Annapolis, MD -(AmmoLand.com)- Yesterday, Maryland Shall Issue, Altantic Guns of Rockville and Silver Spring, MD, and several individual citizens of Maryland filed suit in federal district court in Baltimore, challenging every aspect of the Handgun Qualification License (HQL) requirements imposed by the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, and the implementing regulations and practices imposed by the Maryland State Police in 2013.
A copy of the complaint, as filed in court, can be found HERE on the Maryland Shall Issue website.
Briefly summarized, the suit alleges that the Handgun Qualification License requirements, both as set forth in the statute, and as implemented by the Maryland State Police, violate the Second Amendment of the Constitution.
By placing unjustifiable and overwhelming burdens on the right of law-abiding citizens to purchase a handgun for the home. The suit further alleges that aspects of the statute and the regulations violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by, among other things, imposing such vague requirements that citizens are exposed to a profound risk of discriminatory and arbitrary arrest and prosecution.
Finally, the suit directly attacks the regulations issued by the Maryland State Police on a variety of state law grounds.
Those regulations and practices impose even more onerous requirements, not required by the statute, and are thus illegal under well-established principles of Maryland administrative law.
The HQL requirements, particularly as implemented by the State Police, were intended to create as many obstacles to the purchase of a handgun as possible and thus effectively ration the exercise of constitutional rights to the few who have the substantial time, money, specialized knowledge and sheer determination to navigate all these roadblocks to the exercise of a constitutional right. That result is wrong and simply cannot be meekly accepted without a fight. That fight is now on.
Our legal counsel in this suit is Cary J. Hansel, Hansel Law, PC, 2514 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. While the State of Maryland is sure to resist and it is always hazardous to predict litigation, we look forward to working with Cary to achieve a successful outcome in this case.
This is just the first step. There is a still a long road ahead and we will need your continued help and support as this suit proceeds.
Sincerely,
Mark Pennak
President Maryland Shall Issue
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About Maryland Shall Issue:
Mission Statement: Maryland Shall Issue is an all volunteer, non-partisan effort dedicated to the preservation and advancement of all gunowners’ rights in Maryland, with a primary goal of CCW reform to allow all law-abiding citizens the right to carry a concealed weapon; and to the education of the community to the awareness that ‘shall issue’ laws have, in all cases, resulted in decreased rates of violent crime.
For more information, visit: https://www.vcdl.org/webapps/vcdl/2017leg.html.