Md. Court of Appeals upholds state's handgun laws

WTOP ^ | January 5, 2011

[neverdem]

BALTIMORE - Maryland's highest court has ruled the state's handgun laws are still constitutional despite a 2008 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gutted gun statutes in D.C.

In an opinion issued Wednesday, the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed a gun possession charge levied in Prince George's County against Charles F. Williams, Jr.

Williams said the state's gun regulations violated his right to "keep and carry arms" under the Second Amendment, and based his argument in part on the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.

The high court in that case said barring a person from possessing a handgun in the home is unconstitutional. Williams, according to the opinion, said the Second Amendment establishes the "right of persons to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes."

Williams also based his argument on another recent gun decision by the Supreme Court in McDonald v. City of Chicago. But the appeals court unanimously rejected his claims and upheld his conviction.

"The defendant wished to extend the Second Amendment beyond what the Supreme Court held in the Heller case -- that a person has an individual right to possess a gun in their home and for self-defense," says Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, who argued the state's case before the appellate court last year.

"What this defendant said is, 'You shouldn't convict me for toting a gun on the streets of Prince George's County, because I have an individual right to carry a gun outside of the home,'" Gansler says.

The court specifically said the Maryland law governing Williams' conviction falls outside of the Second Amendment's scope, because it bars having a handgun in public.

The judges also said Williams did not have standing to challenge aspects of the state's gun permit statutes "because he had failed to even apply for a permit to wear, carry, or transport a handgun."

Gansler says no other state has changed its gun laws based on the Supreme Court's decision regarding the District.

WTOP's Neal Augenstein contributed to this report. Follow him on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

[neverdem]

There's free Constitutional carry in Alaska, Arizona and Vermont. This might go to SCOTUS. Calling Alan Gura!

Why You Should Care About Parker v. District of Columbia

"We also note that at least three current members (and one former member) of the Supreme Court have read "bear Arms" in the Second Amendment to have meaning beyond mere soldiering: "Surely a most familiar meaning [of 'carries a firearm'] is, as the Constitution's Second Amendment ('keepand bear Arms') and Black's Law Dictionary . . . indicate: 'wear, bear, or carry . . . upon the person or in the clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose . . . of being armed and ready for offensive or defensive action in a case of conflict with another person." Muscarello v. United States, 524 U.S. 125, 143 (1998) (Ginsburg, J., dissenting, joined by Rehnquist, C.J., Scalia, J.,and Souter, J.) (emphasis in original). Based on the foregoing, we think the operative clause includes a private meaning for"bear Arms."

Court Rejects Strict Gun Law as Unconstitutional

The majority in yesterday’s decision pointed to a 1998 dissent in which “at least three current members (and one former member) of the Supreme Court have read ‘bear arms’ in the Second Amendment to have meaning beyond mere soldiering.” They were former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in 2005, and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and David H. Souter.

I keep forgetting the name of that decision, Muscarello v. United States.

[savedbygrace]

They are pretending the 2nd Amendment says, “the right of the people to keep arms”, rather than, “the right of the people to keep AND BEAR arms”.

And the ruling was You Nanny Mus.

[Venturer]

You have to remember this is Maryland.

Our Appeals Court is a little light in the Loafers.

Perhaps the US Supreme Court will be able to see the light and free us from the People’s Republic of Maryland rules.

Democrats rule here, I havent had representation in my lifetime.

[Pontiac]

"What this defendant said is, 'You shouldn't convict me for toting a gun on the streets of Prince George's County, because I have an individual right to carry a gun outside of the home,'" Gansler says.

The court specifically said the Maryland law governing Williams' conviction falls outside of the Second Amendment's scope, because it bars having a handgun in public.

How does a man become a Justice of a state supreme court with out being able to read and comprehend English.

The Second Amendment says:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Bear mean “to be carried”. Infringed means 1: violate, transgress 2: encroach, trespass (in other words the state shall not place restrictions on this right)

So to make it simple so even a state supreme court justice can understand; The individual right of the people own, transport and carry firearms is beyond the power of the state to unreasonably limit (by this I mean any law abiding citizen is free to carry. The state may restrict the rights of those convicted of serious crime).

[backwoods-engineer]

Maryland's highest court has ruled the state's handgun laws are still constitutional despite a 2008 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gutted gun statutes in D.C.

The dimwit who wrote this is forgetting the McDonald case, which incorporated the 2nd against the states.

Oh, this case is going to go all the way to the Supremes, and the outcome will make liberals' heads explode.

[freedomwarrior998]

This is why the dicta in Heller was so bad. Every leftist judge in the Country has latched onto the dicta to try to limit the 2nd Amendment to nothing more than allowing possession of a gun in a home. That dicta should have never been in there in the first place.

[backwoods-engineer]

This is why the dicta in Heller was so bad.

I agree, but McDonald v. Chicago is the fix.

[rahbert]

MD Appeals Court needs Supremes beotchslap.

[patriot preacher]

Bingo! Amen! Thank you!

[Joe Boucher]

You have ANY confidence in the Supremes?

Electraglide here.

[neverdem]

This is why the dicta in Heller was so bad. Every leftist judge in the Country has latched onto the dicta to try to limit the 2nd Amendment to nothing more than allowing possession of a gun in a home. That dicta should have never been in there in the first place.

What's so bad about it? I know it's not perfect, but please use the link to show me what else you may object to.

Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. See, e.g., Sheldon, in 5 Blume 346; Rawle 123; Pomeroy 152–153; Abbott333. For example, the majority of the 19th-century courts to consider the question held that prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons were lawful under the Second Amendment or state analogues. See, e.g., State v. Chandler, 5 La. Ann., at 489–490; Nunn v. State, 1 Ga., at 251; see generally 2 Kent *340, n. 2; The American Students’ Blackstone 84, n. 11 (G. Chase ed. 1884). Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment , nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.26

[rahbert]

Nope.

-Road King

[Joe Boucher]

I hear next year all Harley’s will have a reverse like Gold Wings do.
Also going water cooled.
As I get older a reverse sounds real good.
Pull up on to sugar sand or on a down hill and just push a button to get out as opposed to struggling like a mule.

[crusher]

Gansler, like his predecessor Curran, and all the judges and other political figures in Maryland are barely more than Stalinist communists. there is virtually no presence f conservatism/sanity in the system. It only takes three jurisdictions to run the collective: Baltimore, Montgomery, and Prince Georges’ Counties. And they are to the left of Berkeley.

Loathesome place. I cannot get into Virginny quick enough.

[Vision]

Meanwhile a few miles away...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2652560/posts

[neverdem]

Williams bought his handgun legally from a licensed dealer in August 2007 but had not applied for a permit, according to the opinion. He had no prior criminal record, Hopewell said.

Two months later, a Prince George’s County police officer saw Williams searching a backpack near the woods, according to the opinion. Williams told the officer he had hidden his gun in the bushes, and he was arrested for unlawful gun possession

That source needed a proofreader badly.

[2harddrive]

So according to this LOSER court, if the govt passes a law banning free speech to everyone without a govt permit, no one would have STANDING to sue to overturn it, or to appeal their arrest under it, unless one first GOT of of those damnable permits!

[Labyrinthos]

This is why the dicta in Heller was so bad. Every leftist judge in the Country has latched onto the dicta to try to limit the 2nd Amendment to nothing more than allowing possession of a gun in a home.

If the Second Amendment only requires the states to allow a person to possess a gun at home, then how does a person get the gun to his her or home without violating state law?

[savedbygrace]

Well reasoned.