Posts Tagged ‘Second Amendment Foundation’

Gardner vs. Maryland Heads To Supreme Court

Thursday, December 18th, 2025

An interesting Second Amendment case may be making its way to the Supreme Court soon involving reciprocity and post-Bruen state resistance to Second Amendment rights.

  • “The case is Gardner v. Maryland. It is a challenge to Maryland’s concealed carry laws, as it dealt with out of state residents as it was pre-Bruen. It has an amazing fact pattern, one that a plaintiff’s attorney, a petitioning attorney, would love nothing more to have.
  • A lot of people missed it because it was a “pro se petition,” i.e. filed by the person involved rather than a lawyer.
  • “Now it’s sitting on petition to the United States Supreme Court.”
  • “Our good friend Kostas Moros over at the Second Amendment Foundation is geeking out on the video.”
  • “And he also comes to the conclusion, number one, Miss Gardner had gotten completely effed by Maryland law. And number two, you really could not ask for a better fact pattern.”
  • “So he convinces the Second Amendment Foundation to actually do an amicus brief in support of her petition, and also starts using his platforms to publicize this case which then leads to Miss Gardner no longer being a pro se petitioner. She now has counsel. In fact, she has very, very competent counsel representing her.”
  • “But that’s only the beginning of the cool news.”
  • “What once started as a pro se petition by a woman who absolutely got completely hosed by an unconstitutional licensing scheme now has amicus briefs in support of her petition from the following groups.”
  • “There’s an amicus brief from the Second Amendment Foundation, co-authored with the NRA, Second Amendment Law Center, California Rifle and Pistol Association, the Citizens Committee on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.
  • “But that’s just the beginning of the good news, because guess who else has filed amicus briefs in support of Ava Marie Gardner’s petition? the Cato Institute, the Heller Foundation, 24 attorneys general, spearheaded by the states of Virginia and New Hampshire,” including Texas AG Ken Paxton.
  • “And an amicus brief from Senators Ted Cruz, and all of these other members of the United States Senate.”
  • “Ava Marie Gardner is a lawful and responsible gun owner residing in the state of Virginia. And yes, she has a valid Virginia concealed carry license.”
  • “She’s traveling through Montgomery County, Maryland, specifically on Interstate 270. A road rager intentionally strikes Miss Gardner’s car and forces her off the road. Now, after both cars come to a stop, the other driver gets out of his car and starts rushing towards Miss Gardner’s car.”
  • “She initially screams at him to stop, but that doesn’t seem to work. So, then she displays her firearm and stops the threat. And I want
    you to understand that she merely displayed it, did not discharge it. There was no allegation of her pointing it at it. It was just the display of the firearm.”

  • But then, well, after police arrived, the only person arrested was Miss Gardner.”
  • “For unlawful display of a firearm? Nope. For assault? Nope. No. In fact, the only thing that Miss Gardner was arrested for fell under Maryland Code of Criminal Law Section 4-203A, which says that you cannot have a firearm on your person or in your vehicle unless you are properly licensed by the state of Maryland.”
  • This case goes back and the law that Maryland was using for their concealed carry license at the time made it actually impossible. So that even had Miss Gardner wanted to try to get a Maryland license, she in all likelihood would have never obtained one.”
  • “At the time, in order to get a Maryland concealed carry license,
    one had to one show good and substantial reason. That’s right. they were still operating under the “may issue” standard. So you actually had to prove up a reason as they saw fit for you to actually be able to carry a firearm.”

  • “And then in addition to that too, you had to have 16 hours of instruction which of course was only available in Maryland.”:
  • “And then let us remember that also at the time the state of Maryland offered absolutely no reciprocity whatsoever. So she would have never been able to obtain a Maryland license because she was an out of state resident even if they offered some kind of semblance to an out of state resident.”
  • “So it was basically impossible for Miss Gardner to get a Maryland license.”

    • So Maryland arrested Gardner for not possessing a license that they never would have allowed her to obtain.

    Hopefully the Supreme Court will take up the case and remind deep blue states that Second Amendment rights are not optional.

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    Posted in Guns, Supreme Court, video | 4 Comments »

    18-20 Handgun Ban Struck Down

    Sunday, December 3rd, 2023

    Another court victory for the Second Amendment.

    On Friday, Judge Thomas S. Kleeh issued a decision striking down the federal prohibition against 18 to 20-year-olds purchasing handguns.

    The plaintiffs in the case are Steven Robert Brown, Benjamin Weekley, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League.

    Judge Kleeh, a Donald Trump appointee, is Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.

    Kleeh put the case in context:

    This case requires the Court to assess the protected right of the people under the Second Amendment to the Constitution to keep and bear arms. U.S. Const. amend. II. Plaintiffs Robert Brown (“Brown”) and Benjamin Weekley (“Weekley”), individuals, are “law abiding, responsible adult citizens who wish to purchase handguns.”…Brown and Weekley are citizens of West Virginia and the United States of America and are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. Brown and Weekley, as law-abiding, responsible adult citizens, would purchase handguns and handgun ammunition from Federal Firearms Licensees (“FFLs”) but for the right proscribed by 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(b)(1) and (c)(1).

    He went on to explain that Brown and Weekley had each tried to buy a handgun but were “refused the sales because they were under twenty-one years of age.”

    Kleeh noted that the plaintiffs sought summary judgment against the statute while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Attorney General Merrick Garland, and ATF Director Steven Dettelbach sought to have the case dismissed.

    He sided with the plaintiffs and quoted extensively from Bruen (2022) to show the manner at which he arrived at his decision.

    Here is one of Kleeh’s quotes from the Bruen decision:

    To justify its regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest…To demonstrate the regulation of that conduct is within the bounds of the Second Amendment, “the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historic tradition of firearm regulation. Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s “unqualified command.”

    It’s taken a bit of time, but we’re finally seeing Bruen test standards used to strike down gun-grabbing laws. Hopefully a whole lot more will be struck down in the near future…

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    Posted in Guns, Regulation | 3 Comments »