Legislation in Maryland Would Place Prohibitive Insurance Requirement for Firearms 'Wear or Carry'

[Scott Hedrick]

It is belaboring the obvious to note that a constitutional right
should not be conditional and subject to taxation, but a Maryland
politician is proposing exactly that. Predictably, anti-Second
Amendment Maryland Delegate Terri Hill is proposing to require
prospective legal CCW holders to provide proof of a $300k insurance
policy before being allowed to carry.

Gun owners in Maryland would be required to buy at least $300,000 in
liability insurance or forfeit their ability to carry a firearm
under a new bill.

The controversial legislation, introduced by Delegate Terri Hill,
D-Howard County, would prohibit the "wear or carry" of a gun
anywhere in the state unless the individual has obtained a liability
insurance policy of at least $300,000.

"A person may not wear or carry a firearm unless the person has
obtained it and is covered by liability insurance issued by an
insurer authorized to do business in the State under the Insurance
Article to cover claims for property damage, bodily injury, or death
arising from an accident resulting from the person’s use or storage
of a firearm or up to $300,000 for damages arising from the same
incident, in addition to interest and costs," the proposed Maryland
legislation said.

This is a blatant attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court's Bruen
decision, which essentially requires all fifty states to implement a
shall-issue concealed-carry system, establishing that the Second
Amendment means what it says by "keep and bear arms." Ever since
that decision, anti-gun politicians have tried every trick in the
book to circumvent the requirements that Bruen and the Second
Amendment place on the states.

Criminals, of course, will not be obtaining insurance, any more than
they will be applying for concealed-carry permits. Concealed-carry
(CCW) permit holders are more law-abiding than not only criminals
(obviously) but than the population in general; CCW holders are not
and never have been the problem, but that matters not to anti-gun
politicians like Delegate Terri Hill; it's not the facts that
matter, but the virtue-signal.

Delegate Hill isn't alone. Leftist politicians have been trying
every angle they can come up with to sidestep Bruen and the Second
Amendment.


Hill told FOX 45 News that this bill is an attempt to pass "common
sense" gun control.

She told the local outlet that the idea came after talking to a
concerned constituent who said that gun owners should "bear some
liability in cases where there is damage because of guns being used
in ways that cause harm."

It wouldn't be unreasonable to bet that the above conversation
between Hill and an unnamed constituent never happened.


My father used to say, "The thing about common sense is that it
isn't common." Terri Hill has illustrated that very plainly; her
proposed legislation rewards criminals by disarming the law-abiding,
hits hardest those who are most likely to benefit from armed self-
defense, and attempts to work around a Supreme Court precedent. In
deep-blue Maryland, it's hard to tell what will happen, but this
bill is anything but "common sense," and needs to die an early and
unlamented death in the Maryland legislature.

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/01/26/maryland-legislation-
would-place-prohibitive-insurance-requirement-on-firearms-carry-
n2169273