Federal Judge Upholds Massachusetts Handgun Roster

Massachusetts can limit the sale of many frequent handguns as long as it doesn’t ban all handgun gross sales, a federal choose has dominated.

On Friday, Chief US District Decide Denise J. Casper upheld Massachusetts’ Authorized Firearms Roster in opposition to a problem from gun-rights advocates. She discovered that the roster, which restricts what handguns residents might legally buy from licensed gun sellers based mostly on particular safety-feature necessities, didn’t implicate the Second Modification below the take a look at established by the Supreme Courtroom in 2022’s New York State Rifle and Pistol Affiliation v. Bruen. Subsequently, she granted abstract judgment to the state.

“For these causes, the Courtroom concludes that the Granata Plaintiffs’ proposed conduct of buying sure handguns that don’t adjust to the Massachusetts handgun regulatory scheme from licensed sellers/retailers just isn’t lined by the plain textual content of the Second Modification below step one of Bruen,” Decide Casper wrote in Granata v. Campbell.

The ruling offers a blow to gun-rights teams seeking to tackle one of many extra uncommon types of gun management within the nation. It stands in distinction to their success in securing a number of rulings blocking parts of California’s comparable handgun roster. It means that stringent pistol restrictions might not be really easy to defeat regardless of the Supreme Courtroom’s recognition of handguns as constitutionally protected weapons.

The Massachusetts legislation and related laws promulgated by the state’s legal professional common’s workplace require particular person handgun makes and fashions to satisfy a sequence of specs earlier than licensed sellers can legally promote them to the general public. These options embrace a minimal melting level, inner security mechanisms, tamper-resistant serial numbers, “childproofing” options, a loaded chamber indicator, {a magazine} security disconnector, and extra. Handguns that meet these necessities are reviewed by the state’s Secretary of Public Security and Safety for inclusion on the state’s “Authorized Handgun Roster.”

Two Massachusetts gun house owners seeking to buy sure Glock and CZ handguns not included on the roster partnered with the Firearms Coverage Coalition and an area gun seller to problem the restrictions in June 2021. They argued that the handgun roster acts as a de facto ban on handguns that don’t have the legislation’s required options. They mentioned that ran counter to the Supreme Courtroom’s ruling in opposition to Washington, DC’s handgun ban in 2008’s District of Columbia v. Heller.

Decide Casper, nevertheless, disagreed. She cited a portion of the Heller resolution referring to “circumstances and {qualifications} on the industrial sale of arms” as “presumptively lawful regulatory measures” and mentioned the Massachusetts’ handgun regime fell into that camp.

“On condition that ‘[t]here’s a longstanding distinction between the proper to maintain and bear arms and industrial regulation of firearms,’ and that the proposed conduct right here entails the industrial sale by licensed sellers/retailers of sure handguns that don’t adjust to the Commonwealth’s legal guidelines and laws, the Courtroom considers whether or not the Commonwealth’s handgun regulatory scheme ‘meaningfully constrains the would-be purchasers from possessing firearms,’” Casper, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote.

She mentioned that each plaintiffs already personal a number of handguns and will select to buy one of many a whole lot of fashions at the moment out there on the authorised roster. She additional famous that every plaintiff might additionally legally buy non-roster-approved handguns on the non-public market.

“Given this file, the Granata Plaintiffs haven’t proven that the Massachusetts handgun regulatory scheme concerning the industrial sale of handguns by licensed sellers/retailers has ‘meaningfully constrained’ their skill to own handguns in Massachusetts and ‘limit[ed] protections conferred by the Second Modification,’” Casper concluded.

The Firearms Coverage Coalition blasted the ruling as “harmful” and “unsuitable.”

“On this weird and deeply flawed resolution, the Courtroom successfully mentioned governments might ban each handgun make and mannequin however one,” Brandon Combs, the group’s president, mentioned. “This resolution is absurd, lawless, and unimaginable to reconcile with binding Supreme Courtroom precedent or the textual content and historical past of the Structure.”

Combs mentioned his group plans to enchantment the ruling to the First Circuit Courtroom of Appeals.