Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a bill into law Tuesday afternoon in Annapolis defining where concealed carry permit holders can take their firearms. Just over an hour later, the National Rifle Association (NRA) sued the state over the new law, calling it unconstitutional.
SB1 came in response to last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen that struck down the state of New York’s higher requirements to receive a concealed carry permit. Those were similar to Maryland’s at the time, and then Gov. Larry Hogan immediately lowered them in Maryland. There was a sevenfold increase in applications in the state for the final months of 2022 after the change.
With all those new permit holders, Democratic leadership in the General Assembly sought during the yearly legislative session in Annapolis to define where all those new firearms could be taken. On the final day of the session, SB1 passed a set of ‘special-purpose areas’ where permit holders could not take their guns:
- Schools and pre-schools
- Hospitals and health care facilities
- Government buildings
- Public and private institutions of higher learning
- Electric, gas and nuclear power plants
- Places where alcohol and cannabis are sold for consumption on-site
- Stadiums, racetracks, museums, casinos
“It’s common sense legislation that will ensure a person can’t bring a gun into a pre-school, or a hospital, or a government office,” Moore said at a bill-signing ceremony Tuesday at the statehouse in Annapolis. The ink had barely dried when the NRA announced its lawsuit a little more than an hour later. In a press release, the state director for the NRA in Maryland D.J. Spiker called the law unconstitutional, saying it “effectively doesn’t allow (permit holders) to carry anywhere in the state.” The law isn’t supposed to go into effect until October 1, 2023.