FPC Asks Supreme Court to End Maryland’s Public Carry Bans

May 22, 2026
2:16 pm

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Firearms Policy Coalition has taken the fight directly to the Supreme Court once again, filing a petition in Novotny v. Moore that seeks to dismantle Maryland’s sweeping Gun Safety Act of 2023 and its effective ban on lawful public carry. Joined by Maryland Shall Issue, the Second Amendment Foundation, and represented by the powerhouse team at Cooper & Kirk along with Mark W. Pennak, the case challenges Maryland’s latest attempt to treat the Second Amendment like a second-class right that evaporates the moment citizens step outside their homes. This isn’t just another incremental restriction; it’s a brazen post-Bruen defiance that pretends the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling never happened, substituting legislative fearmongering for constitutional text, history, and tradition. What makes this petition particularly potent is its timing and framing. After Bruen established that carry rights must be evaluated through the lens of the nation’s historical tradition rather than modern policy preferences, states like Maryland responded not with humility but with creative circumvention. The Gun Safety Act essentially creates a permitting regime so burdensome and restrictive that it functions as a de facto ban for ordinary citizens, complete with subjective “good cause” style barriers the Court already rejected in Heller and Bruen. FPC’s legal team is forcing the justices to confront a simple question: does the Second Amendment protect the right to bear arms, or does it protect only the right to keep them locked away while criminals carry freely on the streets? The answer should be obvious, yet lower courts continue to play games with levels of scrutiny that Bruen explicitly discarded. For the 2A community, Novotny v. Moore represents both a warning and an opportunity. It demonstrates that some blue states remain committed to lawfare and delay tactics, hoping a future Court might blink or that sympathetic lower courts will slow-walk compliance. Yet each successive petition chips away at the remaining unconstitutional regimes and builds the body of Supreme Court precedent that will eventually force nationwide recognition of constitutional carry. If the Court grants cert and rules cleanly, Maryland’s scheme could collapse, sending shockwaves through similar regimes in New York, California, New Jersey, and beyond. The pro-2A movement isn’t just defending rights anymore; it’s aggressively expanding the legal battlefield, case by case, until the promise of Bruen is finally made real for every law-abiding American who chooses to exercise their fundamental right to self-defense in public.

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What makes this petition particularly potent is its timing and framing. After Bruen established that carry rights must be evaluated through the lens of the nation’s historical tradition rather than modern policy preferences, states like Maryland responded not with humility but with creative circumvention. The Gun Safety Act essentially creates a permitting regime so burdensome and restrictive that it functions as a de facto ban for ordinary citizens, complete with subjective “good cause” style barriers the Court already rejected in Heller and Bruen. FPC’s legal team is forcing the justices to confront a simple question: does the Second Amendment protect the right to bear arms, or does it protect only the right to keep them locked away while criminals carry freely on the streets? The answer should be obvious, yet lower courts continue to play games with levels of scrutiny that Bruen explicitly discarded.

For the 2A community, Novotny v. Moore represents both a warning and an opportunity. It demonstrates that some blue states remain committed to lawfare and delay tactics, hoping a future Court might blink or that sympathetic lower courts will slow-walk compliance. Yet each successive petition chips away at the remaining unconstitutional regimes and builds the body of Supreme Court precedent that will eventually force nationwide recognition of constitutional carry. If the Court grants cert and rules cleanly, Maryland’s scheme could collapse, sending shockwaves through similar regimes in New York, California, New Jersey, and beyond. The pro-2A movement isn’t just defending rights anymore; it’s aggressively expanding the legal battlefield, case by case, until the promise of Bruen is finally made real for every law-abiding American who chooses to exercise their fundamental right to self-defense in public.

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