Welcome to the concealed carry community. I live in MD and have a Florida CCW. In MD you can not legally have a handgun in your car or motor home loaded or not and MD does not recognize Florida’s or any other states’ carry permit. The states around MD do recognize my permit, but I can’t legally get there. For ordinary folks to get a permit in MD one has to carry large sums of money and concealed carry only at those times or have a documented death threat; that is unless you have powerful connections or have a position of power.
It is about time that, as much as I believe in state’s rights, the right to carry becomes a federal mandate. A few years ago congress did pass a law allowing former police officers to carry since states like MD had placed so many obstacles in a retired officer’s way when trying to obtain a permit.
While I have always been inclined to walk away from a confrontation, I did find that when I have carried in the past, I was much more respectful of the power I potentially had and would be even more inclined to avoid confrontations.
But one thing to remember, and hard to do, is that one has to practice recovering the weapon from concealment and firing it. If you don’t do this you may find yourself shot before you can remember how to extract the weapon and where the heck the safety is!
