Today, Maryland Shall Issue, Atlantic Guns of Rockville and Silver Spring, MD, and several individual citizens of Maryland filed suit in federal district court in Baltimore, challenging every aspect of the Handgun Qualification License (HQL) requirements imposed by the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, and the implementing regulations and practices imposed by the Maryland State Police in 2013. A copy of the complaint, as filed in court, can be found HERE on the Maryland Shall Issue website.
Briefly summarized, the suit alleges that the Handgun Qualification License requirements, both as set forth in the statute, and as implemented by the Maryland State Police, violate the Second Amendment of the Constitution by placing unjustifiable and overwhelming burdens on the right of law-abiding citizens to purchase a handgun for the home. The suit further alleges that aspects of the statute and the regulations violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by, among other things, imposing such vague requirements that citizens are exposed to a profound risk of discriminatory and arbitrary arrest and prosecution. Finally, the suit directly attacks the regulations issued by the Maryland State Police on a variety of state law grounds. Those regulations and practices impose even more onerous requirements, not required by the statute, and are thus illegal under well-established principles of Maryland administrative law.
