but maybe a circuit split would be just the ticket to get it to SCOTUS. Shall issue as the law of the land wouldn’t suck.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
Nice! Not sure the 9th Circus would reach the same conclusion, but maybe a circuit split would be just the ticket to get it to SCOTUS. Shall issue as the law of the land wouldn’t suck.

This has nothing to do with shall-issue. That was already taken care of by Bruen. This was striking down our Handgun Qualification License (HQL) scheme. Like NJ’s infamous FOID. Once the order takes effect, we’ll go back to the good old (Maryland) days of a mere background check and 7-day waiting period.

The legislature will respond when they go back to work in January and do God knows what to try to work around this defeat, just like they’ve neutered our carry permits now that they HAVE to let us have them, but this is still a great thing. The Courts will hopefully continue to slap them down. It’s just a matter of pushing these cases through.

-Rob

took the lawyers 10 years......?

and all the time they are being paid I guess.....

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
took the lawyers 10 years......?

and all the time they are being paid I guess.....

You have no idea what you’re talking about.

This was a hard won victory. You seriously think that the attorneys working on the shoestring budget of a non-profit (of which they are also members) were churning the file?

Please explain your comment. I’m genuinely curious as to how you think this should have gone and/or what Plaintiffs’ counsel had to do with the time it took. (Suit was filed in 2016, BTW.)

Go ahead. Enlighten us.

-Rob

quote:

U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, dissented, saying the court majority's reasoning "would render presumptively unconstitutional most non-discretionary laws in this country requiring a permit to purchase a handgun."

Well, yeah. What’s wrong with that?

quote:

U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, dissented, saying the court majority's reasoning "would render presumptively unconstitutional most non-discretionary laws in this country requiring a permit to purchase a handgun."

Good. She is beginning to understand.

Over the past couple months, there have been rulings against magazine capacity laws, assault weapons laws, may-issue laws, bumpstock rules, brace rules, Suppressor rules, and now permit laws.

The future looks better now for someone like me living in a communist state that my rights will be restored before I take a dirt nap.

I'm tired of having to sign waivers and send my pistol permit and driver's license to vendors just to buy ammo or drop in triggers or even 10rd 10/22 mags. All things free men should be able to buy without hassle.

Still, assault bans and magazine bans will take years to reach the supreme court, but at least they are on the radar now due to 9th circut antics.

Waiting patiently for SCOTUS to once again get involved in NYS and overturn the over reaching laws they passed as a result of SCOTUS bitch slapping their permit protocols.

The Reuters article describes the ruling as "expanding gun rights", which is downright propaganda. Typical though these days.

The court clarified what the right encompasses. Or, it rolled back unConstitutional restrictions on a right.