A federal appeals court on Thursday agreed to reconsider a decision holding that Maryland's licensing requirements for people seeking to buy handguns are unconstitutional under a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights.
The full Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed at Maryland's request to reconsider the case after a 2-1 panel in November held the 2013 law violated the right to keep and bear arms under the U.S. Constitution's 2nd Amendment.
The handgun qualification licensing requirement was adopted as part of Maryland's Firearm Safety Act of 2013, a broader gun control measure, and required people to undergo training and background checks before applying for licenses to buy handguns.
It had been challenged in court by a gun rights group called Maryland Shall Issue, two individuals and a gun store. The National Rifle Association backed the lawsuit and covered the legal costs of the litigation, an NRA spokesperson has said.
The judges who were in the majority ruling against Maryland's law in November are both appointees of Republican presidents. The case now will be heard in March by the full, 14-member court. Eight of the judges were appointed by Democratic presidents.
"I welcome the court's decision to rehear this case and will continue to defend common-sense gun laws to protect Marylanders from these unnecessary and very preventable tragedies," Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Representatives for the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment.
At issue is a law requiring a prospective handgun buyer to submit fingerprints for a background investigation and take a four-hour-long safety training course, before waiting up to 30 days to go through the rest of the usual process to buy a gun.
Under a 2022 ruling by the conservative-majority Supreme Court in a case called New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, gun laws must be "consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation" to be valid.
Maryland had said its law mirrored historical limitations on "dangerous" people owning firearms. But U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, in November's panel ruling said no historical laws worked by "preemptively depriving all citizens of firearms to keep them out of dangerous hands."
He said the Maryland law created an "additional, preliminary step" that subjected law-abiding people to a 30-day waiting period before they could begin the usual process to acquire a firearm through a separate background check system.
Read more:
Maryland handgun licensure law is unconstitutional, US court rules
U.S. Supreme Court expands gun rights, strikes down New York law
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