MD CCW

Back in the old days, like before I was born, before the term CCW was a thing, people did buy gun and people did carry them on their person.  Back then, in Maryland, if there was going to be any background checks done on you, it was done with the local police forces.  The state or feds weren't set up to do stuff like this, and the locals knew the local people.

With a high sign from the local police station, you could carry concealed.  You had to ask face to face and have a good reason.  Or be buddies with the cops.  So, that is an abuse.

If you voted against the sheriff in the last election and supported his opponent, or you grew your hair a bit long, or your skin was the wrong color or the cops were just asshole, you might not get a 'permit' either.  More abuse.

Especially because of this racial angle, and with advances in database retrievals at the state level, the state of Maryland eventually gave the authority to say yay or nay to the Maryland State Police.  Easier to control from Annapolis, and hopefully would take perceived race prejudice out of the equation.  If you wanted to keep CCW permits out of black hands you just had to deny permits to most everybody.  And here is where we are.

Except people are trying to get the information from the Maryland State Police records on how they make their determinations to grant or deny a CCW.  Maybe find out if the state actually IS disproportionately denying certain racial groups.  And also find the plethora of other excuses used. 

Are the state police denying people because they take cholesterol medication or viagra?  That'd be interesting to know.  Is that a HIPAA violation?

So there is potential for legal trouble two ways, there, for the State. 

Plus just get the permit process to BUY a handgun these days hurt minorities.  Where does a person in Baltimore that relies on public transportation go for the required training?  What if they have no credit card, you need a credit card to get the permit from the state, online.  And you want to use a library computer to do all this?  Baltimore crime is increasing rapidly, and people that want to defend themselves have a harder time securing the means to do so than some middle class suburban resident in much-safer Crofton Maryland.