{"id":103716,"date":"2024-08-17T14:46:46","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T19:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=103716"},"modified":"2024-08-17T14:46:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T19:46:46","slug":"103716","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=103716","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

NRA, SAF File Brief In Case Concerning Carry Across State Lines<\/a><\/p>\n

Massachusetts restrictive gun laws continue to come under well-deserved fire because of their failure to respect the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

We reported over the past week how gun owners have\u00a0started an initiative petition<\/a>\u00a0to put a repeal of the new sweeping gun law on the statewide ballot and about the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)\u00a0donating $100,000<\/a>\u00a0to the Gun Owners\u2019 Action League (GOAL) to help fund that group\u2019s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. Now two gun-rights groups have filed an amicus brief in another Massachusetts case challenging the state\u2019s permit law that restricts lawful gun owners from carrying a firearm in the state.<\/p>\n

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 the case named Commonwealth of\u00a0Massachusetts v. Donnel<\/em>l, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed their 38-page brief explaining their interest as that of their members\u2019 ability to travel with firearms legally across state lines, to use them for lawful purposes.<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cThere is no historical tradition that justifies the non-resident licensing scheme now in place in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,\u201d said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. \u201cLooking 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<\/sup>\u00a0Century, and they applied only to the concealed carry of firearms. Open carry was unrestricted.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In\u00a0the brief<\/a>, NRA and SAF argue that the law doesn\u2019t meet the second\u00a0Bruen\u00a0<\/em>standard of proving a historic precedent exists for such a restriction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Second Amendment\u2019s plain text covers an individual\u2019s conduct, the government must justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the nation\u2019s historical tradition of firearm regulation,\u201d the brief states. \u201cBecause the Supreme Court has already held that the Second Amendment\u2019s plain text protects carrying handguns publicly for self-defense, the Commonwealth bears the burden of justifying its regulation with historical tradition. It has not and cannot do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brief further argues that no historical tradition exists that justifies the Commonwealth\u2019s nonresident licensing scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, nonresidents traveling in a state were treated no worse than residents with regard to firearm carry,\u201d the brief states. \u201cIf they were treated differently under the law, it was generally to exempt travelers from carry restrictions\u2014not to subject them to more onerous burdens than residents. Moreover, a government license was not historically required to exercise the right to carry arms; carry licenses that applied to free citizens were not enacted until the late-19th-century and applied only to concealed carry, leaving open carry unrestricted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Kraut, SAF executive director and one of the attorneys in the case, said the act of just getting\u00a0 permit puts a huge burden on non-resident gun owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew nonresident license applications require an in-person appointment in Massachusetts, necessitating an extra (unarmed) trip to the Commonwealth\u2014which, especially for residents of distant states, becomes a barrier to entry that may be financially untenable,\u201d Kraut said.<\/p>\n

The NRA and SAF conclude in the brief that since the law violates the Second Amendment, the district court\u2019s order of dismissal should be confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NRA, SAF File Brief In Case Concerning Carry Across State Lines Massachusetts restrictive gun laws continue to come under well-deserved fire because of their failure to respect the Second Amendment. We reported over the past week how gun owners have\u00a0started an initiative petition\u00a0to put a repeal of the new sweeping gun law on the statewide … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-courts","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103717,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103716\/revisions\/103717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}