Annapolis, MD – -(Ammoland.com)- The Maryland State Rifle & Pistol Association (MSRPA) announced that it has filed a lawsuit today challenging the State of Maryland’s restrictions on carrying handguns outside the home.
“Barring ordinary citizens from carrying a handgun outside the home for self-defense is a violation of our Second Amendment rights,” said Jeff Andrews, president of the Maryland State Rifle & Pistol Association.
Maryland currently requires law-abiding citizens to demonstrate a “good and substantial reason” for obtaining a handgun carry permit.
That means that ordinary citizens who wish to carry a handgun for self-defense must submit evidence proving that they have suffered recent threats of attack or previous assaults. Earlier judicial decisions have upheld Maryland’s permitting scheme, but a 2017 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down a similar Washington, DC, holding that the District of Columbia can no longer demand that their citizens establish a “good reason” before being issuing concealed carry permits.
“By confining firearm carry permits to the tiny percentage of Maryland residents who can demonstrate a documented, specific threat, Maryland has banned most Marylanders from carrying firearms for self-defense,” said Andrews. “That right is just as important to ordinary Maryland citizens when they are commuting or grocery shopping as it is when they are at home.”
The National Rifle Association is cooperating with Maryland State Rifle & Pistol Association as the challenge moves forward.
“This lawsuit is only possible thanks to the guidance and support of the NRA,” Andrews concluded.
If you have been denied your right to carry due to “lack of good cause” within the last 12 months, please send your information to chairperson@msrpa.org.
About Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association (MSRPA):
The Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association (MSRPA) is the flagship Gun Rights organization in and for the State of Maryland. The Association offers both individual and club memberships. Support of the shooting disciplines and legislative activities is primarily through a systems of committees. All participants are volunteers. In the face of a near tidal wave of citizen disarmament occurring in Maryland, the MSRPA has played a critical part in drawing the line and standing firm for Gun Rights. Without this resistance, things would have been much worse and been so much sooner. Now the objective is to continue to develop new activists with numerous individual skills who will help us bring Maryland into line with the rest of the states which have made strong gains in protecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
For more information, visit: www.msrpa.org.