By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms on Tuesday joined several other organizations in an amicus brief to the U.S. Fourth District Court of Appeals supporting a challenge to a “sensitive places” ordinance in Montgomery County, Maryland which essentially blocks lawful concealed carry in most, if not all, public places.
CCRKBA is joined by the California Rifle and Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center, Second Amendment Defense and Education Coalition, Guns Save Life, Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of California and the Gun Owners Foundation. They are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel and Anna M. Barvir at Michel & Associates of Long Beach, Calif. The case is known as Maryland Shall Issue, Inc. v. Montgomery County.
Their 31-page brief to the court may be read here.
CCRKBA is currently involved in federal litigation challenging Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons.” After the Supreme Court last year granted certiorari in that case, it was remanded back down to the appeals court for further review in line with guidelines set down in the Bruen ruling.
“Like other jurisdictions did in the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Bruen, Montgomery County is trying to dance around the high court’s intent by classifying ‘sensitive places’ as just about all public venues,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb explained in a statement to the media. “In this case, the county has gone to extreme lengths by creating ‘sensitive zones’ which extend out 100 yards in all directions from so-called ‘places of public assembly,’ which neither follows the spirit nor the letter of the Bruen ruling.”
Coincidentally, a group of 19 state attorneys general also filed an amicus Monday in the same case. Led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, the top state legal officers, all Republicans, consider the Montgomery County restrictions to be unconstitutional, according to a news release.
In the release from Knudsen’s office, the group said in their brief, “[A]part from a handful of state laws, local ordinances, and territorial statutes enacted during the late nineteenth century — often more than a century removed from the founding — the historical record doesn’t show an ‘enduring American tradition’ of restricting the right to carry in places of worship, public parks, recreational and multipurpose exhibition facilities, public libraries, or in buffer zones surrounding those locations.”
CCRKBA admittedly doesn’t often engage in court actions, but this is a case involving the right to keep and bear arms, which is this group’s soul purpose for existing. According to Gottlieb, the Montgomery County law, known as “Chapter 57,” is “essentially a ban on carrying firearms outside of the home.”
Not only does it designate public places as “sensitive,” it also places a 100-yard buffer zone around such areas. Armed citizens would have to carry maps to determine whether they are in one of those zones.
“The county is trying to prohibit people from exercising their right to bear arms,” Gottlieb said. “Like other gun control laws, this one is misguided because people with carry licenses or permits are actually among the most law-abiding group in the nation, yet Montgomery County wants to penalize them for exercising their rights guaranteed under the Constitution.”
