Please join us on Tuesday, March 18, 2025
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Eastern)
ON-LINE VIA ZOOM
for a special meeting with Maryland Shall Issue (MSI) President, Mark Pennak,
NRA Board Memebr and NRA-ILA Front Lines Activist Volunteer, Cathy Wright,
And Second Amendment Attorney and Club Legal Counsel, Ed Hershon
To discuss current legislative updates of new and proposed laws and regulations impacting
gun owners in the State of Maryland, as well as National Gun Owner Issues.
Our Panel Will Be Taking Questions and Answers After Brief Remarks,
And an Overview of Gun Legislation Currently Being Proposed in Annapolis.
Ed Hershon, Esq. - Berwyn Member
Ed Hershon is the Managing Member of Hershon Legal, LLC, an Annapolis, Maryland, based law firm specializing in Second Amendment matters.
Ed has been practicing law since 1993, having received his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law, and the National Law Center at the George Washington University, in Washington, DC after graduating with a bachelors degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, Ed also attended the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s School at the University of Virginia where he completed advanced legal training in Government Contracts Law.
As former Assistant District Counsel with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he received 3 official Commendations from the Department of the Army for outstanding performance of my duties as an Assistant District Counsel.
Ed specializes in Second Amendment Law and is admitted to practice law throughout the State of Maryland (1993) and Illinois (2013) as well as the following courts: the United States Supreme Court (2019), the U.S. District Court of Maryland (1994), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit (2003), the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (1994) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (2003), United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Cathy Wright - Berwyn Member
Cathy Wright is a current board member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and an NRA Benefactor Life Member. Ms. Wright is an NRA-ILA Front Lines Activist Volunteer in Maryland and previously in North Carolina.
In 2016, she received the Jay M. Littlefield Memorial NRA-ILA Volunteer of the Year award. She is the Chair of the NRA Grassroots Development Committee a member of the NRA Clubs & Associations committee and is VP of Legislative Affairs for the Maryland State Rifle & Pistol Association.
A consummate outdoors woman, Ms. Wright is a member of the North Carolina Rifle & Pistol Association, Keystone Rifle & Pistol Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Berwyn Rod & Gun Club.
A former executive director and legislative lobbyist for medical societies in Massachusetts, Virginia, and North Carolina, she had done extensive work with presidential, state, congressional, and local political campaigns. Ms. Wright is an experienced grassroots activist, public speaker for political and civic organizations, enthusiastic promoter of NRA programs, and effective advocate for the NRA-ILA.
Mark Pennak, Esq.
Mark has been the President of Maryland Shall Issue (“MSI”) since September of 2016. He is retired from the United States Department of Justice, where he practiced law for 33 years in the Courts of Appeals of the United States and in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Mark is an active member of the Bar of Maryland and the District of Columbia and an expert in Maryland firearms law, federal firearms law and the law of self-defense. He is also a Maryland State Police certified handgun instructor for the Maryland Wear and Carry Permit and the Maryland Handgun Qualification License and a certified NRArange safety officer and an NRA instructor in rifle, pistol and personal protection in the home and outside the home and in muzzle loader.
In this past year alone, Mark has represented MSI in suing the State of Maryland in a challenge to the enactment of Senate Bill 1, the General Assembly’s anti-carry legislation designed to negate the Supreme Court’s decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen. He is also representing MSI and private plaintiffs (including a dealer) in a suit challenging a Montgomery County ordinance that basically made it illegal for permit holders to carry in the County.
Every year, on behalf of MSI and its members, Mark travels to Annapolis to testify before the Maryland General Assembly on gun bills. In the General Assembly, MSI has helped to kill bills that deserved to die and for those which have survived, they have successfully advocated changes that made the bills less onerous or, in some cases, even acceptable.
Members of the Press regularly contact MSI for comments on gun issues and Mark is frequently quoted on behalf of MSI in newspaper articles and on Television.
