Massachusetts Attorney General Sued By Gun Owners Over Unconstitutional Handgun Ban

Three days after securing a historic victory in a post-trial ruling overturning California’s ban on so-called “assault weapons,” the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) filed a new federal Second Amendment lawsuit today, challenging Massachusetts’ ban on constitutionally protected, current handguns widely owned and used for lawful uses across the U.S.

The FPC’s complaint alleges the State’s new laws and regulations “effectively operat[e] as a bar to the exercise of the fundamental right to bear protected arms,” which “violate[s] Plaintiffs’ rights, and the rights of those similarly situated, under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.” The complaint further states that “some of Massachusetts’ ‘safety’ requirements, such as the mandated 10-lb. trigger pull… make handguns so outfitted more difficult to operate effectively and thus more difficult to operate safely.”

In other words, Massachusetts is effectively making it next to impossible to purchase legal firearms that the U.S. Constitution and Federal government recognizes as legally ownable weapons.

According to Adam Kraut, FPC’s Senior Director of Legal Operations:

The State of Massachusetts and Attorney General Healey unconstitutionally infringe upon the fundamental, individual Second Amendment rights of the People by restricting them from acquiring the common, modern handgun of their choice for self-defense. Massachusetts’ laws do not support public safety and cannot survive any constitutionally appropriate mode of scrutiny. Rather, the State’s laws prevent people from exercising their rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Such clearly unjust, unconstitutional laws cannot be permitted to stand, and we look forward to vindicating the rights of our clients and all law-abiding Bay State residents.

Massachusetts, in addition to requiring gun owners to acquire a Firearms Identification Card or a License to Carry Firearms, forbids the commercial sale of handguns that are not on the state’s Unconstitutional “Approved Handgun Roster” or are barred by Attorney General Maura Healey’s “Handgun Sales Regulations.” As a result, citizens of Massachusetts are unable to purchase a wide range of popular makes and models of constitutionally protected handguns.