- Jul 29, 2014
- 50,065
I'm not a lawyer, but my interpretation of the "pistol" reference generally applies to transport laws. Meaning, you can't keep one in your vehicle unless you are traveling to or from a range, gunsmith, FFL, work, etc. No stopping in between those destinations and your place of residence. The rest of the regs apply to rifles.MD generally does not used the term pistol except with regard to "assault pistols" (enumerated list of 15 pistols). In several parts of the law an SBR is defined as a handgun either by stating that an SBR is a handgun or defining a handgun as something with a barrel less than 16 in. The problem arises because the copy cat section that prohibits copy cat weapons does not contain any reference to those definitions. Definitions tend to be relevant to the particular sections they are defined in. Since an SBR is generally considered a rifle, it appears certain SBRs meet the definition of a copy cat weapon and are prohibited by that particular section.
Again, that's my personal interpretation of the statutes.