Posted on 11/04/2009 11:53:26 AM PST by neverdem
I've written recently about how courts in New Jersey and Illinois have concluded that the Second Amendment poses no obstacle to local governments enacting stringent anti-gun laws.
Now a Maryland appeals court has followed suit. A three-judge panel ruled last Thursday that the Second Amendment does not interfere with a Maryland law that generally restricts state residents from carrying handguns.
That's not much of a surprise. What is remarkable is that Judge Albert Matricciani went out of his way to write that even if the Second Amendment applied to state laws, Maryland's statute would be perfectly constitutional in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court D.C. v. Heller decision last year to invalidate the District of Columbia's handgun ban.
Matricciani wrote:
Even if the Second Amendment did apply, it would not invalidate the statute at issue here. CL Sec. 4-203 provides that a person may not "wear, carry, or transport a handgun, whether concealed or open, on or about the person" or "in a vehicle traveling on a road or parking lot generally used by the public, highway, waterway, or airway of the state." This blanket prohibition is modified by subsection b of the statute, which provides eight exceptions to the general rule outlined above. One of these exceptions is for possession of a gun by a person on real estate that the person owns or leases or where the person resides. Thus, even if the right articulated in Heller, namely the right to keep and bear arms in the home for the purpose of immediate self-defense, were to apply to the citizens of Maryland, this statute does not infringe upon that right.
I found the Maryland handgun law here. You will have to navigate to Maryland Code | Criminal Law | Title 4: Weapon Crimes. And the disclaimer ... IANAL ...
Maryland's handgun law is similarly structured to California's (though not the same) in that it makes a blanket prohibition and then codifies certain exceptions. Exceptions exist to allow transport of your handgun from place of purchase to your home, home to business (if you're the business owner/operator), home to repair shop, home to target shoots and other shooting activities. When transporting it, the handgun must be unloaded and in an enclosed case or enclosing holster. You must travel directly to/from the allowed locations.
If you are going to own firearms you really need to know the laws that will affect you. I have How to Own a Gun & Stay Out of Jail (California edition). You should find something like this which includes coverage for Maryland.
I should have been more clear in my post. I am in Michigan where we are *slightly* more gun-friendly.
My point was the Maryland law does effectively disarm individuals if they aren’t allowed to practice with the weapon they are going to be using to defend their homes and families...and that was a statement based on what I had read in the posted article. But it would appear from what you have posted from Maryland handgun law that transporting an unloaded, enclosed weapon between home and gun range is legal. Thanks for providing that info, which wasn’t in the original article.
Actually, Maryland’s law sounds pretty close to my understanding of MI laws regarding transport of handguns. Yep, I am trying to learn them all :-)
ehrlich is not a friend of the constitution... especially the 5th amendment when i was regulated out of my farm...
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The more we learn about the agenda, getting rid of guns is part of it. I believe they will fail, but am concerned about the courts going along with Obama. Chicago politics use dirty tactics.
Read Wayne Lapiere’s book about the UN - it’s true, and it’s shocking....
Gee, that’s the way it was under Communism.....
Incompetent and opinionated judicial a-hole with a Napoleon Complex. Too bad that these days there are so very, very many just like him.
It’s just TOO BAD that the 4th 9/11 hijacked plane, which crashed into the PA field, DIDN’T slam into the UN building in New Jack City! We would be RID of that liberal atrocity!
Way too many brain-dead here. Baltimore and P.G. county are lousy with them.
Don't forget Montgomery County - the home of nuclear-free and hippie-laden Takoma Park. If it wasn't for Baltimore City and P.G. & Montgomery counties, Maryland would be a red state.
No surprise here.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
As I understand it, you CAN transport a firearm in your car, at least to and from a gun range, and presumably from store to home, as long as it is unloaded and stored in the trunk. But check the statutes to make sure.
See what happens when the revisionists hijack history? For that matter, is Maryland History still a requirement for graduation (I doubt it).
At the outbreak of the War Between the States, the militia were told to bring their weapons to the armories. During the subsequent series of invasions of the State by Northern States' Militias, the militiamen awaited the callup--which never came. Instead, as the occupation of the State continued, the citizenry rioted, inspiring the lines in the State song "Avenge the patriotic gore/That flecked the streets of Baltimore...", written by an expatriate Marylander in Louisiana during the War.
The Legislature was placed under house arrest (at Fort McHenry), and never permitted to vote on secession.
It did not work very well last time, and it won't in the future.
Negative. But you better have gun, ammo, separated and be on the way to a hunt or gun range.
The Second Amendment is not “incorporated” and therefore not binding on the several States. That is one of things that the NRA is trying to get changed.
Yes, but state constitutions must be compliant with the federal constitution.
This is true...
“DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
We, the People of the State of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty, and taking into our serious consideration the best means of establishing a good Constitution in this State for the sure foundation and more permanent security thereof, declare:
Article 1. That all Government of right originates from the People, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole; and they have, at all times, the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their Form of Government in such manner as they may deem expedient.
Art. 2. The Constitution of the United States, and the Laws made, or which shall be made, in pursuance thereof, and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, are, and shall be the Supreme Law of the State; and the Judges of this State, and all the People of this State, are, and shall be bound thereby; anything in the Constitution or Law of this State to the contrary notwithstanding.
Art. 3. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution thereof, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people thereof. “
A blanket statement that the rights of the citizens of this state, where silent by the Maryland Constitution, are supposedly deferred to the Federal Constitution.
When, 2A is incorporated Maryland will be forced to allow Constitutional open carry without a permit.
Read the full text of the legislation ratified by the States, they included a passage stating that the BoR would apply as PART of the Constitution upon ratification.
This means that Art 6 Para 2 applies RKBA to the States as much as it was ever needed to. The inclusion, and judicial obfuscation of, the 14th later on set an even worse precedent.
These are OUR Rights as US Citizens regardless of which State we live or work in. Period. Full stop. "Shall not be infringed" is the "Supreme Law of the Land" everywhere the United States Constitution rules.
Everything else is judicial activism, legislative malfeasance, and a travesty of what our Republic was supposed to be.
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