A U.S. appeals court declared that Maryland's licensing requirements for people seeking to buy handguns were unconstitutional, citing a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that expanded gun rights, reported Reuters.
A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote blocked enforcement of a 2013 Maryland law that required people to undergo training and background checks before applying for licenses to buy handguns, saying it violated the right to "keep and bear arms" under the U.S.
The Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in a case called New
York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen required gun laws to be
"consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm
regulation" in order to survive a Second Amendment challenge.
"Maryland has not shown that this regime is
consistent with our nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation,"
U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, an appointee of Republican former
President Donald Trump, wrote in the ruling.
Richardson called the Maryland law an
"additional, preliminary step" that subjected law-abiding people to a
30-day waiting period before they could begin the usual process to acquire a
firearm through a separate background check system.
Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the National
Rifle Association's Institute for Legal Action, its lobbying arm, called it
"a significant ruling for the Second Amendment and every American who
cherishes our constitutional freedoms."
The NRA backed the lawsuit that challenged the law
and covered the legal costs of the litigation, an NRA spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Maryland Attorney General Andrew
Brown, a Democrat who is defending the law, said his office was "weighing
options for next steps in this case."
At issue was a handgun qualification licensing
requirement adopted as part of Maryland's Firearm Safety Act of 2013, a broader
gun control measure.
Prospective handgun buyers were required to submit
fingerprints for a background investigation and take a four-hour-long safety
training course. They would then wait up to 30 days before undergoing the rest
of the usual process to buy a gun.
A gun rights group called Maryland Shall Issue sued
in 2016 along with two individuals and a gun store, arguing that the
restrictions violated the Second Amendment. But a lower court judge twice
rejected their claims, prompting the appeal.
Richardson on Tuesday said the Supreme Court in 2022
"effected a sea change in Second Amendment law" when it struck down
New York state's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home. The
test set out under that ruling has led to a series of court decisions striking
down federal and state restrictions on firearms.
Maryland had said its law mirrored historical
limitations on "dangerous" people owning firearms. But Richardson
said no historical laws worked by "preemptively depriving all citizens of
firearms to keep them out of dangerous hands."
U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, an
appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, dissented, saying the
court majority's reasoning "would render presumptively unconstitutional
most non-discretionary laws in this country requiring a permit to purchase a
handgun."
To read more CLICK HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment