BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has joined four other organizations in an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a challenge to Maryland’s restrictive gun control law requiring applicants for concealed carry permits to provide a “good and substantial reason” to exercise their right to bear arms.
SAF is joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc. (“FPC”), Firearms Policy Foundation, California Gun Rights Foundation and the Madison Society Foundation. Their brief is submitted to the high court by Sacramento attorney Joseph G.S. Greenlee.
The case is known as Malpasso v. Pallozzi. Plaintiffs are Brian Kirk Malpasso and the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association.
“This case could have far-reaching ramifications,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “At issue is Maryland’s restrictive requirement but the outcome, if the Court agrees to hear this case, could define the parameters of bearing arms outside the home, and that will impact restrictive laws in several states where carry permits or licenses are strictly regulated, which translates to nearly impossible to get.”
The amicus brief asks the high court to determine “to what extent the right to bear arms applies beyond the home,” because the question “has deeply divided lower courts.” The 27-page brief notes that the D.C. and Seventh Circuits held that the right applies just as strongly outside the home as inside the home, while the First and Second Circuits determined that the right likely applies outside the home, but in a weaker form. Meanwhile, the Third and Fourth Circuits declined to decide whether the right exists outside the home and the Ninth and Tenth Circuits held that the right to bear arms does not protect concealed carry.
“Clearly,” Gottlieb said, “the lower courts need definitive guidance on this important constitutional issue. What other constitutionally-enumerated fundamental right applies only within the confines of the home? It is time the high court takes up this issue to determine whether the Second Amendment vigorously protects a right, or allows states to treat it as a regulated privilege.”