MONTGEOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a lawsuit against Montgomery County, Maryland, earlier this week, challenging a newly enacted firearms law that it says violates the Second Amendment.
The complaint targets Bill 23-26, which prohibits people from carrying firearms at thousands of locations throughout the county and creates a 100-yard exclusion zone around those areas. According to the Justice Department, the restrictions apply even to individuals who are legally licensed to carry a firearm and have a property owner’s permission.
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“The Second Amendment does not allow local governments to ban law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms in public places as they go about their daily lives,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “Montgomery County makes it almost impossible for a law-abiding citizen with a valid carry license to walk down the street and avoid these exclusion zones. The Civil Rights Division will not stand idle while Montgomery County tramples the rights guaranteed to law-abiding citizens by the Second Amendment.”
The DOJ argues the law makes it nearly impossible for licensed gun owners to travel through Montgomery County while lawfully carrying a firearm.
The lawsuit comes one day after a Montgomery County rabbi publicly challenged the same law. Rabbi Menashe Shapiro told 7News that the bill’s prohibition on carrying firearms within 100 yards of places of worship, schools, parks and libraries threatens the safety of Jewish congregations by limiting their ability to provide security.
The Justice Department is asking the court to block enforcement of the ordinance, arguing it unlawfully restricts the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners.
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