In a big win for gun rights in Maryland, this week, a federal judge ruled a key portion of the state’s gun laws unconstitutional.  Judge Benson Everett Legg declared that Maryland's requirement for a "good and substantial reason" to obtain a concealed-carry permit violates the Second Amendment protection of the right to keep and bear arms.

"The Court finds that the right to bear arms is not limited to the home," Judge Legg wrote in a 23-page ruling in the case of Woollard v. Sheridan. "In addition to self-defense, the right was also understood to allow for militia membership and hunting. To secure these rights, the Second Amendment’s protections must extend beyond the home: neither hunting nor militia training is a household activity, and 'self-defense has to take place wherever [a] person happens to be.'’'

Judge Legg added, "A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and substantial reason' why he should be permitted to exercise his rights. The right's existence is all the reason he needs."

At press time, Maryland planned to appeal the decision.

Woollard is one of several cases around the country in which plaintiffs are seeking to make clear that the right to bear arms applies outside the home. Among them are the NRA-supported cases of Shepard v. Madigan (pending in federal court in Illinois) and Peruta v. County of San Diego, pending in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.