[{"_1":2,"_88":-5,"_89":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6394721,"mediaKeyId","2102378-af7cfb79a2459e18b0bd34fceeddcf43","parentId",2102378,"title","State Police licensing division reports about 200,000 active wear-and-carry permits and steady application volumes","audioSeconds",1492,"startMs",1030000,"endMs",2522000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2102378-af7cfb79a2459e18b0bd34fceeddcf43&start=1030&end=2522","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2102378-af7cfb79a2459e18b0bd34fceeddcf43/thumbnail_1030000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6394721/Maryland/State-Police-licensing-division-reports-about-200000-active-wear-and-carry-permits-and-steady-application-volumes","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6394721-543937bc1c032f3e01b716876c1727d2/orig.mp4?Expires=1771181922&Signature=KujAaHWi3c7nd6KNe8taXyBK4xSAweRFBOnx517B0SYPubOgO5DIpeRymnV-Z5g0ApQnQ4lIC~lzXG~OL15piE08Zms5Ic67WBhE13qwnrbSqZLi2W7hK~sEus628mfOyWcLTPDV0YBAVQQzDhXh4ECzxCbHxlrivpN1cC9g3EeO-ZasffWplhy-2xfAsllDXXPIC~1lhdbOLgdRaaa85WaiIfjQ2bNXU~atUvOC2AJ8RaABYYccD2HEI1SgEI-PTIsxXqexNMYsXV4OCkH86UQMK4TtWAy10iTj~rKMvJ5W-hU0Ig70b1H1ueQNhviFhj55YAwE8ad3guL-TqjswA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Maryland General Assembly - Judiciary","date","2025-01-09T00:00:00Z","article","Annapolis — Maryland State Police officials told the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 9 that the Licensing Division is processing hundreds of thousands of firearm-related records and that active wear-and-carry permits have stabilized near 200,000.

Captain Andrew Rosignall, commander of the Licensing Division, told committee members the division processes three primary categories: firearms registrations (77R), applications to purchase/transfer a firearm, and the Handgun Qualification License (HQL). “We have approximately 36 sworn and 91 civilian personnel and counting,” Rosignall said, describing the division’s staffing.

Rosignall said the firearms-registration workload has remained relatively steady since 2020 at about 100,000 applications a year. The division reported roughly 200,000 active wear-and-carry permits and said that application volume spiked immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision in June 2022; by late 2023–2024, new-application volumes had dropped from that initial surge.

On renewals and processing times, Rosignall said the statutory timeframes guide decisions and that the licensing office has been meeting or exceeding those benchmarks. He gave typical processing estimates of about 50 days for original wear-and-carry applications and about 30 days for renewals, and said those figures fluctuate day to day.

Committee members asked about denial rates. Rosignall said denial reasons are typically criminal prohibitors or mental-health-related issues discovered through the division’s record checks. He did not provide a single definitive denial percentage in the briefing; he said denial rates “have remained about the same year over year” and emphasized that decisions are driven by the databases the division checks.

On out-of-state applicants, Rosignall said the requirements and prohibitions for wear-and-carry permits are the same for in-state and out-of-state applicants; the division does not apply a residency requirement for those applications. He described training and live-scan fingerprinting requirements that make very distant out-of-state applications more difficult to complete but said applications are treated the same if they meet statutory requirements.

Rosignall also described new administrative checks: daily conviction-data feeds, live-scan fingerprint notifications to the licensing division when someone is arrested in Maryland, and a record recheck process introduced Oct. 1 that runs checks at the midway point of originals and renewals to spot intervening arrests or convictions.

Members asked for additional breakdowns the division does not routinely publish in the hearing: occupation-level tallies for permit holders, how many retired law-enforcement officers hold permits, and demographic splits by race, gender and age. Rosignall said some of that data is already reported to the joint committee’s reporting process and that he would seek to provide additional detail where possible.

The committee thanked the State Police for the update and requested follow-up datasets on HQL renewals, occupational and demographic breakdowns, and state-by-state counts for out-of-state permit holders if the division can produce them.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","JUD Committee Session, 1/9/2025 #1","oneSentenceSummary","Maryland State Police officials told the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 9 that the Licensing Division handles roughly 100,000 firearm-registration applications annually and maintains about 200,000 active wear-and-carry permits.","taxTitle","Judiciary Committee, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Committees, Legislative, Maryland","taxId",15063,"location","Maryland","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6394725,"State Police tell Judiciary Committee Gun Center now mandatory, recommended nearly 30,000 charges in 2024",3151,56000,3207000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2102378-af7cfb79a2459e18b0bd34fceeddcf43&start=56&end=3207","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2102378-af7cfb79a2459e18b0bd34fceeddcf43/thumbnail_56000.jpg","/articles/6394725/Maryland/State-Police-tell-Judiciary-Committee-Gun-Center-now-mandatory-recommended-nearly-30000-charges-in-2024","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6394725-482e88ea7c10a9bc94f70208208cfefb/orig.mp4?Expires=1771181922&Signature=GUJpHuxQW719pDMJrcp4SPpqAOKHV1lpfYQ2mNBqjEgyc5oyZlX08nixBZJlayhr98t2ue7hdQrHpOkouquX1J-HexNzc-mJ4BDrPwm06RxTMOlaliq0WLGP-2u-gCQNX0Txkkw4uan~XfL7YCLdvKMEXUKXAZa-MQoYUGtSjUvKztIw1~fcxx1a3O5WsyjF2swmpJ4s6TMSm5XK5Xv~qKJwkPlfnXikAARhUclErRXDEjC0ft1568VVwGPGS52wb9C37pTGJzTIY4ii-kvjtcxxWj9viXLoGi5vjbxJvrFpP~mVQpxIjB6P8kZZqWov05oWp-G9lj1ZMLBkkS8BPw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Annapolis — The Maryland State Police told the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 9 that the Maryland Gun Center now operates 24 hours a day to support law enforcement across the state and recommended nearly 30,000 criminal charges in 2024.

Lieutenant Colonel Rosemary Chappell of the Criminal Investigation Bureau introduced the briefing and said the Gun Center’s command staff would “share with you insight into their division's operations.” Detective Sergeant Michael Sauer, assistant commander of the Maryland Gun Center, described the unit’s work in vetting firearm-related arrests and providing information to local police and state’s attorneys.

The Gun Center, Sauer said, was made mandatory for all Maryland law enforcement on Oct. 1, 2022, and its responsibilities were expanded on Oct. 1, 2023, to require notification when firearms are seized in connection with final protective orders. “The Maryland Gun Center is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week operation that is here to support all law enforcement within the state,” Sauer said.

Why it matters: committee members were given statistics and operational details that affect how arrests, firearm returns, protective-order checks and prosecution recommendations are handled statewide. The change from voluntary to mandatory use of the Gun Center was singled out as a structural shift in how firearm information is collected and routed.

Sauer described the Gun Center’s core services: vetting arrests that result from traffic stops, search warrants and shooting investigations; conducting background checks before returning firearms; validating handgun permits; and performing mental-health checks tied to weapon seizures. Investigators rely on roughly 15 different databases to determine whether a person is legally permitted to possess firearms.

On case volumes, the presenters gave percent and count snapshots for 2024. The Gun Center reported almost 30,000 recommended charges statewide for the year, with Baltimore City accounting for nearly 11,000 of those recommended charges — roughly a third of the statewide total, Sauer said. The briefing also listed the five departments that most frequently used Gun Center services: Baltimore County Police Department, Maryland State Police, Baltimore City Police Department, Prince George’s County and Anne Arundel County.

The committee asked both about the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision and a recently raised federal case referenced in the hearing (transcript: “Rami”). Sauer and other presenters said Maryland statutory prohibitions and existing state practices limited the immediate impact of Bruen on seizures and disqualifications in many scenarios; Maryland already prohibits possession after certain assault convictions and under other state rules, they said.

Members also questioned how the Gun Center tracks juvenile involvement and whether multiple people found near an illegal firearm are routinely charged. Sauer said the center’s case-type categories are assigned after investigators speak with arresting officers; whether multiple people are charged for a firearm found in a vehicle is a prosecutorial and local-enforcement decision. Committee members requested follow-up data on juvenile dispositions and demographic breakdowns by county.

The briefing noted additional operational tools: daily conviction data feeds, live-scan fingerprint notifications for arrests, ATF e-trace assistance for firearm tracing, and a record recheck process implemented Oct. 1 that re-runs checks at midway points of original and renewal permit periods.

The committee closed the session by asking the Gun Center to return follow-up datasets requested during questioning, including demographic breakdowns and age-specific reporting for juvenile cases. Lieutenant Colonel Chappell and the Gun Center team said they would provide additional data to the committee as available.","Maryland State Police briefed the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 9 about the Maryland Gun Center’s 24/7 operations, data checks and case categories. Presenters said the center recommended almost 30,000 charges statewide in 2024 and that a 2022 law made use of the center mandatory for law enforcement.","actionData","errors"]

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State Police licensing division reports about 200,000 active wear-and-carry permits and steady application volumes

State Police tell Judiciary Committee Gun Center now mandatory, recommended nearly 30,000 charges in 2024