Court Upholds Maryland Gun Carry Permit Law

Rejects argument that Second Amendment extends beyond home

Maryland's demand that a person who wants a permit to carry a gun outside the home show "good and substantial reason" for doing so was upheld by a U.S. appeals court as a constitutional public-safety measure.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, today reversed a lower-court judge, who had found that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense extends beyond the home and that the state's standard for granting a carry permit infringed on that right.

"The state has demonstrated that the good-and-substantial- reason requirement is reasonably adapted to Maryland's significant interests in protecting public safety and preventing crime," U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King wrote in the 33-page opinion.