Maryland – -(Ammoland.com)- Post-Election Update:
What a stunner! From a Second Amendment perspective, this national election is a dream come true.
The Presidential candidate who was loudly vocal in his defense of the Second Amendment won the Presidency.
The new President-elect has pledged to defend the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
The Presidential candidate who wanted to impose on the United States the so-called “Australian solution” of massive gun confiscation lost decisively in the Electoral College, including losing the key battleground States of Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin (and most likely Michigan and Arizona, which are still formally undeclared as of this writing).
The new President-elect will not only fill the open seat of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (the author of the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, recognizing that the Second Amendment embodies an individual right to keep and bear arms), he will nominate individuals to fill the seats of any new vacancies on the Supreme Court (as well as filling vacancies on the lower federal courts) for at least the next four years.
The average age of the Justices on the Supreme Court at this moment is just over 69, a near record. The average retirement age of Supreme Court Justices is 78.7 years. Justice Breyer (who dissented in Heller) is 78. Justice Ginsburg (who likewise dissented in Heller) is 83. Justice Kennedy (who joined the majority in Heller) is 80.
That is potentially three more seats (in addition to Justice Scalia’s seat) on the Supreme Court that may become open within the next four years. In short, the President-elect will nominate Justices who will likely be part of a voting majority on the Court for the next generation.
And there is more. Defenders of the Second Amendment retained control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives! That is huge. Suddenly, there are new possibilities of federal legislation that would have been impossible during the last eight years. Hopefully gone will be veto threats and the Executive Branch policies and legislative proposals that burdened or threatened the exercise of Second Amendment rights by law-abiding citizens.
Alas, we cannot celebrate these national electoral victories of the Second Amendment without also recognizing that our work is cut out for us here in Maryland.
In this State, gun control advocates swept nearly every federal election to Congress (with the notable and important exception of Congressman Andy Harris, who won reelection to Congress in the First Congressional District on the Eastern Shore). These politicians seem to believe that sacrificing the rights of gun owners is somehow appropriate. It is our mission to convince them, and any like-minded legislators in the Maryland General Assembly, that they are mistaken. The General Assembly convenes on January 11, 2017. State-wide elections for Maryland officials (including the Governor and Attorney General) are coming up in 2018. More than ever, it is time to get involved.
We need your help. You can Join Maryland Shall Issue®, upgrade your membership, or contribute to the HQL suit on our website: www.MarylandShallIssue.org.
Mark W. Pennak, President,
Maryland Shall Issue
Upcoming Gun Shows!
Our thanks to the volunteers that came out to the Jarrettsville VFW Gun Show is this past weekend! The next gun show is the Frederick Gun Show THIS weekend. We still need a few volunteers to help staff the booths! Please check the links below if you are willing to help us out.
As always, we’d like to extend our thanks to all the volunteers that sacrifice their time to come out, help us spread our message, and help us gain strength in numbers! MSI will continue attending gun shows in the coming months. As always we are asking for volunteers to help staff our booth. We’d love to have some new faces sign up to help out!
Frederick Gun Show
Nov 12 – 13
https://www.vcdl.org/webapps/vcdl/2017leg.html
Membership Raffle for LCP .380
Everyone who signs up or renews their membership will be automatically entered into a drawing for a Ruger LCP .380! The drawing will be held at the upcoming quarterly membership meeting!
Please Join our Social Media Accounts
Social media is an excellent way of connecting with new people and effective method of getting our message out to others. If you have an account on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram please friend or follow us! Followers of our new Instagram page will be automatically entered into a drawing for an Alien Gear holster once we reach 750 followers!
Membership Cards
The membership cards have been sent out! If you have not already received yours you should receive it soon. Please retain the card as it will serve as your proof of active membership for entry into MSI meetings. Note: when you renew your membership, the cards will go out at the beginning of the following month.
Check out the Updated MSI Store! *FIXED*
It recemntly came to our attention that our web store was not accepting credit cards. We have corrected the issue, and you should be able to order without problems now. If you have any trouble, please let us know immediately! We have added a water bottle to our online store! Check them out and our other MSI gear! We also have more gear in the works!
Not Yet a member of MSI? Join Here!
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.