By: Anthony Morelli
These liberal judges have done serious damage to the Second Amendment.
They decided to push gun control instead of obeying the Constitution.
Now outrage is swirling over their decision to cause harm to gun owners.
For gun owners in a state like Maryland, the only hope to protect the freedom to own guns is the court system.
The state legislature is always going to be hostile to the Second Amendment, and the only way to put restraints on the legislature is by getting their anti-gun laws struck down in court.
This means that if the judges are unwilling to stand in the way of unconstitutional laws passed by the state, then gun owners have essentially no recourse.
Sadly, many judges either have their own liberal agenda, which causes them to ignore the Constitution in favor of gun control, or they simply do not want to rock the boat.
This has led to a disastrous situation in the state of Maryland, one that could embolden anti-gun politicians to push even harder for gun control.
An appeals court has upheld a plainly unconstitutional gun control law that will affect countless people in Maryland.
According to The Truth About Guns, “The 4th Circuit Court of appeals has reversed an earlier decision by a three-judge panel of the same court, upholding Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License (HQL) requirement.
“In the case Maryland Shall Issue v. Moore, a three-judge panel last November had ruled that the law was unconstitutional. But the court had vacated the agreement until the case could be heard by the full court, which upheld the law despite the earlier decision.”
The law puts extreme burdens on gun owners, presumably in the hopes that most people simply won’t want to go through the trouble.
The intention seems to be for as few people to buy guns as possible, thereby making Maryland a mostly gun-free state.
The article continues, “To purchase a handgun in Maryland, a citizen must first obtain an HQL, which requires taking a four-hour class with classroom and live-fire components, and costs several hundred dollars. Other requirements include undergoing a background check that requires submitting a complete set of fingerprints, which the individual must pay for, paying a $50 application fee and then waiting up to 30 days for the state to process the application.
“Note that obtaining the HQL still does not allow one to purchase a handgun. The individual must then undergo an additional background check, wait seven business days and pass a NICS check before acquiring the firearm.”
These requirements are quite extreme, and aside from hardcore gunnies, it seems likely that most people will simply decide not to purchase a gun if this is what they have to do to get one.
It’s a clear attempt to disincentivize people from exercising one of their freedoms granted to them by the Constitution, which in itself makes the law unconstitutional.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, however, apparently has no interest in protecting the Second Amendment, and they decided to let this law take effect.