U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg’s groundbreaking March 5 ruling that Maryland cannot refuse to issue a handgun permit to an otherwise qualified individual unless that person has an acceptable reason for wanting one is a jurisprudential gem that correctly shifts the burden of proof from the citizen to the government. His elegant reiteration of basic Second Amendment rights in Woollard v. Sheridan will be quoted for generations: “A citizen may not be required to offer a ‘good and substantial reason’ why he should be permitted to exercise his rights. The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.”
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