(DCNF)—The Department of Justice (DOJ)Monday filed suit against Montgomery County, Maryland, over a law prohibiting carrying firearms within 100 yards of multiple locations, including churches.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon posted a letter sent to the Washington, D.C.-area county Thursday, warning that the provisions barring firearms from thousands of locations — even those that granted permission for people to carry firearms — run afoul of the Second Amendment. In the complaint filed with the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, DOJ attorneys took aim at the provisions barring the carrying of firearms in many locations, notably churches, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Wolford v. Lopez, which invalidated a similar law in Hawaii.
“Congregants have a right to protect themselves and their community,” Dhillon told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Second Amendment doesn’t stop at the church door.”
“Montgomery County will not be able to rebut the presumption of unconstitutionality because it will not be able to show that Bill 23-26 does not infringe upon the historical understanding of the right codified in the Second Amendment,” the complaint states. “Indeed, just the opposite is true. The nation has no ‘tradition of banning firearms in places of worship.’”
Democratic Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich signed Bill 23-26 into law July 27, updating the county’s ordinances in response to an April 28 ruling by the state Supreme Court that struck down some of the jurisdiction’s previous measures regarding carrying firearms.
“The County does not comment on pending litigation,” a spokeswoman for Montgomery County told the DCNF.
“Montgomery County makes it almost impossible for a law-abiding citizen with a valid carry license to walk down the street and avoid these exclusion zones,” Dhillon said in a DOJ release. “The Civil Rights Division will not stand idle while Montgomery County tramples the rights guaranteed to law-abiding citizens by the Second Amendment.”
In December 2019, an armed parishioner in Texas fatally shot a shotgun-wielding assailant who opened fire in the West Freeway Church of Christ, killing a member of the church’s armed security team and a deacon.
Churches and other places of worship have been attacked several times over the years, including in 2015 when a shooter killed nine people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church. A Mormon church was attacked in Grand Blanc, Michigan, in September 2025, when a man rammed his vehicle into the church and opened fire on congregants.
A San Diego mosque was targeted in May, with two gunmen being engaged by an armed security guard. The Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was attacked by a mass shooter in October 2018.
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