Overview
- A three-judge Fourth Circuit panel said Maryland’s 2023 law validly restricts carrying firearms in many public settings designated as sensitive places.
- Judges left intact bans covering government buildings, public transit, school grounds, health care facilities, museums, state parks and forests, stadiums, racetracks, amusement parks, casinos, and areas within 1,000 feet of public demonstrations.
- The court invalidated the provision that barred carrying on private property held open to the public without the owner’s consent, calling it overly broad.
- The decision reverses a lower court injunction and restores the state’s prohibitions on carrying at establishments that sell alcohol and near protests.
- Gov. Wes Moore praised the ruling as a public-safety win, and the case proceeds against a national backdrop as the Supreme Court hears Wolford v. Lopez on similar location-based limits.