Friday, July 27, 2012

Maryland gun permit law struck

A federal judge has ordered Maryland officials to stop enforcing a law barring state residents from receiving concealed-carry handgun permits unless they provide a “good and substantial reason” to carry their weapons in public.
U.S. District Court Judge Benson Everett Legg on Monday lifted the stay on his March ruling, which struck down a Maryland law requiring applicants to prove that they need to carry a gun for workplace duties or as protection from a specific threat. The order goes into effect Aug. 7.
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, a Democrat, has appealed the initial ruling and could seek another stay to further delay its enforcement, but gun rights advocates say the judge’s decision puts them one step closer to finalizing a landmark victory.
“We are, after all, talking about a civil right,” said Dave Workman, spokesman for the Second Amendment Foundation, a Bellevue, Wash.-based group that provided financial backing for the plaintiff in the lawsuit. “You should not have to explain why you want to exercise a fundamental civil right.”
The lawsuit was filed against the state in 2010 by Raymond Woollard, who received a Maryland gun permit in 2003 after an armed altercation inside his home but was denied renewal in 2009 by Maryland State Police and the state’s Handgun Permit Review Board because he could not provide documents to “verify threats beyond his residence.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/24/maryland-gun-permit-law-struck/

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