Maryland Ruling Huge Victory for Second Amendment, Says Second Amendment Foundation

Justice iStock-1245041394
Maryland Ruling Huge Victory for Second Amendment, Says Second Amendment Foundation. IMG: iStock-1245041394

BELLEVUE, WA –-(Ammoland.com)- A federal court ruling in Maryland, that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends beyond the home and that citizens may not be required to offer a “good and substantial reason” for obtaining a concealed carry permit, is a huge victory, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

Ruling in the case of Woollard v. Sheridan – a case brought by SAF in July 2010 on behalf of Maryland resident Raymond Woollard, who was denied his carry permit renewal – the U.S. District Court for Maryland ruled that “The Court finds that the right to bear arms is not limited to the home.”

U.S. District Court Judge Benson Everett Legg noted, “In addition to self-defense, the (Second Amendment) right was also understood to allow for militia membership and hunting. To secure these rights, the Second Amendments protections must extend beyond the home: neither hunting nor militia training is a household activity, and self-defense has to take place wherever [a] person happens to be’.”

“This is a monumentally important decision,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The federal district court has carefully spelled out the obvious, that the Second Amendment does not stop at one’s doorstep, but protects us wherever we have a right to be. Once again, SAF’s attorney in this case, Alan Gura, has won an important legal victory. He was the attorney who argued the landmark Heller case, and he represented SAF in our Supreme Court victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago.

“Equally important in Judge Legg’s ruling,” he added, “is that concealed carry statutes that are so discretionary in nature as to be arbitrary do not pass constitutional muster.”

“A citizen may not be required to offer a good and substantial reason’ why he should be permitted to exercise his rights,” Judge Legg wrote. “The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.”

“Judge Legg’s ruling takes a substantial step toward restoring the Second Amendment to its rightful place in the Bill of Rights, and provides gun owners with another significant victory,” Gottlieb concluded. “SAF will continue winning back firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time.”


About Second Amendment Foundation

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. In addition to the landmark McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court Case, SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; New Orleans; Chicago and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and numerous amicus briefs holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

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DRoberts

YES it absolutely will Jon

See here for more info

https://www.ammoland.com/2012/03/06/earthquake-in

Joe Rutkowski

Will this decision impact the residents of New Jersey. We have the most arbitrary system in the nation.

Mark Kelsey

That's why the Founders called them "inalienable rights" – speaking your mind, worshiping the way your heart guides you, defending yourself, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. All these things are rights everyone has, no different than breathing. They are inseparable from us. These rights are not "guaranteed" by the constitution, they are simply documented by the constitution as the basic rights of all men. Any person, any corporation, any government, any tyrant, any king or queen, who attempt to wrest these rights from the people does so at their own peril.