Thousands of gun enthusiasts attended this weekend’s Silverado Gun Show at the Carroll County Agriculture Center, where they bought rifles, pistols and revolvers and blasted Maryland’s concealed weapons law for targeting residents who want to defend themselves.

“It’s almost impossible” to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm, said Jim Morganthall, owner of Just Guns, a Baltimore County store.

Maryland has a “may-issue” law, which means state police decide who has a reason to carry a concealed gun, such as a jeweler who transports merchandise, a doctor who prescribes narcotics or a victim of death threats who provides documentation.

Gun-rights activists have lobbied the legislature for years to make Maryland a “shall-issue” state by passing a bill that would allow people to get concealed gun permits as long as they don’t have criminal records or histories of mental illness. According to the National Rifle Association, about 40 states are shall-issue, including Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

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Political observers expect lawmakers to revive right-to-carry legislation during this year’s session, just as they have for the past decade.

The Republican legislators who represent Carroll — where residents gripe that permits are easier to obtain only a few miles away in Pennsylvania — back right-to-carry, but they are a minority in this blue state.

Brian Malte, legislative director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said most of Maryland’s legislators think right-to-carry is a “bad idea.”

Still, gun advocates — despite acknowledging that right-to-carry won’t pass until the GOP wins control of the General Assembly — continue to argue that people have the right to defend themselves.

“It’s kind of like swimming upstream,” said Robert Culver, of Montgomery Citizens For a Safer Maryland. “If you stop, you get swept downstream. We have to keep fighting to hold our ground.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com