AMGOA Staff
Pennsylvania


Posts: 1,427

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Maryland law requiring potential handgun owners to go through a qualification process, saying the law is unconstitutional.

In a scathing opinion penned by Judge Julius N. Richardson, the federal appeals court reversed a lower court's decision to uphold Maryland's 'handgun qualification license' requirement, or the state's 'HQL' law.

"The answer is not complicated. If you do not already own a handgun, then the only way to 'keep' or 'bear' one is to get one, either through sale, rental, or gift. And the challenged law cuts off all three avenues, at least, for those who do not comply with its terms," U.S. Fourth Circuit Court Judge Julius N. Richardson wrote in his opinion

Filed by the nonprofit gun advocacy group Maryland Shall Issue, the 2016 federal lawsuit argued the state's increasingly strict HQL regulations placed 'undue' burden on citizen's constitutional rights to obtain, own and possess firearms.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/appeals-court-strikes-down-maryland-law-requiring-handgun-qualification-licenses