NRA & Second Amendment Foundation Challenge MA Gun-Licensing Law

Image courtesy NSSF

When it comes to gun laws, Massachusetts is nearly as bad as New York … just quieter.

Massachusetts doesn’t have a divisive governor like Kathy Hochul, nor does it have the same extensive record of trying to dodge the provisions of the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision. What it does have is amusing accents, the world’s most aggressive drivers, and a nasty tangle of gun laws. Those gun laws may not have been written specifically to criminalize law-abiding gun owners, but they might as well have been. Today, we’ve learned that the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation have teamed up again to help bring some relief to New England firearms owners. Given what we know about how circuit courts have chosen to apply Bruen, it seems like a slam-dunk … but you never know how a judge will rule until he or she does it.

Here’s the news so far–we’ll keep you posted!

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The Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association have filed an amicus brief with the Massachusetts Supreme Court in support of a New Hampshire man who is challenging the Massachusetts permit law.

SAF and NRA are represented by attorneys Adam Kraut with SAF in Bellevue, Wash., Joseph G.S. Greenlee and Erin M. Erhardt with NRA in Fairfax, Va., and Edward F. George, Jr., at Edward George & Associates in Arlington, Mass.

The case involves New Hampshire resident Dean F. Donnell, Jr., who was stopped by police in Massachusetts and charged for carrying a firearm without a license. In their 38-page brief, SAF and NRA explain their interest as that of their members’ ability to travel with firearms legally across state lines, to use them for lawful purposes.

“There is no historical tradition that justifies the non-resident licensing scheme now in place in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Looking back, a government license has not been required to exercise the right to carry arms. Such licenses came into existence only in the late 19th Century, and they applied only to the concealed carry of firearms. Open carry was unrestricted.”

“Our brief,” explained Kraut, who is also SAF’s executive director, “discusses how there were often exemptions for those traveling from being subject to the same restrictions as residents of a particular state. We note how the licensing scheme in Massachusetts is unduly prejudiced against nonresidents. New nonresident license applications require an in-person appointment in Massachusetts, necessitating an extra (unarmed) trip to the Commonwealth—which, especially for residents of distant states, becomes a barrier to entry that may be financially untenable.”

David Bronson

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