Adapting Principles to Circumstances: Maryland Shall Issue, Inc. v. Moore and the Post-Rahimi Gun Regulation Landscape

Zachary Shank

In Maryland Shall Issue, Inc. v. Moore (MSI II), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit evaluated the constitutionality of a provision of Maryland’s Firearm Safety Act of 2013 (the “FSA”) requiring prospective gunowners to obtain a Handgun Qualification License (“HQL”) before they can purchase any handguns. The plaintiffs, a group of gun rights advocacy groups and gunowners, claimed that the provision violated their Second Amendment right by temporarily depriving them of the ability to possess firearms through a set of application requirements—including an up to thirty-day waiting period and firearm safety course requirement. The Fourth Circuit originally struck down the HQL provision, finding it to be unconstitutional because it did not fit within our Nation’s historical tradition of regulating firearms. However, after rehearing the case en banc (MSI III), the Fourth Circuit upheld the HQL provision, finding it to be presumptively constitutional and not an infringement of the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights. The MSI III court properly upheld the HQL provision, as the short delay it imposes on applicants’ acquisition of handguns does not constitute an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms and, thereby, is not covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment. MSI III also correctly recognized that the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Rahimi (Rahimi II) broadened the standard courts must follow in identifying historical analogues to modern firearm regulations. Under this broadened standard, the HQL provision is sufficiently analogous to the Nation’s regulatory tradition of preventing the misuse of firearms by dangerous individuals by imposing temporary and reasonably surmountable barriers to possession by such individuals. Lastly, MSI III throws a lifeline to many gun regulations that delay individuals’ acquisition of firearms and are crucial to combatting the gun violence epidemic in the United States.