BELLEVUE, WA – A ruling by the Appellate Court of Maryland in the case of a man who was stopped by police initially for carrying a gun in public because the gun was allegedly “printing,” is being cited by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as another step toward placing more limits on government’s ability to interfere with the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment.

The case involved a man named Steven Hicks, who was stopped by a Baltimore police detective who claimed he saw Hicks’ gun “physically printing” through Hicks’ shirt. What followed was a search of Hicks which, the court ruled, violated his Fourth Amendment Rights. Hicks was licensed to carry with no restrictions.

“The Hicks ruling is a wake-up call to Maryland police they can no longer treat a constitutional right like a regulated privilege,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “As the court opinion noted, the subsequent search of Hicks and a satchel he was carrying was unconstitutional.”

As noted by the Appeals Court, “The case was presented…as a stop justified solely on the possession of a gun, and it was presented in the briefs on appeal the same way. That is the argument that we have addressed, and it is the basis for our conclusion that the stop was unconstitutional.”

“The police must have reasonable suspicion that the person is possessing the gun illegally or otherwise engaged in criminal activity,” wrote Judge Kathryn Grill Graeff. “Because the officers here stopped appellant based solely on his possession of a gun, without reasonable suspicion that he was possessing the gun illegally or otherwise involved in criminal activity, they did not have reasonable suspicion to stop him. The stop, therefore, violated appellant’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures.”

“The Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling in 2022 has shifted the dynamic for police in states where statutes presumed people carrying firearms were up to no good,” Gottlieb observed. “That’s changed, and law enforcement, along with local prosecutors, need to get up to speed on this issue. Hicks could not be searched merely because he had a firearm, for which he was licensed. That’s a step too far, which the court recognized. Armed citizens do not give up their

BELLEVUE, WA – While the gun prohibition lobby is observing June as “Gun Violence Awareness Month,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says there should also be an “Armed Self-Defense Awareness Month” to recognize the thousands of people who defend themselves and others each year.

“Not once have we heard a peep from the gun ban crowd when a legally-armed private citizen intervenes to save lives from mass killers, or protect themselves and their families from violent criminals,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Whether it was a would-be mass casualty incident at an Indiana mall, an attack at Price Chopper in Missouri, a retired Marine partnering with a Massachusetts state trooper to stop a Cambridge gunman, or a citizen stopping a fleeing attempted killer on a Seattle street, these incidents are universally ignored and swiftly swept under the nearest rug by anti-gunners and their cheerleaders in the media.”

The Crime Prevention Research Center has monitored armed citizen intervention for several years, and has done research on defensive gun uses. The CPRC issues annual reports on licensed concealed carry. Gottlieb has co-authored several books discussing armed self-defense and intervention, and he maintains that legally armed citizens have made, and continue to make, a difference in today’s society.

“This term ‘gun violence’ was invented by the gun prohibition lobby, and lapped up by the media,” he observed. “A gun doesn’t have a brain to hate with or a finger to pull its own trigger. We’ve recently seen high-profile stabbings on subways, yet nobody talks about ‘knife violence.’ When people driving under the influence cause fatal traffic crashes, we never hear about ‘car violence.’ Only the firearm is singled out for demonization, as if to transfer responsibility from the perpetrator to the gun he or she misused.

“We should recognize the heroic acts of armed citizens,” Gottlieb said. “Instead of blaming guns for violent crime, let’s be honest and place the responsibility where it belongs, on the violent offenders. Likewise, anti-gunners need to stop equating suicide with violent crime, and combining the numbers for a more dramatic effect. Not only is it dishonest, it smears those with emotional problems by lumping them in with criminals.

“Perhaps next year,” he concluded, “we can recognize the contributions armed citizens have made to public safety across the country. Gun owners can wear brightly-colored T-shirts to their state capitols, where governors will sign proclamations, make speeches about the Second Amendment, and the media will reject anti-gun rhetoric and report accurately about the right of self-defense.”