The General Assembly reacts to a June Supreme Court ruling by immediately aiming to make many places off limits to people with guns.
The first bill proposed by Maryland legislators in the 2023 session aims to sharply restrict where tens of thousands of people with newly-minted concealed weapon permits can actually carry their guns.
Opponents of the bill are vowing a fight all the way to the Supreme Court, which lit the fuse on this issue with a controversial ruling this summer.
The high court ruling struck down Maryland's rules that prohibited many otherwise law-abiding citizens from receiving a concealed carry gun permit.
Applications for gun permits soared in the aftermath.
85,266 permits were issued in 2022 compared to just 12,189 permits issued in 2021, according to Maryland State Police figures.
Now, Maryland Senate Bill One would make it illegal to carry a permitted gun on anyone’s property without specific permission in addition to restricting people with guns from being within 100 feet of a long list of places providing "public accommodation", including virtually every retail business in the state.
"If people don’t feel safe, nothing else matters," said Sen. Bill Ferguson (D) Baltimore, the President of Maryland's Senate as he discussed the roll out of the bill on the General Assembly's opening day.
Second Amendment activist Mark Pennak, of Maryland Shall Issue, said the SB1 proposal is unconstitutional because it makes exercising the right of a permitted person to carry a gun outside his or her home virtually impossible.
