Staying in MD- should I get the handgun license

Mark75H · Mar 22, 2014

kenpo333 said:
Do you guys have drivers licenses. I am old enough to have ridden motorcycles before there was a license. I heard the same arguments from my friends back then. They all have then now. I don't care and I haven't gotten mine either but if I see something I desire I think I'll pony up to the counter and get an HQL. The ffl will go out of business with your attitudes and these are the guys we used to hand out with.

When the state of Maryland provides guns, I will go along with licensing to use them.

Biggfoot44 · Mar 23, 2014

I understand Minuteman's cavaet, but still don't see that as mandatory. You'll have to pay attention to the s/n ranges , and dates of production, but S&W revolvers of hunting , HD , and CCW sizes are plentiful, likewise Colts. Colt 1911's and Commanders , HiPowers , and early M39's for the bottomfeeder fans. More varieties of quality pocket pistols than you can count. Flat Top Rugers , and this year starting into the newer 3 Screws.

FFL's received a huge windfall from me in '13 . Into the future the FFL's that survive into the future will have to at least break even with : Non-regulated long guns, or gunsmithing & other services , non-firearms product line , or combination. The trickle of remaining handguns will just be the iceing on the cake.

fabsroman · Mar 23, 2014

Minuteman said:
I have amended my previous post, please read my reasoning.

I largely agree.

Twas a moment of weakness that I suggested the OP to cave. I personally do not have an HQL - although I am exempt and able to teach people to obtain one.

Here's my twist - if you do not already own a sufficient firearm for self or family defense, you should legally do so. And the only way most law-abiding citizens in Maryland can do that now is with an HQL; hence my recommendation to get one.

Again, criminals do not care; nothing changed for them on 1 Oct 2013. Except that fewer law abiding citizens will be able or be willing to go through all the trouble and expense to get a license to defend themselves. Criminals rejoiced, the rest of us suffer. Crooked politicians don't care and lick the boots of their political overlords.

Unless you have G&S for a CCW, a handgun really isn't the only way to defend one's family. Last I checked, a shotgun and a rifle could get the job done, and done much better. The wounds from a shotgun or a rifle are much worse than from a handgun. Yes, a handgun is more maneuverable and leaves a hand free for a light, etc. We can argue handgun versus long gun all day long. Not only that, but there are several long guns still available that are great for home defense/self defense.

With that said, I will agree that if a person does not have a single handgun, then they should get one. I have enough to choose from now, so the HQL just isn't going to happen for me or my wife. We are going to stick it out here for 18 years until the kids get through grade school and then we are off for freer pastures.

lsw · Mar 23, 2014

kenpo333 said:
Do you guys have drivers licenses. I am old enough to have ridden motorcycles before there was a license. I heard the same arguments from my friends back then. They all have then now. I don't care and I haven't gotten mine either but if I see something I desire I think I'll pony up to the counter and get an HQL. The ffl will go out of business with your attitudes and these are the guys we used to hand out with.

A more correct analogy comparing a HQL and driver license, would be requiring the HQL to fire a handgun in public, but not just to own one. Just as anyone can own a car or truck and drive it on private property without a license.

fabsroman · Mar 23, 2014

lsw said:
A more correct analogy comparing a HQL and driver license, would be requiring the HQL to fire a handgun in public, but not just to own one. Just as anyone can own a car or truck and drive it on private property without a license.

Driving is a privilege, not a right. A better analogy is requiring DNA sampling to vote or exercise one's freedom of speech.

Rockn93yj · Mar 23, 2014

To me HQL= back door gun registration.
I don't agree with it at all and fight the legislation but consider this. If you get the HQL then they win because they have their easy gun registration process. If you don't get the HQL then they win because they have nearly stopped the gun purchasing in MD.
I did get mine because I'm already in the system, they have been keeping a gun database for years. HQL just makes it easier for them to manage the database for later use.
Just my opinion.

Rack&Roll · Mar 23, 2014

Biggfoot44 said:
I understand Minuteman's cavaet, but still don't see that as mandatory. You'll have to pay attention to the s/n ranges , and dates of production, but S&W revolvers of hunting , HD , and CCW sizes are plentiful, likewise Colts. Colt 1911's and Commanders , HiPowers , and early M39's for the bottomfeeder fans. More varieties of quality pocket pistols than you can count. Flat Top Rugers , and this year starting into the newer 3 Screws.

FFL's received a huge windfall from me in '13 . Into the future the FFL's that survive into the future will have to at least break even with : Non-regulated long guns, or gunsmithing & other services , non-firearms product line , or combination. The trickle of remaining handguns will just be the iceing on the cake.

Great job, Biggfoot44 with your post. We should put our heads together to make a continually updated "shopping list" thread about all the pre-1963 handguns available for folks deadset against an HQL. Anyone buying a C&R handgun as a "placeholder" can sell it for probably what they paid for it when they move out of Maryland and get the modern handgun of their choice.

Evil Twin · Mar 23, 2014

Uncle Duke said:
I won't speak to another man's decision regarding this issue. I will say that I myself will never have an HQL. I have handguns, am quite qualified in their usage thanks, and I'll be damned if I'll ever submit to some collection of elitist bureaucrats who tell me I need their blessing and their license to exercise a constitutionally protected right.

What concerns me most about this issue is the sickening likelihood of an increasing acceptance that the HQL may tend to gain over time. It will likely in time be even more so perceived to be "ok" to license this fundamental right. It is amazing to me what otherwise intelligent people have the ability to rationalize. Want a handgun? Get an HQL. And somehow that's ok, regardless of inalienable rights, and regardless of what the constitution says.

It isn't ok. It's dangerous, and dangerous to a degree unimaginable to many and perhaps most who increasingly possess no sense of world history, and who seemingly have no inclination to read or to learn what tyrannical and unchecked government can look like in very real terms to very real people. What makes any such acceptance even worse and even more inherently dangerous is that this right is the ONLY right that defends and protects all others. A helluva lot of people have died in this country in defense of these rights. Their licensing of the rights that these men and women died for be damned.

My hope is that our courts will one day soon affirm the right of the governed to freely exercise this most important and fundamental of rights that we as citizens inherently possess, and that the writers of the constitution specifically and indeed quite prophetically affirmed we should and must possess. If they do not, then I shudder to envision what comes next.

Preach on, brother! I will not comply!

mtb · Mar 23, 2014

I got one because if we stop buying guns, the MD gun dealers will go out of business, which I would imagine is one of the things our idiot governor and his ilk want.

tourrider · Mar 23, 2014

mtb said:
I got one because if we stop buying guns, the MD gun dealers will go out of business, which I would imagine is one of the things our idiot governor and his ilk want.

+1000

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Magnumite · Mar 23, 2014

"Colt 1911's and Commanders , HiPowers , and early M39's for the bottomfeeder fans."

Explain please...

AlpineDude67 · Mar 24, 2014

If you want to buy a handgun and don't because of this rule, that is what they want.

They don't want you to have one and think you can't be trusted with it. They can't ban it outright - but they can get away with making it a hassle. So they did.

Seems to me that suggests only one response: put up with the hassle and get it anyway.

We live in a world where privacy is dead, the government spies on everything and everybody. There is nothing the government is going to learn about you from your application for the HQL that they don't already know.

When the MD dealers start closing - that is going to cause more problems for us than anything in the recent legislation. I say - swallow your pride and suck it up.

Doobie · Mar 24, 2014

Please explain the C&R handguns in detail. I know that I have to have a C&R license to purchase one myself, but can/would a dealer sell a C&R handgun to me without me having the HQL?

Mark75H · Mar 24, 2014

Doobie said:
Please explain the C&R handguns in detail. I know that I have to have a C&R license to purchase one myself, but can/would a dealer sell a C&R handgun to me without me having the HQL?

No, you do not have to have a C&R license to purchase them.

You only need a C&R to purchase them direct and have them shipped directly to you from out of state. In state, C&R does not apply for handguns.

There is a HQL exemption box on the new 77r allowing regular Marylanders to purchase handguns that the ATF says are C&R eligible without possessing the new HQL. In essence, a C&R handgun is purchased in MD the way handguns were purchased prior to 10/2013.

JohnnyE · Mar 24, 2014

Although I am not planning any handgun purchases, I got my HQL so the state sees the pro 2A population in Maryland. The smaller the number of folks that get HQL's, the weaker we will appear to our leaders, who may be even more emboldened to pass more draconian laws on top of SB 281.

Biggfoot44 · Mar 24, 2014

What Mark75H said as to purchasing C&R eligable w/o HQL generally.

C&R eligable dose NOT mean only Milsurp, it includes all firearms a rolling 50yo ( plus various ones specifically named on the master C&R list). Upon sugguestion, I started another thread discussing available handguns.

But in this thread, to point out available pistols that are still considered desirable today , I pointed out that 1911's , Commanders , and HiPowers were in good circulation in 1963 and earlier , and hence readily available today used. For those specifically. Wanting modern-ish DA/SA 9mm , the S&W M39 was the most popular DA/SA 9mm in the country in late '50s and early '60m ( also the only one mfg in US at the time, but somebody has to be the trailblazer).

thomfantomas · Mar 24, 2014

NO to hql

Overboost44 · Mar 24, 2014

JohnnyE said:
Although I am not planning any handgun purchases, I got my HQL so the state sees the pro 2A population in Maryland. The smaller the number of folks that get HQL's, the weaker we will appear to our leaders, who may be even more emboldened to pass more draconian laws on top of SB 281.

That is wishful thinking. If I get an HQL, MOM will say "oh look, there is so much interest out there, we should just make it easier." :loll:

eruby · Mar 24, 2014

I believe you are a lansman Chaim (my hebrerw name) and as such, would say do not get the HQL.

Go the C&R handgun route, either buying one through a MD dealer, or getting the license yourself and buying from a private seller out of state.

If one gets a HQL, the state wins. If one doesn't get a HQL, the state wins.

The right answer is the one that's right for you.

Biggfoot44 · Mar 24, 2014

[ Yes , we like our Dealers in the General sense. Kudos to the MFLDA for their continuing 2A work. I even like some people who work in the firearms business as actual people .]

But the FSA2013 has already instituted a sea change in the Firearms Retailing overall market in Maryland. As it it will be greatly less in both total volume , and in total profit. The pie is no longer big enough to support the existing slices as we knew them. A bunch will have to make profits from things other than firearm sales ( gun related & not ) , and a bunch will close their doors no matter what , short of repealing/ overturning FSA2013.

The flip side of the second argument , is that if large numbers of Marylanders willingly surender their Rights in exchange for a Conditional Privledge , it sends a powerful message to the Politicians , that they didn't nearly far enough , and they can clamp down on us farther with little concern.

Staying in MD- should I get the handgun license

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