Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
BALTIMORE (AP) â Marylandâs requirement that residents show a âgood and substantial reasonâ to get a handgun permit is unconstitutional, according to a federal judgeâs opinion filed Monday.
States can channel the way their residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but because Marylandâs goal was to minimize the number of firearms carried outside homes by limiting the privilege to those who could demonstrate âgood reason,â it had turned into a rationing system, infringing upon residentsâ rights, U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg wrote.
The lawsuit, which names the state police superintendent and members of the Handgun Permit Review Board, was also filed on behalf of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation.
“People have the right to carry a gun for self-defense and don’t have to prove that there’s a special reason for them to seek the permit,” said his attorney Alan Gura, who has challenged handgun bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago.
"The right’s existence is all the reason he needs."
BALTIMORE â Marylandâs Attorney General asked a federal judge Wednesday to keep the stateâs gun permit law in place while the state appeals his ruling that the law is unconstitutional.