BELLEVUE, WA – Feb. 14, 2024 – The Second Modification Basis has filed a lawsuit in federal court docket difficult a Massachusetts statute which bans younger adults within the 18-to-20 age group from buying, possessing, or carrying any semiautomatic firearm of any sort or any handgun. The case is named Escher v. Mason.
Becoming a member of SAF are the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation, Gun House owners Motion League, Commonwealth Second Modification, Firearms Coverage Coalition and a personal citizen, Mack Escher, for whom the case is called. They’re represented by attorneys Jason Guida with a legislation workplace in Saugus, Mass., and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and William V. Bergstrom at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, DC. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court docket for the District of Massachusetts.
Named as defendants are Col. Christopher Mason, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, and Heath J. Eldredge, chief of police in Brewster, Mass., of their official capacities.
Plaintiffs are difficult provisions of Massachusetts legislation enacted with passage of H.B. 4885, signed in July 2024 by Gov. Maura Healey.
“Massachusetts’s legislation barring 18-20-year-olds from with the ability to purchase, possess, and carry generally possessed firearms fails to comport with the Structure’s command,” mentioned SAF Government Director Adam Kraut. “These grownup people are entitled to the complete scope of the Second Modification’s protections, but the State has opted to affirmatively deal with them as if they’ve much less rights. An trustworthy have a look at our nation’s historical past and custom will solely yield one end result, that’s, this legislation is blatantly unconstitutional.”
“Federal legislation permits for authorized motion in opposition to states that deprive people of federal constitutional rights beneath coloration of state legislation,” defined SAF founder and Government Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “State legislatures that undertake such restrictive legal guidelines invariably masks their motives by claiming they’re ‘gun security’ measures, however this isn’t about weapons, it’s about rights. It’s time for anti-gun officers in Massachusetts and elsewhere to grasp that.”
