BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, encouraging the court to grant certiorari in a case challenging Maryland’s concealed carry law, which does not recognize permits issued by other states. The case is known as Gardner v. Maryland.
CCRKBA is joined by the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, California Rifle & Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center, and the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. They are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel and Anna M. Barvir at Michel & Associates in Long Beach, Calif., and Konstadinos T. Moros at the Second Amendment Foundation in Bellevue, Wash.
The case challenges the conviction of Eva Marie Gardner, a Virginia resident and concealed carry permit holder, who was driving through Maryland enroute to visit her mother in Pennsylvania. While traveling, she was involved in an alleged road rage incident in which another car struck her vehicle twice. She called 911 and advised Maryland authorities she was armed and had displayed the pistol when the other driver approached her vehicle after they both stopped on the highway. A state trooper responded, took her sidearm, which had been stored in her glove box but was by now on the seat beside her. She was charged, convicted of the firearms violation and the court imposed a 30-day suspended sentence on the initial gun charge, and ultimately given a six-month sentence of unsupervised probation. The Maryland Supreme Court upheld the conviction, so Gardner appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on constitutional grounds.
“We are supporting Ms. Gardner’s petition for certiorari because, as we state in the amicus, a general right to publicly carry arms for self-defense cannot coexist with each state having a requirement that visitors from other states first undergo a costly and time-consuming process,” said CCRKBA Managing Director Andrew Gottlieb. “The fact she went through the permit procedure in Virginia should be ample proof she is not a criminal, and besides that, she was acting in self-defense from what she believed was road rage and an attempt to do her harm.
“If the high court takes this case for review, it could result in a ruling which could mandate national concealed carry reciprocity,” Gottlieb added. “Such a ruling would definitely benefit our members and supporters nationwide.”