“[T]he Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” So held the United States Supreme Court in NYSRPA v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1, 10 (2022). Prior to that decision, Maryland was one of the few States that effectively denied that right by requiring law-abiding Marylanders to obtain a “wear and carry” permit the issuance of which was conditioned on a showing of a special need (“a good and substantial reason”) for self-protection. To get an unrestricted permit, the applicant essentially had to be a judge, a prosecutor, a criminal defense attorney or a person with a verified Top-Secret security clearance. The Supreme Court put an end to that “special need” restriction with its decision in Bruen. As a result, Marylanders with carry permits have grown from approximately 30,000 individuals in 2022 to over 200,000 individuals in 2024 and that number grows every day, notwithstanding the rigorous and expensive training requirements imposed by Maryland. This book is a must-read for every Marylander who has a carry permit or is contemplating obtaining such a permit. But this book is equally valuable to people who merely wish to know the law of self-defense, whether that be in the home or elsewhere, with a firearm or otherwise.
Successful self-defense does not end by dealing with an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. “Stopping the threat” is, of course, the first necessity, but it is only the beginning. The next step is contending with the criminal justice system and for that, people need this book. As then-Attorney General Robert Jackson told a room full of federal prosecutors in a speech in 1940, “[t]he prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” With the ever-increasing number and complexity of criminal laws enacted by the State and federal governments, that is even more true today. You need a lawyer and that right to counsel is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. As the Supreme Court realized long ago in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 344-45 (1963), the right to a fair trial and due process “cannot be realized” if the criminal defendant “has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.” How and when to claim this right is central to this book (hint, early and at every stage of the proceedings). People accused of crime, including when they are arrested for exercising the right of self-defense, are wholly defenseless against the prosecutor without an experienced lawyer by their side. Non-lawyers (and many lawyers who do not practice criminal law) are ill-equipped to deal with the criminal justice system in Maryland. This highly readable book is written for that audience and is undoubtedly the best collection of information and accumulated wisdom I have seen on these subjects.
Mark W. Pennak is the President of Maryland Shall Issue, Inc., a Section 501(c)(4), non-profit, non-partisan Second Amendment advocacy organization. Mr. Pennak is a firearms instructor certified by the National Rifle Association and by the Maryland State Police and is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia Bars. He has practiced law in the U.S. Supreme Court and in all the federal courts of appeals for nearly 50 years in private practice and as an attorney with the United States Department of Justice. He is counsel for plaintiffs in cases currently pending in State and federal courts.