Go to VA at all costs
Take it from me, as a guy who left VA after ~10 years to move to MD (long story).
VA = no worries there in America.
MD = always checking and double-checking to be sure you don't run afoul of the law, similar to like what people do in China. Some examples:
1) Driving home from the range with a locked up, unloaded, handgun in your trunk and need to take a leak, get gas, or stop at Taco Bell? MD law says once you stop, you are looking at up to three years in jail if caught!
2) Want to load your handgun or rifle mags while watching Amazing Race the night before you go to the range? Too bad. If you have a loaded magazine in your locked bag in the trunk, next to your cased, unloaded, locked up firearm, MD LEO's are taught that you have a "loaded firearm" and need to be arrested as described in point #1.
3) Want to buy a new handgun you have heard about? Well, first you better to check to see if it listed on the "allowable for sale handgun roster." (Most handguns are, unless made by Lorcin or something) Then, you better see if the Mfr includes one of those retarded fired shell-case thingies. If no to either one, than SOL.
4) Now that #3 has been hurdled, you need to go to the dealer where you saw the handgun (or the FFL who will handle the transfer), and fill out the 2-page Md State Police registration and background check form. The dealer/FFL will then fax it over to the MSP, and the 7-
business-day waiting period will then start
the next day.
5) When your background check comes back OK, then head back to the FFL/Dealer and sign the registration form to certify that you took possession of the handgun. Do the 4473, and . . . Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Handguns shipped from the factory after 2002 must have an "integrated mechanical safety device" before a dealer may transfer them in MD (even if a used gun). So, unless your handgun has a built-in lock like S&W, HK, some Taurus, etc., you have to fork over ~$20+ for one of those Bursalock-type barrel/chamber locks. (At least we now have that option as of 2005; but that could change in the future if the roster board decides otherwise).
6) Want to buy an M4-gery? Go through step 4. Oh, yeah - if an AR is stamped "HBAR" somewhere on it, then you get to skip #4.
Forget about those D&H 30-rounders you saw in the AR-15.com Equipment Exchange unless you have someone out of state to whom you can have them shipped. Magazines allowable for sale or receipt in MD must be 20 rounds or less. However, it is perfectly legal for you to have the 30-rd magazines shipped to your buddy just across the Potomac River in VA, and then bring them back with you to MD and keep them.
7) Want to buy a Hammerli Olympic-class pistol that takes its magazine outside the grip? Or even better, want to bring the one you already own with you when you move to MD? Too bad, MD has banned it under the "Assault Pistol" law because it looks too much like a Tec-9.
8) Want to have the means to defend yourself and family when out in public in high-crime MD, where multiple people seem to get shot and stabbed every day by the growing gang presence? Forget it, unless your "family" is a sack full of money you are in the process of taking directly to a bank. MD is notorious for its arbitrary-issue CCW system. It is so bad that the Md State Police and the Handgun Permit Review Board, which hears appeals of permit denials by the State Police, refused to give one to the head of the Montgomery County NAACP
even after she had documented death threats against her and the MoCo police were investigating numerous racist vandalism incidents around the county.
Even worse, there are at least three appellate court decisions that give the MSP and Review Board complete authority to deny permits if they feel like it "in their professional, experienced opinion." In the latest court case last year, the State Police officer in charge of permits "proved" he didn't discriminate against CCW applicants by proudly declaring that he routinely denied permits to retired LEO's.
9) The one thing that keeps me going is that there is a group of good, dedicated, MD firearms owners that are mad as heck and are not going to take it anymore. We beat back a worse-than-CA AWB three years in a row, and have the anti-gun-owner crowd scared to get a gun control bill out of committee for fear of getting a pro-gun-owner bill attached right along with it. When your back is to the wall, you can surprise yourself at what you can do. But see #10.
10) In the interest of full disclosure, MD is having a general election this November, so keep that in mind. Both Democratic governor candidates are moderately anti-gun-owner types who tripped over themselves to get camera time for their support of the AWB this year, while mumbling on about not "generally" supporting more gun control. The one known Lt.Gov. candidate (with no real job description if elected) is an Army Reserve JAG Lt.Col who used the Wes Clark BS line of "want an (AR-15)? Join the Army." The current Republican governor has a 50/50 chance being reelected. Though not a loud Larry Pratt-type pro-gun-owner activist, Gov. Ehrlich has used quiet political espionage to kill the AWB and other gun control bills as best he could.
Also up for grabs is probably the Attorney General office, currently held by a guy who published an official AG manifesto in 1999 calling for a UK-type handgun ban. He hasn't done much since then, but the two leading candidates for AG are Doug Gansler (MoCo State Attorney) and Tom Perez (MoCo Council member), both of whom are the hardest of the hard-core anti-gun-owner types. Gansler is actually a board member of CeaseFire MD. Perez is a far-left wacko from Takoma Park, MD, right on the DC border and is MD's "nuclear free zone" (nuff said). The MD AG could conceivably go the way of the MA AG and come up with BS "consumer protection" regulations to ban handguns. It just needs the right person in the office.
Lastly, the Comptroller Office, in charge of tax collection, is also up for grabs. The current Comptroller is the guy who passed the "Assault Pistol" law while governor. This guy is 80-some years old and is showing signs of going senile. He is known in MD as a "DINO" because (AP law notwithstanding) he is actually pretty common-sensical. His biggest and only competitor in the Democratic primary is hard-left Peter Franchot from Kensington, Takoma Park's neighboring town. One of Franchot's main campaign promises is to use the Comptroller office to push the legislature and public opinion for more gun control. Franchot's campaign sound bite is that "he is the only Democrat running for Comptroller," and it seems to be working in terms of fundraising and public support.
Hope this helps . . . . despite this dire picture, there are actually enough public ranges to go around, and several private shooting clubs around the state. Firearms that are not handguns or on the list of "regulated" long guns (ARs, AKs, etc) are treated like they are in America: no registration or BS beyond the Fed laws.
