Maryland High Court Limits Montgomery County Gun Carry Restrictions

The Supreme Court of Maryland ruled on April 28 that Montgomery County overstepped its authority with large portions of a local firearms ordinance, handing gun rights plaintiffs a significant partial victory in a case that has been grinding through the courts since 2021

The case,   Engage Armament LLC v. Montgomery County, challenged county laws passed in 2021 and 2022 that banned ghost guns and prohibited firearms within 100 yards of so-called "places of public assembly." The 2022 expansion covered hospitals, nursing homes, child care facilities, polling places, courthouses, government buildings, and even gatherings exercising constitutional rights to protest or assemble. The practical effect was a de facto carry ban across much of the county.

Mark Pennak, president of   Maryland Shall Issue, the group that backed the lawsuit, put it bluntly in an interview with   Bethesda Magazine: The ordinance "basically made it impossible to carry in the county, because you couldn't move around with a firearm." Pennak represented the lead plaintiff before the Maryland Supreme Court.

The   67-page opinion, authored by Chief Justice Matthew Fader, held that while state law does authorize counties to restrict firearms in parks, places of worship, schools, libraries, courthouses and legislative assemblies, the county went far beyond that authority. The court rejected the inclusion of hospitals, long-term care facilities, child care facilities, and government owned properties like single family homes. The justices also ruled that "a gathering of individuals to collectively express their constitutional right to protest or assemble" does not qualify as a fixed "place" for firearms restrictions.

One of the most practically significant holdings involved public roads. The court found the county cannot ban state-issued wear-and-carry permit holders from traveling on public highways that happen to pass within 100 yards of a restricted location. Chief Justice Fader wrote that the ordinance "creates pockets of roadway throughout the County's lengthy and complex highway system in which travelers with State-issued wear-and-carry permits are banned from carrying firearms based on the proximity of those segments of roadway to buildings or locations that might not abut or even be visible from the road."

The ghost gun provisions got a mixed ruling. The court upheld the county's authority to restrict unserialized firearms, but held that the ban cannot apply to firearms that were made without a serial number but later serialized by a federally licensed dealer in compliance with federal and state law.

This is not a total win for gun rights advocates. Several sensitive place restrictions were left standing. The case now returns to Montgomery County Circuit Court for proceedings consistent with the high court's opinion. And there is a parallel federal challenge still pending in the Fourth Circuit, which held the appeal in abeyance while the state case ran its course.

Second Amendment attorney Josh Hochman, whose writing has been cited by multiple federal appellate courts, told   Bethesda Magazine the ruling is best understood as a state preemption case, not a sweeping Second Amendment decision. "It's evaluating a completely different question about the powers of the local government vis-a-vis the state," he said. If the Maryland General Assembly wanted to expand the list of places counties could regulate, it could pass legislation doing so.

For now, Montgomery County permit holders can legally travel county roads with their firearms again. That alone is a meaningful change for a county whose ordinance, as the court noted, created a patchwork of invisible boundaries that made ordinary transportation nearly impossible.

The county government, in a brief statement, said it too was "pleased with the result from the Maryland Supreme Court" and declined further comment while the case remains pending.

Related: The NSSF is currently   challenging separate Maryland legislation that would ban striker-fired handguns statewide.