The Supreme Court of Maryland handed Maryland Shall Issue and other challengers a significant, but not total, victory in their challenge to Montgomery County’s sweeping firearms ordinance. The lawsuit was commenced in 2021.
On April 28, 2026, on x.com, Maryland Shall Issue posted this:
The Supreme Court of Maryland issued its decision today in our challenge to the Montgomery County ordinance that basically banned carry by permit holders through out the County. On that issue we completely prevailed and the County lost. Specifically the Court held that the…
— Maryland Shall Issue (@MD_Shall_Issue) April 28, 2026
In 2021, Montgomery County, Maryland, the State’s most populous county, enacted an ordinance that severely infringed on rights protected by the Second Amendment. Maryland has a significant set of preemption statutes that prevent local governments from interfering with state firearms law.
Maryland Shall Issue filed two lawsuits challenging the ordinance in different ways: one in federal court and the other in state court. In December of 2023, the Circuit Court for Montgomery County granted Summary Judgement in favor of the Shall Issue lawsuit in state court. The County appealed the ruling to the Appellate Court of Maryland. On January 24, 2025, the Appellate Court ruled the Circuit Court had erred and remanded the case back to the Circuit Court. The case, now named Montgomery County v. Engage Armament, was appealed by Maryland Shall Issue to the Maryland Supreme Court.
The post by Maryland Shall Issue explaining the Maryland Supreme Court’s ruling quotes the Court on the County ordinance. The Supreme Court wrote this:
“is not a local law because of its application to holders of State-issued wear-and-carry permits traveling on public highways who cross within 100 yards of a place of public assembly.”
The Court did not treat that portion as a valid local ordinance. It held that, as currently constructed, § 57-11(a) is not a “local law” because it burdens state-issued wear-and-carry permit holders traveling on public highways through Montgomery County.
The “local ordinance” banning concealed carry within 100 yards of a “place of public assembly” effectively banned it.
Most major roads and highways transited through areas within 100 yards of the multitude of places the County ordinance designated as places of public assembly.
Maryland Shall Issue also posted that the Maryland Supreme Court ruled Montgomery County’s ban on “ghost guns” was preempted by Maryland law “to the extent it includes firearms that have been serialized in compliance with federal and State law.”
On the ghost-gun provisions, the Court held that Montgomery County cannot refuse to recognize firearms serialized by federally licensed firearms dealers in compliance with federal and state law. The Court also noted that the County disavowed any reading of its ordinance that would bar transport of an unserialized firearm for the purpose of serialization.
The Maryland Supreme Court was reported to have ruled that a section of the County’s ordinance was preempted, as the County attempted to ban a:
“broad swath of otherwise lawful (and constitutionally protected) conduct by adults merely because it occurs in the presence of a minor, without any apparent connection to whether that activity might result in minors gaining unsupervised access to those firearms.”
Exactly which parts of the Montgomery County ordinance remain in effect after the Maryland Supreme Court ruling is unclear at this time.
In the federal appeal, the Fourth Circuit had scheduled an argument for January 23, 2024, but removed the case from the argument calendar. The Maryland Supreme Court later noted that the Fourth Circuit granted Montgomery County’s motion to hold the appeal in abeyance pending the state-court decision.
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About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
