By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Almost immediately after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed SB 334, which prohibits the manufacture, sale, purchase, receipt or transfer “a machine gun convertible pistol,” which translates to a ban on Glock and similar handguns, the governor and two other officials were sued in federal court by three leading gun rights groups.
The lawsuit was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association and Firearms Policy Coalition in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. In addition to Moore, defendants wre Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and Michael A. Jackson, acting superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Nicole J. Moss, and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and William V. Bergstrom at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, DC.
The 13-page complaint declares, “Glock and Glock-style pistols are not relevantly different from any ordinary semiautomatic handgun. That is true even though they may be illegally modified. What is more, these pistols are in common use; indeed, they are among the most popular firearms in the nation. Yet if SB 334 is enforced, ordinary Marylanders will have no way to lawfully acquire these common, constitutionally protected arms. That is a handgun ban. The fact that the ban targets only one category of popular handguns does not make it constitutional.”
Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and enjoin its enforcement.
“Bans like the one just signed in Maryland are the antithesis of good policy,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “This unconstitutional law does nothing more than punish peaceable gun owners in the state, and it cannot be allowed to stand. You can’t stop criminal violence by broadening the law just to make everyone a criminal. That strategy never works.”
Quoted by Ammoland News, John Commerford, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, stated, “With a single stroke of his pen, Governor Wes Moore has banned one of the most popular handguns in America. Instead of going after criminals and enforcing existing laws, he has chosen to disarm law-abiding Marylanders and strip them of their constitutional rights. The NRA is filing an immediate legal challenge to this unconstitutional assault on the Second Amendment and will exhaust every option available to ensure this law is struck down.”
“This Maryland law bans nearly every Glock and Glock-style handgun on the market today,” said SAF Executive Adam Kraut. “These pistols are among the most popular on the market, chosen in overwhelming numbers by peaceable citizens for lawful purposes like self-defense. Maryland has now attempted to ban these firearms because a subset of criminals illegally modifies them, using conversion parts that are themselves illegal to possess, and then commit crimes with the modified handguns. Not only is this law as foolish as banning hops and barley to prevent drunk driving, but these commonly owned arms are clearly protected by the Second Amendment, the ratification of which takes certain policy choices – including this one – off the table.”
“Maryland’s politicians just declared war on an entire class of constitutionally protected handguns and the peaceable people who want to own them,” added FPC President Brandon Combs. This ban is immoral, unconstitutional, and tyrannical. FPC and our Grassroots Army are going to force Maryland to respect the Second Amendment, full stop.”
Anti-gunners at Everytown for Gun Safety were cheering the legislation.
“Maryland now becomes the second state in the nation, following California, to pass legislation that holds gun manufacturers accountable for design features that allow their products to be transformed into illegal fully automatic machine guns, capable of firing up to 1,200 rounds a minute,” Everytown declared.
