Maryland Court Ruling: Seeing a Gun Alone Isn't Enough for Law Enforcement to Stop Someone

State of MD - Maryland's Appellate Court has ruled that police cannot stop someone just because they see a gun. The decision came down June 4, 2026, in the case of Steven Hicks v. State of Maryland. The full court, sitting "in banc," reversed a Baltimore City conviction tied to a 2023 police stop.

The case started on July 5, 2023. Baltimore City detectives were driving through a neighborhood when they noticed a group of people gathered near an intersection. One detective spotted the outline of a handgun in a man's waistband through his shirt. Officers stopped him, handcuffed him, and told him they needed to investigate.

The man immediately said he had a license for the gun. He repeated that several times.

Officers still patted him down and searched further, finding a second gun in his bag and small containers of suspected cocaine in his pocket.

He later pleaded guilty to a firearm and drug trafficking charge, but he challenged the search itself. He argued police never had a valid reason to stop him in the first place since carrying a gun with a permit is legal.

The Appellate Court agreed. Judges pointed to a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which confirmed that carrying a handgun in public for self-defense is legal under the Second Amendment. Because of that, the court said, simply seeing someone with a gun doesn't give police reasonable suspicion to stop them.

The court explained that officers need a specific reason to believe someone is carrying illegally or breaking another law. A visible gun alone doesn't meet that bar anymore.

The ruling didn't give the man a complete win on every point. Judges agreed that once officers have a lawful reason to stop someone who is armed, they can pat that person down for safety. The issue here was that the stop itself should never have happened.

The court also found police went too far during the search. Officers reached into the man's bag and pockets instead of sticking to a basic pat-down, and the state couldn't show that doing so was necessary or justified under the law.

Because the stop wasn't valid to begin with, the court reversed the conviction. The case now heads back to the circuit court.

This ruling applies statewide, meaning it could shape how police across Maryland approach situations involving a visible firearm going forward.