By: José Niño
On July 13, 2023, multiple attorneys providing legal counsel to the Second Amendment Foundation and allied organizations filed a legal brief for a federal lawsuit against Maryland’s restrictive concealed carry law. The filing of this brief is in response to the state’s arguments against a previous motion for a preliminary injunction in the Novotny v. Moore case.
The response brief in question was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Maryland Shall Issue, the Firearms Policy Coalition and three private individuals joined the SAF in this case. The three individuals “wear and carry permits.” The lawsuit is concentrated on taking on Senate Bill 1, a bill that Gov. Wesley Moore (D-MD) signed. This legislation has slapped additional restrictions on the places where lawful citizens may carry firearms for the purpose of self-defense.
Maryland is pursuing the “sensitive places” strategy that several blue states have pursued in order to de facto ban legal, licensed concealed carry in nearly all venues in the state apart from an individual’s home or business.
No doubt about it, Maryland is an anti-gun bastion through and through. According to Guns & Ammo magazine’s best states fur gun owners rankings, Maryland is in an awful 44th place. Simply put, there isn’t much hope for gun owners to see repeals of bad legislation, much less the passage of pro-gun legislation at the state level. In turn, pro-gun forces will have to adapt to these sub-optimal political circumstances.
Dudley Brown, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights, provided his perspective on the legal challenge against Maryland’s recently passed concealed carry restrictions:
“The Maryland legislature isn’t fooling anyone; their clear intention is to undermine concealed carry out of existence. The Supreme Court’s Bruen decision should have put a bunch of gun control to rest. Instead, it has stirred up a hornet’s nest of firearm hating zealots throwing a bunch of legislation against the wall to see if it sticks.”
To their credit, pro-gun forces have been hitting the pavement on the litigation front by challenging these anti-gun measures in the courts. That’s one of the very few ways that gun owners in blue states can push back against gun grabs, since legislative options are generally out of the question due to Gun Control Inc.’s monolithic control of state legislatures.
In light of these obstacles, pro-gun activists will have to calibrate their strategies accordingly.
Ultimately, that’s how we’ll restore gun rights in America.
José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here.