Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Montgomery County Council to vote on gun control bill today that may trigger a lawsuit


The Montgomery County Council will vote on a gun control bill during its 9:30 AM session this morning that is designed to stymie the right to carry a firearm in public, by designating an exhaustive number of places as gun-free zones. Bill 21-22 would make it illegal for concealed carry permit holders to carry a firearm over so much of the geographical area of the county, as to render that recently-Supreme Court-ruled right nearly impracticable to exercise. That will almost surely invite legal challenges, for which County taxpayers will pick up the tab.

Should the bill pass this morning, it would make it illegal to possess a firearm within 100 yards of any publicly or privately-owned 

  • park
  • place of worship
  • school
  • library
  • recreational facility
  • hospital
  • community health center, including any health care facility or community-based program licensed by the Maryland Department of Health
  • long-term facility, including any licensed nursing home, group home, or care home
  • multipurpose exhibition facility, such as a fairgrounds or conference center
  • childcare facility

Possession of firearms, even legally, would also become criminal inside the following buildings, which have now been defined to include the building's parking lot and grounds:

  • government building, including any place owned by or under the control of the County
  • polling place
  • courthouse
  • legislative assembly, and
  • a gathering of individuals to collectively express their constitutional right to protest or assemble

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

So they don't incarcerate criminals, which by the way don't obey gun laws, and further restrict law abiding citizens to protect themselves. Sounds like a good plan!

Hopefully liberals will start by putting bumper stickers on their cars proclaiming their gun-free zone status.

JAC said...

May trigger. Good one. MSI (Maryland Shall Issue) is all over this. And yes, this predictable effort by the radicals in Rockville, is likely unconstitutional. Sorry Comrade Elrich. Nice try

Anonymous said...

Maryland Shall Issue (https://www.marylandshallissue.org) will likely be leading the legal challenges to this new law.

The arrogance and indifference of the MoCo Council on this is astounding. The criminal who robbed the Apple Store a few weeks ago won't be stopped by a law like this. Only people who carry legally would follow this law, and this law leaves them (me being one of them) defenseless in the face of an armed threat.

Look at Bethesda for example. Between all the schools, libraries and parks around town, you won't be able to carry down Arlington Road (past Bethesda Elementary School, Connie Morella Library, Caroline Freeland Urban Park), East-West Highway (past Bethesda Chevy Chase High School), Edgemoor Lane (past Sidwell Friends Lower School), and that's before we get to all of the other excluded areas under this law.

There's no way this law stands after judicial review. MSI warned the MoCo Council about the legal jeopardy they were putting themselves in and the expense they'd be subjecting taxpayers to. It obviously went unheeded.

Anonymous said...

It passed (unsurprisingly). If you currently carry or plan to carry in Montgomery County, keep this in mind until there's a TRO or Permanent Injunction.

JAC said...

Let's use the word trigger again. The news at this noon hour is that this bill passed in Rockville unanimously. Shocker. Now this will trigger an immediate lawsuit by MSI and it will be successful. Hopefully it won't have to go back to SCOTUS. This is classic Left Wing nuttiness.

JAC said...

5:52 - absolutely perfectly stated

JAC said...

8:03 - and Elrich was reelected anyway as were many other nutty leaders across the nation. Makes zero sense.

Anonymous said...

Dave Chappelle's opening monologue Saturday night on SNL was hilarious, but the sheer audacity of the "council" and "their" comprehensive list of places is even more comedic! #PaidIncompetence

Anonymous said...

Like Elrich, or any democrat for that matter, cares a wit about wasting taxpayer dollars.

Anonymous said...

Anyone see that clown Jawando get flamed on @Twitter yesterday for not staying in his Lane/keeping local for his unnecessary tweet for out of state concerning UVA football players? Classic Will. Think global, don't act local!

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite things about hypocritical conservatives is how they drape themselves in blue lives matter flags, but when it comes to actually enacting gun laws that police forces BEG for the "tough on crime" crowd scoffs. They couldn't care less how many cops are shot - it's all just weak lip service to go along with their useless thoughts and prayers.

Anonymous said...

@10:29 PM: How many legal carriers in Montgomery County shoot cops? This is a law that legal carriers will follow and illegal carriers won't. Stop denying this reality.

Anonymous said...

Gaslighters like 10:29 are the poster children for ignorance and apathy brought on by the constant drone of MSM programming.

Results matter except to leftists.

Anonymous said...

Every crime committed means that someone broke a law.

Therefore all laws are futile.

Repeal all laws.

/conservative "logic"

Anonymous said...

"legal carriers will follow and illegal carriers won't"

Then illegal carriers will be the ones arrested and prosecuted, Einstein. What do you have against the county targeting criminals?

Anonymous said...

@5:44 AM: You're not actually hearing 10:29 PM. What you're hearing is an ideology that's been infused into them and is just being regurgitated with no critical thought on their part. It's actually kind of boring and makes them completely replaceable with another drone to say the same thing.

Anonymous said...

@8:01 AM: Stop gaslighting. Do you expect people without MD Wear and Carry permits and who carry illegal guns in MoCo to abide by this law? That's a simple yes/no.... so let's hear it. Go ahead. I bet you won't answer this.

Anonymous said...

@9:07 AM: That was a good attempt at gaslighting. Criminals are carrying illegal guns and committing crimes with them. This law will not stop them from doing that. They'll do it anyway because they'll ignore it.

What I have issue with is that I as a legal firearm carrier am not a criminal for carrying and this law now targets and includes me. I'm not committing crimes with my firearm. I went through all the background checks and all the training to carry legally and be proficient and responsible, and your heroes on the County Council decided to lump me in and treat me the same as a criminal carrying an illegal firearm. That's not about crime prevention. That's about gun prevention. Stop being so obtuse about this and admit it's what it is.

Anonymous said...

9:07 AM: No criminal is going to follow this law you're so proud of. You're just happy that legal gun carriers are lumped in with with them because you really wanted those legal guns off the street. It's ok to admit it to me. Go on.

Anonymous said...

"They'll do it anyway because they'll ignore it."

Yes, and then they'll be incarcerated, genius. Unless you and your faux "tough on crime" cop-haters get your way, of course. "Why have laws when criminals don't follow them" is legitimately the dumbest possible argument.

Anonymous said...

Nobody who goes through the effort of getting a permit is going to commit any crimes. There's no evidence of this in any state that allows CC. So what are the Bolsheviks in charge of this county afraid of? And just as importantly, where is the money to defend this atrocious bill coming from? Oh, that's right. It's coming from all of us. And in the end, when the bill is declared unconstitutional, who will have benefited from all this. Oh, that's right. The Bolshevik lawyers the county hired to accomplish the impossible task of defending this bill.

Anonymous said...

@5:05 PM: You still haven't admitted your total contempt for those like me who legally and safely carry firearms. That's what underlies all your faux righteousness here and you should be honest about it. You, just like the County Council Members, are deliberately and gleefully lumping me as a legal firearm carrier and other legal firearm carriers in with criminals who carry illegal firearms and commit crimes with them. You apparently don't want to accept that legal firearm carriers aren't the people committing crimes here and don't present a danger to the community. You either know that fact and are in continued denial of it, or you don't know that fact and you don't care that you don't know that fact.

You've got the same frame of mind and deliberate misleading purpose as people who intentionally obfuscate the difference between "ILLEGAL" and LEGAL" immigrant with respect to immigration. I know you're intentionally misleading about this and you don't care that I know.

Just like the County Council, you won't say "Get ILLEGAL gun carriers off the street" or "minimize ILLEGAL gun crime" because that would give away your grift. You have to speak in orchestrated platitudes like "Get guns off the street" or "there are too many guns on the street" without differentiating because you actually want to remove the ability of legal carriers to carry more than anything else. This law is a way for you to target legal carriers and get their legally carried guns off the street while cloaking it in platitudes like "there are too many guns on the street". You're not serious about solving illegal gun crime or putting people who carry illegally in prison. You never were.

Anonymous said...

"Nobody who goes through the effort of getting a permit is going to commit any crimes."

LMAO

Anonymous said...

@8:34 AM: Pull up the number of crimes committed by legal firearm carriers in MoCo in the last few years and compare it to the number of crimes committed by illegal firearm carriers in MoCo for the last few years. You made the "LMAO" so you do the work. Go ahead and prove 11:44 PM wrong. I bet you won't.