Maryland Handgun Permit Restrictions Found Unconstitutional by Federal Judge

[Casino67]

Reason.com:

 

Happy

details from the Associated Press

:

 

Maryland’s requirement that residents show a “good and substantial reason” to get a handgun permit is unconstitutional, according to a federal judge’s opinion filed Monday.

 

States can channel the way their residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but because Maryland’s goal was to minimize the number of firearms carried outside homes by limiting the privilege to those who could demonstrate “good reason,” it had turned into a rationing system, infringing upon residents’ rights, U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg wrote.

 

“A citizen may not be required to offer a `good and substantial reason’ why he should be permitted to exercise his rights,” he wrote. “The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.”

Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after fighting with an intruder in his Hampstead home in 2002, but was denied a renewal in 2009 because he could not show he had been subject to “threats occurring beyond his residence.” Woollard appealed, but was rejected by the review board, which found he hadn’t demonstrated a “good and substantial reason” to carry a handgun as a reasonable precaution. The suit filed in 2010 claimed that Maryland didn’t have a reason to deny the renewal and wrongly put the burden on Woollard to show why he still needed to carry a gun.

 

 

 

The

Second Amendment Foundation

sponsored the suit, and Woollard's lawyer was Second Amendment vindicator Alan Gura, who also won the

Heller

and

McDonald

suits at the Supreme Court that established our right to own commonly used weapons for self-defense in the home, against both federal and state encroachment. By moving the Second Amendment argument here beyond the home, this case promises to help expand Second Amendment rights even beyond the

Heller

and

McDonald

standard.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

CBS Baltimore:

BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland’s requirement that residents show a “good and substantial reason” to get a handgun permit is unconstitutional, according to a federal judge’s opinion filed Monday.

States can channel the way their residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but because Maryland’s goal was to minimize the number of firearms carried outside homes by limiting the privilege to those who could demonstrate “good reason,” it had turned into a rationing system, infringing upon residents’ rights, U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg wrote.

“A citizen may not be required to offer a `good and substantial reason’ why he should be permitted to exercise his rights,” he wrote. “The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.”

Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after fighting with an intruder in his Hampstead home in 2002, but was denied a renewal in 2009 because he could not show he had been subject to “threats occurring beyond his residence.” Woollard appealed, but was rejected by the review board, which found he hadn’t demonstrated a “good and substantial reason” to carry a handgun as a reasonable precaution. The suit filed in 2010 claimed that Maryland didn’t have a reason to deny the renewal and wrongly put the burden on Woollard to show why he still needed to carry a gun.

“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. “We’re not against the idea of a permit process, but the licensing system has to acknowledge that there’s a right to bear arms.”

________

 

The 2nd Amendment lives in Maryland.

[Saltbag]

It's a win for now. I'm from Maryland, and I wouldn't say the 2nd amendment or the Constitution lives there. It's on life support, and most of the state government is fishing for the plug.

[Saltbag]

Speaking of Maryland, I just came across this guy.

 

[Evad]

It's a win for now. I'm from Maryland, and I wouldn't say the 2nd amendment or the Constitution lives there. It's on life support, and most of the state government is fishing for the plug.

Absolutely. How they managed to find a judge that would support the 2nd amendment is beyond me.

All they know how to do is tax, spend, tax and spend.

Just found out they are raising taxes in my county for.....are you ready...

ta da...School Funding.

I thought slot machines was supposed to rake care of all that.

Great God these people are corrupt..and the sheep are the stupidest sheep in the land.

[SrWoodchuck]

Speaking of Maryland, I just came across this guy.

 

Like him!

[Casino67]

A Republican in Maryland is a lonely place. Wish him well, but..........

 

An aside, what is the icon on the 'started by ..' line? Looks like a lock?