Orthodox synagogue sues Maryland county over firearms restrictions near houses of worship

The Silver Spring Jewish Center has sued Montgomery County, Md., on Thursday over a new firearms ordinance that restricts congregants and volunteers from carrying guns in houses of worship and other designated “places of public assembly.”

The Orthodox synagogue and Rabbi J. Menashe Shapiro, a student at the Georgetown University Law Center, filed the federal lawsuit against the county, County Executive Marc Elrich, Police Chief Marc Yamada and State’s Attorney John McCarthy.

The lawsuit challenges Expedited Bill 23-26, which prohibits carrying firearms “in or within 100 yards of a place of public assembly,” including houses of worship, schools, parks, libraries, hospitals and government buildings. The measure allows paid security personnel to carry firearms but bars volunteers and private individuals from doing so, according to the complaint. Elrich signed legislation on Monday.

Shapiro told JNS that the restrictions are “extremely disruptive” to the synagogue’s security plans.

“I serve on the security committee of my synagogue, and it is important that we be able to protect ourselves,” he said. “Especially since Oct. 7, but as recent as last month, we’ve faced threats. This law makes it impossible to be prepared.”

The synagogue formed an armed volunteer security team after the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the complaint. It also cites an October 2024 attack on a visibly Jewish congregant outside the synagogue and an attempted entry into the building by an unknown person on June 9.

“Our lawsuit specifically challenges two things: the ban on carrying in houses of worship and the 100-yard perimeter,” Shapiro told JNS, adding that the ordinance “also violates our religious beliefs.”

“Jewish law requires Jews to provide for their own security, and that means carrying firearms when necessary,” he told JNS. “I wish it weren’t necessary, but it is and we must.”

Shapiro, who lives in Silver Spring with his wife and four children, noted that the ordinance’s 100-yard zone creates a second issue: legally carrying firearms while walking.

“As a personal example, in order for me to get from my house to the synagogue at which I usually daven, I pass within 100 yards of two public schools, one private school, two parks and three other houses of worship,” he said.

Shapiro told JNS that the bill was “ill-conceived” and “designed to score points in an election year, even though the County Council and executive know it is going to be struck down by the courts.”

“Members of the Jewish community pleaded with them that this presented a fundamental threat to our safety, but it fell on deaf ears,” he said. “Now we turn to the courts for relief.”

Jack Leeb, a police psychologist who conducts gun safety courses in the local Jewish community, told JNS that “there is no reason whatsoever to restrict the ability to carry a firearm, especially in houses of worship, other than to control the population.”

“The issue of Second Amendment rights is a constant struggle between those who would have us believe that we are safe because the government says we are, and the reality that there is evil all around us, including, potentially, in every government composed of human beings,” Leeb said.

He told JNS that statistics that “allegedly prove that average citizens are less safe with a firearm have been proved false over and over again” but that “none of this matters to the government bureaucrats who insist that they will protect us.”

Mark Chenoweth, president and chief legal officer at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, attorneys for the synagogue, stated that, “It boggles the mind in the current antisemitic climate that the county would deny a synagogue the ability to defend worshippers as it sees fit.”

“Such interference in the internal management of a place of worship violates the First Amendment, too,” he said.

The attorneys are seeking a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the ordinance while the lawsuit proceeds.

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