Maryland Gun Law Found Unconstitutional (Good and compelling reason no longer applies)

[shadowrider]

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.”

(SNIP)

Many states require gun permits, but Illinois has a ban and six states, including Maryland, issue permits on a discretionary basis, Gura said. In most of those states, these challenges have not succeeded in U.S. District Courts, but they are being appealed, he said.

“Most states that choose to regulate the right to bear arms have licensing systems that are objective and straightforward,” Gura said. “That’s all that we want for Maryland.”

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/03/05/md-gun-law-found-unconstitutional/

More backlash

Yup

[PavePusher]

1. Excellent news. Hopefully that will apply to the entire field of Civil Rights litigation. n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. This could have interesting repercussions here in California

We need more people carrying concealed, especially in the Pasadena area.

[TPaine7]

3. Yesssssssssss!!!!!!! n/t

[AnotherMcIntosh]

4. "Illinois" does not have "a ban." It issues FOID cards.

At best it can be said that Illinois does not generally allow concealed guns to be carried in public.

Even that has exceptions. Even some of the criminal types are known to be deputys in communities where campaign contributions can get you an honorable deputy position. Some criminal types have even been known to be part-time cops. Such people are allowed to carry concealed firearms. As are lawful deputys, cops, judges, and certain other governmental officials.

Allowing selected criminals to be deputys or part-time cops in some communities isn't any thing new. This was done even in Al Capone's time.

Illilnois doesn't ban the ownership of guns. It even allows guns to be concealed in the home and on the person when that person is in their home. The politicians in Chicago, however, would prefer the opposite.

[TPaine7]

7. Illinois does have a ban on ordinary folks carrying arms. FOID cards

are irrelevant to the point being made. The issue under discussion is concealed carry--not concealed carry in the home but concealed carry in public.

Exceptions for well-conected criminals are not relelevant either, nor are exceptions for Chicago aldermen. (Yes, I know that is redundant, but some consider these different categories so I humored them.)

[PavePusher]

10. Illinois FOID cards have nothing to do with carry.

Mere commoners in Illinois are banned from public carry of defensive sidearms.

[-..__...]

5. Bravo! But... will the State will appeal this decision..

all the way to the SCOTUS?... hopefully before another anti 2nd amendment justice is appointed.

A ruling that would apply to all 50 States (especially those that are saddled with a "may issue" permitting system), is long over due.

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.

As much as I respect Gura's efforts and previous success's... I have to disagree with him here; NO permit should be required to keep and bear arms.

Then again... his strategy could simply be to not put everything on the plate at once, but to restore our 2nd amendment rights one little bit at a time.

[PavePusher]

11. Gura's publicly acknowledged strategy is to build up a solid pile of incremental wins.

Each step leading logically and inexorably to the next, so as to make the outcomes as inassailable as possible.

It'll take a bit longer, but the end result will be worth the effort.

[SteveW]

6. Jim Crow takes another blow. nt

[TPaine7]

8. This is a great precedent. It will put pressure on thugs in robes

to stop pretending that they don't know what the word "right" means.

[ileus]

9. I'm alive I'd like the tools to assure that I remain so...what better reason?

[LAGC]

12. It's really encouraging seeing stuff like this happen in New England, the anti-gunner's stronghold.

Now if California just comes around, it will spell the death knell of the gun control movement in this country.

[PavePusher]

14. Please be careful with your stereotyping of New England.

Northern New England (ME, NH & VT) all have fairly reasonable gun laws. Not perfect, but VT comes close, and NH & ME are not far behind.

MA has nasty gun laws, and CT and RI are definitely under the influence of MA & NY.

Please don't lump the bad half with the good half.

[krispos42]

15. Maryland is not part of New England.

They're a mid-Atlantic state, I believe.

New England stops at New York in the west, Canada in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the east, and Long Island Sound in the south.

[LAGC]

16. Thanks for pointing that out!

I was under the impression that every state north of D.C. was part of New England.

Someone else corrected me on another board about that.

Learn something new every day.