Hi, max here with Frizz Edwards, and I want to talk to you a little bit today about firearms offenses. If you're watching this video, it might be because you or someone you love has been charged with a handgun or firearms offense, and you'd like to get to the bottom of what the charges are, what the maximum penalties are, and what you can expect in court. First, we're going to start with the two different areas of law when it comes to firearms, offenses and criminal offenses. Here in Maryland, we have charges that come from the public safety article that deals with who's allowed to have guns and what type of guns, and then we have where carry transport, Maryland's laws against carrying on your person or transporting in your vehicle a handgun. The first area of law we're going to talk about is the public safety article.

Maryland has different prohibitions and different classes of firearms. We have regulated firearms and we have other weapons like shotguns. People who are disqualified could be disqualified for a number of different reasons. As of the making of this video, anyone under the age of 21 is disqualified from having a regulated firearm unless they were in certain unique circumstances like somebody who's in the military or somebody who has a firearm in their home for self-defense purposes. Another reason a person might be disqualified from having a firearm is for a prior conviction. Many people know felons can't have firearms or Maryland regulated firearms or shotguns. A felon in possession is a felony could subject a person to a mandatory minimum, a non parable jail sentence of at least five years. However, there's an additional class of people that we call disqualified persons. That's also in the public safety article. These are people who might have committed an offense that has a maximum penalty in excess of two years.

These offenses are all misdemeanors with the exception of felon in possession or a person who has a prior crime of violence, but they are very serious and likely resulting in arrest, confiscation of the firearm, and in certain circumstances, imprisonment even for a first offense. The second area of law where I see a lot of firearms charges here in Maryland is Maryland's laws with regards to carrying, transporting and wearing handguns. So these are in the criminal law article, and these make it a criminal offense to either have a handgun on your person in your vehicle or being transported generally in person vehicles where we see them the most. So when we deal with handgun carrying in Maryland, there's two separate licenses you need to have. There's a handgun qualification license. Now, a lot of people get these, they buy a handgun and they start driving around with it in their car, and what they don't know is you need a separate license that permits you to carry.

Otherwise you can really only move your gun, carry your gun, transport your gun when you're going to and from limited locations in between bonafide places of residence to and from a firearms rage to and from a place where you're going to surrender the firearm. And there's a more exhaustive list in the statute. But generally speaking, most people are unaware that transporting a firearm in Maryland, especially a handgun, transporting a handgun, could subject you to some criminal liability. Now, whether you have public safety article charges for being a prohibited person or under the age of 21 or a felon or wear carry, wear, carry transport offenses for carrying a firearm or moving a firearm in your vehicle, specifically a handgun. Either way, you generally have similar defenses. The first and most popular defense in these cases comes out of the Fourth Amendment. The stop of your vehicle needs to be supported by reasonable articulable suspicion for the reason for the stop or probable cause.

We're looking at equipment issues with regards to your vehicle tag lights, brake lights, moving violations, crossing over, things like that. And then we also have contemporaneous reporting of crime. So if it's a below for a red Dodge Caravan just involved in a robbery and you're driving a green one and they stop you and they say they think you're involved in a robbery, you could see how you might challenge a constitutionality of a stop like that. Now, that's the basis for the stop, but the basis for the stop and the basis for the search are very often different. But what we saw over the last few years was a lot of searches based on the odor of marijuana and a new Maryland law that come into effect has said that an officer cannot search a vehicle in its entirety based solely off the odor of marijuana, something that was very popular.

So officers are needing to find new ways to get into people's vehicles through what's called the Carroll Doctrine. These are unwarranted searches of vehicles. So generally speaking, the most easiest way for an officer to get inside of your car is your consent. You don't mind if I search right? The way that officers ask that is designed for you to say, no, I don't mind, because if you say yes, you mind, people are afraid. The officer might think they have something they shouldn't. Truth be told though, an officer needs a legitimate reason to get inside of your vehicle and if they use duress or coerce you into consenting or they search without a legal justification, that's another way that we're often able to fight these handgun charges or other firearm disqualification charges. And most people end up charged with some combination of both. If it's a handgun and a vehicle and they're a disqualified person, the last or some of the last defenses might be factually based.

For example, handgun and vehicle has a knowledge element where handgun on person. So if you're one of four people in a car with a handgun and it's not in your bag, it's on the other side of the car, you might be able to prevail over the state's case. If you're able to convince a jury or judge and you didn't have knowledge and the public safety article of disqualification based offenses, they're factual as well. So the state needs to put on evidence that you're a disqualified person. They're unable to do that. Like say they're trying to find a Tennessee conviction for an assault. You may overcome the state's case in that situation as well. At the end of the day, these firearms charges in Maryland present very unique circumstances, and no two cases are the same. So give us a call if you'd like us to take a look at your case. Thanks.

 

YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SZuluPWTHU&list=WL&index=10&t=6s

Credit: Max G. Frizalone, Partner, FrizWoods Criminal Defense