Maryland Shall Issue

More winning! Today in US v. Hemani, the United States Supreme Court ruled that use of a controlled substance does not automatically disqualify citizens from owning fi****ms. Mr. Hemani was charged with owning a firearm after admitting to drug use, yet no charges were filed for any drug possession.

This ruling does not legalize using or carrying a firearm while under the influence or after a disqualifying conviction.

As always, practice safe firearm handling, which includes knowing when you are impaired, even by prescription drugs.

Docket for 24-1234

Good news!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HyFgXu7DK/

In a major ruling out of the Appellate Court of Maryland, all 14 judges agreed that police cannot stop someone just because they see or suspect a concealed handgun. The case centered on Steven Hicks, who was in a group on a Baltimore street when officers thought they saw a gun printing under his shirt and moved in for a stop and frisk. Hicks told them he was licensed, but they pushed ahead anyway, dug past a basic pat‑down, pulled items from his pockets, and eventually found guns and drugs. A lower court let that evidence in, but the appellate court tossed it, saying Bruen changed the landscape: public carry is now “presumptively lawful,” so the mere presence of a gun does not equal reasonable suspicion of a crime.

The judges were clear. The “mere possibility” that a person might not have a permit is not enough to justify seizing them. If cops want to stop and search someone over a firearm, they need specific facts suggesting the gun is being possessed illegally or that some other criminal activity is going on. Just seeing a bulge, a print, or a hint of a holster is no longer a free pass to treat you like a criminal. That is a huge shift in a state that long treated handgun carry as “presumptively illegal” and used that assumption to justify a lot of stops, especially in places like Baltimore.

For concealed carriers, this decision is big. It reinforces that exercising a recognized constitutional right cannot, by itself, be the excuse to detain and frisk you. It also shows how Bruen is still rippling through lower courts, forcing states to admit that “shall issue” and permitless carry regimes mean what they say: regular people with guns in public are not automatically suspects. The fight is far from over, and Maryland’s AG is already “reviewing” the ruling, but for now the message is clear: in Maryland, guns ≠ crime by default.

Check out this video that shares a lot of what is going on in Montgomery County. Thanks for the shout out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T1Th3ZHlVk

Check out this open house our friends over at the AGC are putting on!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1HEHRNV2Mo/

RANGE BADGE Membership SALE -- Sat. June 13th ONLY :

New Members - $125
Renewing Members - $225

!!! Purchase ONLINE or IN-PERSON for DISCOUNTED PRICE !!!!

ONE DAY ONLY

Purchase Online Here:
https://www.joinagcrange.org/open-house

The Montgomery County Council had a hearing on their new bill to restrict public carry last night. MSI was there.
https://youtu.be/S5YnUbDpHGM?si=yHAFKFFbMsZ5KrlX

Members! Have you checked your email? We hope to see you at our quarterly.membership meeting. We have SO MUCH to talk about!

In response to our win against Montgomery County and their attempts to virtually eliminate the right to carry within the county, they have proposed yet another onerous bill. Bill 23-26. We sre submitting testimony against it which can be found on our website at https://www.marylandshallissue.org/jmain/documents?task=download.send&id=589&catid=4&m=0

The Bill is being heard by the Mont. Co. Council on June 9, 2026. We urge people to sign up and testify. They can sign up to do so at https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/councilagenda?event=203431563

www.marylandshallissue.org

The petition for cert in our SB1 litigation is now docketed as "Katherine Novotny, et al., Petitioners v. Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland, et al", under docket number 25-1324.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25-1324.html

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Today, we filed our petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court, seeking review of the 4th Circuit's decision in Kipke/ Novotny v. Moore where the 4th Circuit struck down Maryland's presumptive ban on carry on private property open to the public, but otherwise sustained Maryland's myriad bans on so-called sensitive places. Our petition for certiorari can be found here. https://www.marylandshallissue.org/jmain/documents?task=download.send&id=587&catid=4&m=0. For its part, Maryland has filed a petition for certiorari on the 4th Circuit's decision striking down the presumptive ban. The Supreme Court will consider both petitions at its "long conference" the last week of September 2026.

The Supreme Court of Maryland issued its decision today in our challenge to the Montgomery County ordinance that basically banned carry by permit holders through out the County. On that issue we completely prevailed and the County lost. Specifically the Court held that the County's ban "is not a local law because of its application to holders of State-issued wear-and-carry permits traveling on public highways who cross within 100 yards of a place of public assembly." That means that permit holders may carry in Montgomery County without regard to the County's ordinance as long as they remain in compliance with State law. By any measure, we count that as a huge WIN! The whole point of the County's ordinance was to make it impossible for permit holders to carry in the County after the decision by the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen. On that point, the County lost completely. The Maryland Supreme Court issued other rulings as well, holding that County's regulation of so-called "ghost guns" was preempted by State law "to the extent it includes fi****ms that have been serialized in compliance with federal and State law." That means that persons may transport personally made fi****ms to FFLs and FFLs in the County may serialize personally made frames and receivers in accordance with State law. The Court also struck down as preempted a section of the County's ordinance which banned a "broad swath of otherwise lawful (and constitutionally protected) conduct by adults merely because it occurs in the presence of a minor, without any apparent connection to whether that activity might result in minors gaining unsupervised access to those fi****ms." The lesson to County residents and others: get a carry permit and carry in accordance with State law.