That's beyond obnoxious. If the government is going to presume that it has the right to prevent people from acquiring a firearm, in the name of public safety, until it has a chance to individually approve them to do so, then it has a duty to provide or deny that approval in a timely manner. It has a moral duty, it has a 'because-I-don't-want-to-rightfully-be-considered-an-#######-by-reasonable-members-of-society' duty, and it should have an unavoidable and unequivocal legal duty.
Two and a half months? That is in no way timely. Piss or get off the pot. If Maryland can't do the checks quickly enough such that the primary effect of doing them remains the supposed benefit to public safety, rather than the inconveniencing of would-be gun owners (the latter being the primary effect at this point), then it should give up the exercise until it can do them within a reasonable amount of time. Let the federal government do the instant checks that it is set up to do. It's disgusting, and everyone involved in the process should be ashamed of themselves - 'I'm just doing my job' doesn't absolve them. At this point that job they are doing has become (if it wasn't to begin with, as a matter of principle) an embodiment of government oppression. If the government wants to insist it has the right to do this kind of stuff, then it must at least set-up a system to do it properly and not be completely incompetent at it. The government's incompetence in this regard should be to the detriment of the government, not the individuals who are the helpless victims of that incompetence.
You ask permission from the government to buy something you want or need, as the government insists you must do - that's offensive enough. But then rather than giving you or denying you that permission fairly quickly - as it could if it really wanted to and as any decent tyrant would, it makes you wait 70 plus days before doing you the favor of telling you whether you have permission to buy something that you should have every right to buy (without permission). Seventy days without what you want or need. Our government is an #######, I think that's the best - the most succinct - way to put it.
Let's have some T-Shirts made. "Our government is an #######."
Plenty of time left for me sit and stew, and wonder if they'll throw me into that wonderful "further review" pile.
