A running guide on questions and answers for the legislation being considered in Annapolis this session.

If you are a gun owner who resides or could reside in Maryland, your rights are under attack like never before.  The Maryland General Assembly has put forth a series of egregious bills this session and we ask you to HELP US fight them! Not only do we need self-defenders, but also hunters, competitors, tinkerers, and recreational shooters, as the legislature has declared all of us public enemy number one!

Not content with making the lives of handgun owners miserable, now they are after the hunters and long guns. Bill SB737 was just introduced and that bill requires anyone desiring to purchase or "receive" a long gun obtain a LONG GUN QUALIFICATION LICENSE!  Highly similar to the Handgun Qualification License, this license will require 4 hours of training and fingerprinting and ban any person from receiving a long gun without having first applied to the State Police for this LGQL.  Even after getting an LGQL, a purchaser would also have to wait 7 days before picking up their long gun, and the bill would limit them to a single long gun purchase per month!  Additionally, anyone who moves into the state will be required to register their long guns within 90 days of establishing residency!  And there are loads of severe criminal penalties for those who fail to comply for any reason.

Firearms Safety Act of 2013 requires that a person complete a 16 hour training course, taught by a State certified instructor, “prior to application” for a carry permit. MD Code, Public Safety, § 5-306(a)(5). Senate Bill 114 would amend Section 5-306 to delete the requirement that the training be completed “prior to application.” It then provides that a person may file an initial application for a wear and carry permit without completing the training and directs that the State Police to issue a preliminary approval if the person is otherwise qualified for the permit. The person then has 120 days after receipt of the preliminary approval to furnish the State Police the certificate of training otherwise required by the regulations. A permit does not issue until that training certificate is provided. If no certificate of training is provided, the State Police are directed to revoke the preliminary approval and deny the permit application.

SB 113 would amend MD Code Public Safety 5-304. That section sets out the requirements for an application for wear and carry permits issued by the Maryland State Police. It establishes fee caps for the applications and provides that the applicant for a carry permit may pay the fees under this section by “a personal check, business check, certified check or money order.” SB 113 would amend this last requirement, providing that the applicant must pay via “a method of payment approved by the Secretary.” For the reasons set forth below, this change is misguided and would impose additional barriers on applicants who lack the means to meet the State Police’s new requirements.

 Read what these bills mean for you here

See our guide on how to testify in Annapolis here

Governor Hogan disregarded our veto requests and has signed the Handun Permit Review Board Bill (HB 819) , and the “red flag” bill (HB 1302). As detailed in our veto letters to the Governor (the letter on HB 819 can be found HERE, and HB 1302 letter can be found HERE), both bills were bad, but the HB 1302 “red flag” bill was the worst.

Dear Mr. Shank:

This letter is submitted on behalf of Maryland Shall Issue, its officers and Board and all its members, to request that Governor Hogan veto HB 819, as enacted by the General Assembly. As you may know, Maryland Shall Issue is an all-volunteer, non-partisan organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of gun owners’ rights in Maryland. The undersigned President of Maryland Shall Issue is an attorney and an active member of the Bar of the District of Columbia, having recently retired from the United States Department of Justice, after 33 years of practicing before the federal Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. For the reasons set forth below, HB 819 is an unfounded attack on the Handgun Permit Review Board whose members are appointed by you. It deserves to be vetoed.

Dear Mr. Shank:

    This letter is submitted on behalf of Maryland Shall Issue, its officers and Board and all its members, to request that Governor Hogan veto HB-1302, as enacted by the General Assembly on April 9, 2018.

UPDATED: 

Well, HB 1302, the so-called Extreme  Risk Protection Orders bill, has emerged from the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee and quickly passed the Senate.  The vote in the Senate was 31-13.  Up front, we wish to thank the tireless efforts of Senator Hough, Senator Ready, Senator Cassilly and Chairman Zirkin in the Committee to remake this bill from the House version. And because of their efforts, the resulting bill is certainly a big improvement over the bill that was passed by the House. To their great credit, Senators Hough, Ready, Cassilly and Senator Linda Norman (who is new to the Committee, having just been appointed to the seat filled by her late husband) voted against this bill in Committee. That is because these Senators realized that the bill is still a legal abomination. Even under the JPR amendments, the bill still makes gun owners a unique class in the law, e.g., a person who can be proceeded against and whose property can be seized simply because of his or her status as a gun owner.

The Opposition is playing games with SB 27, which is the preliminary approval bill for a carry permit. This bill passed the Senate 44-1 this year and was approved by the House Judiciary Committee 18-0. It passed the House last year. The opposition wants to tack on amendments to make it hard on republicans. We need, however, something to pass in the House for it to get to a conference with the Senate. PLEASE, call and write your representative ASAP to urge them to stand firm and get this bill through the House in accordance with what passed the Senate and what the House did last year.

You can find your representatives HERE

SB27 can be found HERE

Legislative Alert: "Rapid Fire Trigger Activator" Ban Bills Hearing - Joint Hearing Room (Department of Legislative Services Building, 90 State Circle, Annapolis) 2/28 1:00pm.

MSI is urging our members and all who care about firearms rights to come out to Annapolis on Tuesday, March 6, 2018! This is gun bill day in the House of Delegates. No rally or formal hosted event is planned. So far 38 bills are scheduled for this day.

Well, it is starting to get exciting in Annapolis.  We are tracking legislation and updating it often on our website with links to the bills and our testimony.  We do want to highlight here a few of these bills and encourage our members (and other supporters of the Second Amendment) to contact their legislators and come out and testify.  MSI needs your support. 

As always, Maryland Shall Issue will be tracking all of the gun bills that come along this session.  Below is a list of all of the current gun bill information, as well as MSI's positions and applicable testimonies.  This table will be kept up to date during this session.

Passage of this bill (H.R. 38) in the House is huge and is strongly endorsed by MSI. The bill contains multiple provisions greatly strengthening the rights of individuals with concealed carry permits and and of residents of constitutional carry states that allow concealed carry without a permit.

Sine Die (midnight, April 10) has come and gone and the 2017 Session of the General Assembly is over.  Thankfully.  The forces of logic and sense actually did pretty well, considering what was at stake.  My thanks go out to the folks and leadership at NRA-ILA, the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association, 2A Maryland, the AGC, the Western Maryland Sportsmen's Coalition and the Maryland Hunting Coalition.  We all contributed.  But most of all I want to thank our membership and others, who stood up and were counted with time, testimony, emails, calls, support, and signs.  Thank you for your passion!  It is a bond that we all share.

So what happened this year?

Several of the 2A organizations in our state, along with the NRA showed up in Annapolis to testify against many bills.  We have some video from these testimonies one of the more egregious bills this session, HB0159 - Weapon-Free Higher Education Zones.  Take a look!

MSI's president, Mark Pennak, testified in Annapolis during a recent senate hearing during General Assembly 2017.

This page will be kept to date with this 2017 MGA session's 2nd Amendment related legislation as we become aware of them.