In a recent announcement, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear a challenge to a local gun safety law passed in Anne Arundel County in 2022, leaving the law in place.
On Monday, the United States Supreme Court announced its disposition on a long list of certiorari petitions. A local case previously covered on Conduit Street, MD Shall Issue, Inc., et al. v. Anne Arundel County, MD, was declined without comment, allowing the local ordinance to stay in place. As discussed in the previous article, this ruling focuses less on gun access and ownership and more on what is permissible concerning warning labels on products.
The local law required gun retailers in the county to distribute pamphlets created by the Anne Arundel County Health Department that offer information regarding suicide prevention, mental health, non-violent conflict resolution, and gun safety. In practice, gun retailers are expected to display and distribute the literature with gun purchases.
In essence, the plaintiff argued that the local ordinance amounted to a First Amendment violation because the health department information constituted compelled speech amounting to “guns are bad”. According to a recent article from Maryland Matters, Anne Arundel County Attorney, Gregory Swain shared thoughts counter to that point:
But County Attorney Gregory Swain said the county has never said that guns cause suicides, only that their presence raises the risks. “We’ve never said that (there’s a causal relationship), we’ve always said that gun ownership is a risk factor, and that’s exactly what the brochure says,” Swain said.
