Today, I embarked on the quest to get a concealed carry permit in the state of Maryland. It wouldn’t have to be such a quest if I lived in a state that respected the US Constitution and the rights of the people. Maryland, though, prevents this by requiring a need to prove in your application that you have a “good and substantial reason” for wanting to carry a firearm outside your home. My reason is simple . . .
“I am pro-life…my life.”
I think having to wait until my life is threatened and then documented by the police before I can satisfy a condition to carry a sidearm is like having to wait to be legally able to get a bumper on my car until I have had an accident that doesn’t kill me.
The last time I tried to get a permit to carry, I went to the Maryland State Police barracks and waited in a long line with others to get portions of the needed application before being told everything that I needed to comply wasn’t there.
This time, I returned to the same State Police barracks and the parking lot was empty. There were no long lines of people getting fingerprinted by volunteers for everything ranging from background checks to be child providers, security guards and Marylanders seeking to get a permit to carry concealed. I wondered if there was a holiday I was unaware of. It wasn’t, but I walked right in and was greeting by Trooper “Friendly” and a corporal who gladly told me everything is now done online.
Ok, I thought, maybe this is a new day. It should be easy. The Maryland State Police website lead me to a batch of downloadable forms, all of which came up pretty fast. Except for the one I needed. I got the following message:
Warning: This form is not supported with the current version of Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Upgrade to the latest version for full support.
After downloading the latest Flash reader, I realized there was nothing wrong with my reader. The application was just unavailable. It was subtly taken down. Recently, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the District Court’s ruling in the Woollard case and upheld Maryland’s carry permit laws as constitutional.
I’m sure the Second Amendment Foundation will likely seek an “en banc” review through the legal system. If granted, all of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals judges would rehear the case. It’s impossible to know whether or not this petition will be granted. It seems clear, however, that it will ultimately take a Supreme Court case to determine the extent of the right outside the home.
Maryland “allows” us to have firearms in our homes. Also to travel with one from our home, secured in such a way that it can’t be accessed from inside a vehicle, to a range or shooting club activity, to a dog show or a military outing with a permit. The state government thinks those are all the gun rights Marylanders need. The Kachalsky case in New York is being petitioned to the Supreme Court and the result of that case will most likely impact Woollard’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
Applying for a concealed carry permit now after this ruling is going to be tough, especially since I can’t access the form right now. But I’ll press on.
I live in a state where our legislators believe that:
- People like me cannot exercise their right because a thief might take my gun.
- People like me cannot be trusted to exercise their right in Maryland because we will kill each other.
- People like me cannot exercise their right because the police might shoot them accidentally.
- People like me cannot exercise their right because public safety is harmed when the police waste time chasing those “black man with a gun” calls that are really just pesky, law-abiding citizens exercising their civil rights.
- People like me cannot exercise their right because the police would have to take the time to figure out if someone carrying a firearm is legally allowed to do so. It’s far easier to ban the exercise of a right than to require law enforcement to perform their jobs. This way, every man or woman with a gun is a criminal.
- Maryland politicians can then deny a constitutional right to 99% of the population simply by saying, “It’s in the interest of public safety.”
I don’t share these beliefs and neither should any reasonable, educated, law-abiding, tax paying person in the state of Maryland. And that’s why I’m going to make sure I share this knowledge and try to help legally arm as many free people — especially those “people like me” — as I can.
“No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” -Thomas Jefferson
Yeesh, rather than attach Picatinny rails all over a gun, why don’t manufactures just start forging picatinny gun barrels?
I mean, somewhere under all that railage is the part the projectile comes out, right?
Tacticool railage is getting to be reminiscent of the car fin rage of the 1950’s.
To the POS and all the other POS’S that were up on stage with that JACK WAD, I feel the same as I did 100 days ago, if a teacher or teachers had been armed this farce wouldn’t have happened. When the kid was breaking in through the glass doors someone in the office could have capped him. Over and done with!
Obama and the fascists he represents are despicable creatures. They mean to disarm us, by any means necessary. We must remain constantly vigilant and be ready to counter their next moves.
That d**n 40% AGAIN! Could someone point out please that that study is a). 20 years old, and b). According to Mr. Leghorn (yesterday) the sample size was 251! !!!! With careful sampling, you could probably get that 40% up to 100%.
Also, where the heck did the 90% number come from?
Its fun and all to catch the mainstream contradicting itself, but the 2nd amendment is still not about hunting.
Good luck. When I lived near Albany, NY it was common knowledge in our county (county judges much approve permits) that if you stated on your application that you wanted to carry for self-defense, that was going to get you an automatic denial. In some counties just filling out the form was an automatic denial because of the judges elected in them.
EA has a long history of releasing buggy games….I should know, I’m a victim.
BF3 quit working for me after a DICE “patch” last April. Wasted hours and tried dozens of solutions but to no avail.
I didn’t watch the original, but this is pretty good, I think.
.22Plinkster better watch out. Hes next with his whole shooting a .22 through a washer schtick!
Awesome video
What bugs me in this case, is that everybody ignores the fact that he(the murderer) killed his very own motherto get his hands on her guns. I dont think restrictive laws would have prevented someone that dedicated.
DHS got congressional “authority” to procure 1.6 billion rds over 5 yrs. That was for budget planning. They claim they have not actually sourced that much. Yet
Hurray for the SAF! Glad to have Mr. Gottlieb and the SAF in our backyard here in WA state. I was very reluctant about giving money to the NRA (I eventually did… sigh), but the SAF gets 2 thumbs up and a check. They may not be as flashy or big as the NRA, but the SAF has a viable strategy and has been effective in addressing gun rights in the legal arena. I encourage everyone to donate!
My first thought was:
“Whoever is selling those people their dirt is ripping them off?”
Otherwise:
Price-gouging takes care of itself. So on the one hand…chill.
On the other hand…don’t chill…because people complaining about insanely high prices and not buying is part of how price-gouging takes care of itself.
Overall though, keep in mind, that the market needs gougers in order to function. Like it or not without them ammo prices will not go back to normal. They make ammo available in the marketplace (what use is a low cost provider if he has no supply), they encourage people to buy less, and they allow supply chains the breather they need to catch up.
Its the sucky part of the system…but its still needed.
Think of it this way:
If you absolutely HAD to have bullets right now…you could buy them. You would have to pay WAY TOO MUCH for them…but you could get them.
Price gougers are the reason why.
…and they are still greedy bastards who suck.
I voted for him.
This dude looks like the next Lanza.
Easy to see why the vote is so skewed. The information they want from you to cast a vote is so detailed it makes you want to have a special identity for voting. I’ll be interesting to see if spam results from voting.
Wrong, Robert: the SINGLE most common feature is that they are on serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. In all but ONE mass shooting case I’ve looked at – where the info could be dug out – they have be on these psychiatric “wonder drugs” – it’s a wonder anybody will take them anymore.
LOOK UP THE LISTED SIDE EFFECTS.
By the time its available it will be shipped directly to the govt for destruction.
It has been four years since this article was posted and as a Maryland resident I am disappointed to report that things have gotten no better in “The Free State”. I recently decided that I should renew my LEOSA CCW permit because while I live in a county with an extremely low crime rate, there are times when I have to venture into the City of Baltimore – and we all know what THAT’s like. One of the requirements is that retired LEO’s must have a notarized statement that they understand and will abide by the rules governing the H.R. 218 LEOSA Act and it must be brought with you to the police range when you go to qualify. I went to the MSP website and printed out what I thought was the correct form(s). It was NINE (9) pages long! I was flabbergasted and called the range supervisor, who informed that it was the form(s) non-LEO’s had to endure to apply for a CCW and he sent me a link for the proper form, which consisted of but two (2) pages.
The plain fact of the matter is that in Maryland “may issue” means “won’t issue”. And as I type this, I’m hearing on the radio that there have been 146 murders in Baltimore already this year, a pace which if not abated will lead to an all-time record for homicide in the city this year Granted, the great majority of the carnage is drug dealers killing other drug dealers in turf wars but if I get caught in a crossfire, it’s nice to have the ability to make the shooters duck so I can get out of there. Every law-abiding Marylander should have that.