The law, Expedited Bill No. 23-26, defines a "place of public assembly" to include parks, houses of worship, schools, libraries, recreational facilities, hospitals, community health centers, long-term care facilities, fairgrounds and conference centers, childcare facilities, government buildings, polling places, courthouses, and legislative chambers. It provides limited exemptions, such as for law enforcement officers.

The Justice Department filed suit in August, contending the law violated the Second Amendment. The judge's ruling on Monday rejected that challenge, though the department could still appeal.

County Executive Marc Elrich welcomed the decision in a statement, calling it "an important affirmation of the County's responsibility to protect public safety, uphold the law, and exercise its authority to safeguard the communities we serve."

Elrich said the bill was enacted with a clear purpose: "to strengthen public safety and preserve reasonable protections around the places where our residents live, learn, worship, and gather." He added that the county should not have to choose "between respecting constitutional rights and pursuing thoughtful, lawful measures to prevent gun violence."

Councilmember Dawn Luedtke, the bill's lead sponsor, said she was "very pleased" with the ruling. She argued that the law addresses the risk of intimidation in sensitive spaces.

"What you want to avoid is someone feeling threatened or intimidated by someone who is concealed carrying a weapon and may expose that during a service or where someone is not trained and not authorized under state law to be a security guard," Luedtke said.

Not everyone is celebrating. Rabbi Menashe Shapiro of the Silver Spring Jewish Center is pursuing a separate lawsuit against the county, arguing the law infringes on his ability to protect his congregants. His case is before a different judge.

Shapiro said the 100-yard buffer "unconstitutionally grabs at the hundred yards around those places."

"So not just a school, which maybe makes sense, but the hundred yards around the school, which has nothing to do with the school and it reaches into private property," he said. "What does happen is an armed attacker [enters], and the people inside the building either will be able to respond or they won't."

Shapiro also pointed to an arrest over the weekend at a synagogue in Northwest Washington as evidence that institutions need flexibility to set their own security policies. On Saturday, before Shabbat morning worship, Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested a man at Washington Hebrew Congregation after security screening detected an unregistered firearm, according to police. Tyler Finn, 32, told authorities he brought the gun to protect himself and others, and the synagogue's metal detectors alerted security to the weapon.

Shapiro said the episode underscores the immediate threat facing Jewish institutions and the need for discretion in security planning. But he noted that under a traditional interpretation of Jewish law, the use of electronic devices on the Sabbath is not permitted, which he said prevents his congregation from using metal detectors.

"While you can have lights running and you can have the heat or the air conditioning going, to use an electronics detector — to use a device at the door that's checking for the possession of firearms — that we wouldn't be allowed to do," Shapiro said.

Luedtke declined to comment on Shapiro's pending lawsuit but pushed back on the idea that allowing more guns inside houses of worship would improve safety. She said armed civilians can complicate law enforcement responses.

"It's hard for law enforcement if there is something that goes sideways; you can't tell when you're responding to an incident, who's the bad guy, who's not the bad guys in those situations," she said. "I think there are a lot of times when people think that, 'Well, if I had a wear and carry permit, I'd be able to just save the day,' and it really isn't as helpful in that context as people think it would be. And we should best leave that to our trained professionals."

She added that places of worship can still employ security guards or off-duty police officers to protect congregants.

"Certainly we want people to be able to exercise their right to religious worship and to do so safely," Luedtke said. "And it doesn't mean that you can't have a security guard, or commonly we have off-duty police who may be employed."

The ruling leaves the county law in effect while Shapiro's separate challenge proceeds.