U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia

The 4th Circuit Court of appeals has reversed an earlier decision by a three-judge panel of the same court, upholding Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License (HQL) requirement.

In the case Maryland Shall Issue v. Moore, a three-judge panel last November had ruled that the law was unconstitutional. But the court had vacated the agreement until the case could be heard by the full court, which upheld the law despite the earlier decision.

To purchase a handgun in Maryland, a citizen must first obtain an HQL, which requires taking a four-hour class with classroom and live-fire components, and costs several hundred dollars. Other requirements include undergoing a background check that requires submitting a complete set of fingerprints, which the individual must pay for, paying a $50 application fee and then waiting up to 30 days for the state to process the application.

Note that obtaining the HQL still does not allow one to purchase a handgun. The individual must then undergo an additional background check, wait seven business days and pass a NICS check before acquiring the firearm.

“This case requires us to apply the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen,” the ruling stated. “We conclude that the Supreme Court in Bruen foreclosed the plaintiffs’ ‘temporary deprivation’ argument by stating that, despite some delay occasioned by ‘shall-issue’ permit processes, this type of licensing law is presumptively constitutional because it operates merely to ensure that individuals seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights are ‘law-abiding’ persons.”

The ruling continued: “We hold that the plaintiffs have failed to rebut this presumption of constitutionality afforded to ‘shall-issue’ licensing laws like the handgun qualification statute. So, the plaintiffs’ challenge to the HQL statute fails, and we affirm the district court’s award of summary judgment to the state of Maryland.”

The court never considered the second Bruen standard—historical precedence—because it ruled that the law doesn’t violate the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights. It’s doubtful the state would have been able to come up with comparable laws at the time of the founding to justify the Maryland law.

“A majority of this Court concludes that Maryland’s handgun license requirement doesn’t implicate the plain text of the Second Amendment, which preserves ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,’” the ruling stated. “That is wrong. Maryland’s law regulates acquiring a handgun, and the Second Amendment’s text encompasses that conduct.”

Writing in dissent, Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, a Donald Trump appointee, was displeased with the manner in which the court went about considering the case.

“Our en banc Court carries Maryland’s defense across the finish line,” he wrote. “Yet to do so, the majority stretches implications from Supreme Court dicta to establish a carveout from Supreme Court doctrine. It then defends this result by grounding it in a contrived reading of the Second Amendment’s plain text, for which the majority offers no support beyond negative inference. I cannot assent to this transparent workaround of governing doctrine. The Supreme Court established a two-step, text-and-history framework for assessing all Second Amendment claims. I would treat Maryland’s law like any other and analyze it under this framework.”

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33 COMMENTS

    • Likely so but I would imagine the 2nd circuit is taking notes for some of their pending decisions from post Bruen cases.

      • As the 2nd Circuit is one of the lost Leftist circuits, that would not surprise me. While the 2nd doesn’t want to get slapped down again, they will still spread their anti-firearms decisions. Again, the Supreme Court will have to put them in their place.

      • Recent experience also suggests that at least one (if not two) of the conservative SCOTUS justices are less enthusiastic about upholding the Second Amendment.

      • With a number of full circuit decisions trickling in…..yeah or at least substantially more likely than the last few years of lower court issues.

  3. if and when the case goes to SCOTUS, the chances of a 2A favorable ruling increase exponentially..I see this 4th Circuit ruling as expected, and the dissent expressed by the named Judge is an accurate summation of what the majority Marxists went with:essentially delay by placing the burden upon license applicants to ” prove ” their law abiding status vs The State proving their lack thereof..sort of like ” suitability ” as determined by CLEOS until recently in Massachusetts.
    They’re also banking on another election steal on November 5 to prevent any future Judicial Nominations from a POTUS who well not perfect on the subject doesn’t HATE the RKBA..

  4. Wth. Why not also have to run through a moat while bench pressing 350 lbs to get your “right” to buy a gat. Geez Loise

  5. And homie in Baltimore will carry anyway. Good folks denied by cost & racism. Yeah I agree with debbie occasionally🙄

  6. An endless stream of interest balancing. That’s all we ever get and scotus does very little stop it.

  7. This judgement is another recent example of how the courts are trying to circumvent the recent Bruen decision.

    This recent strategy:
    1) Claim that the law in question is not a complete ban on the Second Amendment.
    2) Claim that the law in question is therefore not subject to the Bruen decision.

    I think that we need a U.S. Supreme Court decision which clarifies unequivocally that any law which involves firearms must pass the Bruen decision standard. Thus, whatever a firearm law imposes, the government would have to show how history and tradition (between 1750 and 1840) had analogous laws.

    • “I think that we need a U.S. Supreme Court decision which clarifies unequivocally that any law which involves firearms must pass the Bruen decision standard.”

      In “Rahimi” the SC provided a path around Bruen; analogs are not required to be close to historical laws, but only “close enough”.

      Essentially, “preponderance of the evidence”.

  8. How come the majority of En Banc court rulings are 2A based and usually in the NEGATIVE? The circuit courts are corrupt in blue states.

  10. SO TWO background checks, an additional $250 or more for the “ownership permit, a thirty day wait for processing, and a seven day hold to acquire after purchase. Seems reasonable enough. S’NOT! Purchasing firearms falls within the scope of the 2A.

    • It sucks. My advice, move. In Georgia, you don’t need a permit and you don’t wait a minute. Having a permit makes gun purchase instant every single time though. I keep mine even though we have constitutional carry now just for the ease of purchase. The one time I let it expire that dam NCIS system put holds on me for buying more than 2 in 10 days. I left the store, drove an hour home only to get the call that the hold was lifted. Just a waste of my time and gas for them to power trip.

    • i live in MD unfortunately and cannot escape to a free state until my young kids are out of high school and i can get a retirement from my job and start over somewhere else. wife isn’t willing to yank em out of school with their friends, and i cant afford a post-covid mortgage anymore anyway.

      FFL’s in my area (farm-country red-voting central MD) charge several hundred for the HQL classes (best guess $100-$300 for the training, plus $50 license fee to the state police and $50-$100 for fingerprints. then the NICS+1week wait (MSP helpfully emails you a “Your Application has been Not Disapproved” notice 7 days after NICS)+FFL transfer fee of $40-$75 at most FFL’s ($10 goes to MSP to register your ‘Regulated Firearm’, which is all handguns SBRs, SBSs, suppressor, and pretty much all semi auto rifles bigger than rimfire, that arent banned outright by the 2013 Firearms Safety Act – the state-level AWB+mag capacity ban that’s being challenged.

      Forget it if you want a CCW. another $300-$500 for that training, plus another 5yr license fee and background check + 2 references….so for a normal citizen to buy 1 pistol + CCW, you’re looking at probably at least $200-$400 for the HQL (permit-to-purchase, which is valid 5 or 10yrs i forget) + gun price/6% sales tax + $40-75 FFL fee + $300-$500 CCW trianing+fees. An average glock with fees+training can easily cost over $1500 – keeps us plebes disarmed and not carrying concealed, all part of the plan. MD probably 4th most so-shul-ist state after CA, NJ, and NY.

      HQL exemptions exist for military, active+retired law enforcement, and possibly firefighters and EMT’s. no exemptions for CCW.

  14. So what if a Maryland resident goes to another state and purchases? Would he be able to avoid all that?

    • Gipper’s Ghost,

      Federal law (which is unconstitutional although the U.S. Supreme Court has not weighed in yet) prohibits Maryland residents purchasing handguns in another state. Maryland residents could purchase long guns in adjacent states and remain within the graces of federal law. Of course that would still violate Maryland law.

  15. (WBFF) — An 87-year-old Pikesville (Baltimore County) woman is still recovering after injuries she received Wednesday night during a carjacking.

    66-year-old Valarie Smith was dropping off groceries to her mom, when she says she was approached by a teen wearing a ski mask and all black clothing.

  17. Maryland was a nice place in the 70’s & 80’s. Except Baltimore and most of Prince George County.

  18. Which other constitutionally explicit right carries such a burden to enjoy?………………..NONE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  19. When they require permits, training, and permission to rent moving vans out of the state you know it’s over.

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