Under Federal law, there is a "right" to transport unloaded, cased firearms through every state.
In MD and NJ, we cannot count on the local or state police respecting that "right..." especially if we are not on a major highway driving non-stop from outside the state to somewhere else outside the state.
If we are caught with a firearm in our vehicle while we are on a secondary road, stopped at a restaurant, visiting with friends, or shopping at a store, we can expect to be arrested, charged with crimes, and to have our firearm(s) confiscated.
In NJ, hollow-point ammunition is a separate crime (even for off-duty traveling LEO's)... in both NJ and MD, there are magazine size restrictions...
I know people who say having self-defense capability is worth such a risk.
To each their own... but I know people who have been in the NJ State Penitentiary, and I'd rather be dead than locked up in there (and I wouldn't last a week in there anyway). Even when I was an Atlantic City cabdriver on the night shift, I didn't carry a gun.