Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban Lawsuit - BOSTON — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Massachusetts' ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, saying in a ruling released Friday that the guns fall outside the scope of the Second Amendment.
US District Judge William Young said assault weapons are military firearms and are not protected by the constitutional right to "bear arms." Gun control is about politics, not the courts, he said.
Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban Lawsuit
"Other states are free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens," Young said. "These political issues are simply not constitutionally relevant. Americans are not afraid of flamboyant, loud and robust debate about these issues. We call that democracy."
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Democratic State Attorney General Maura Healey said the decision "affirms the right of the people of Massachusetts to protect themselves from these weapons of war."
"Stronger gun laws save lives, and we will not be intimidated by the gun lobby in our efforts to end the sale of assault weapons and protect our communities and schools," he said in a statement. He said that families across the country should rejoice in this victory.
Young upheld Healy's 2016 enforcement notice to gun dealers and manufacturers clarifying what constitutes a "replica" or "copy" weapon under the assault weapons ban from 1998, including copies of the Colt AR-15 and Kalashnikov AK-47.
Healy said at the time that gun manufacturers circumvented the ban by selling copycat versions of guns they claimed complied with the law.
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The Massachusetts assault weapons ban mirrors a federal ban that expired in 2004. It prohibits the sale of specific and branded weapons and expressly prohibits copies or duplicates of those weapons.
The lawsuit was filed last year by the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts and other groups that said the law violated their rights under the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. His lawsuit said the ban would prevent law-abiding residents from buying and owning some of the nation's most popular firearms.
The executive director of the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts said he had not seen the decision and could not immediately comment. A victory for gun control advocate and Attorney General Maura Healey, who warned sellers of "imitation" guns that they risk prosecution.
In his ruling, US District Judge William Young of Massachusetts wrote that the state's ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines does not violate the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.
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"The AR-15 and its analogs, as well as high-capacity magazines, are simply not weapons within the basic meaning of a person's constitutional right to 'bear arms,'" Young wrote in the 47-page decision. "In the absence of federal legislation, Massachusetts is free to ban these weapons and high-capacity magazines. Other states are free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens. These policy issues are simply not of constitutional importance. .
Young cited a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that said "weapons that are highly useful in military service — M-16 rifles and the like" are not protected by the Second Amendment and "can be banned."
While Friday's ruling does not set a new precedent or extend beyond Massachusetts, advocates on both sides of the gun control debate said it could have far-reaching ramifications.
Supporters of stricter gun control measures, who have been pushing for the outlawing of assault weapons across the country in the wake of mass shootings, hailed it as a powerful statement that such bans are legal.
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"It's huge," said John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence. "This makes Massachusetts a model for gun violence prevention, laws and outcomes."
Gun rights activists, meanwhile, said the ruling would give attorneys general more power to interpret laws to fit their own beliefs.
"We're not going to give one person the ultimate authority to do anything, not just about this law, but about any law," said Jim Wallace, executive director of Gun Owners Action. League of Massachusetts, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association. and the plaintiff in the suit.
Wallace said the plaintiffs, who include a group of gun retailers, have not decided to appeal the decision.
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In a statement, the NRA said: "Like all law-abiding Massachusetts gun owners, the NRA is extremely disappointed that the court upheld Massachusetts' ban on many of the most popular firearms in America.
"As long as politicians and judicial officials continue to violate the law to advance a political agenda, the NRA's five million members will be there to hold them accountable," the statement said.
In his ruling, Young upheld a 2016 decision to notify gun sellers and manufacturers that the state would "crack down" on the illegal sale of assault weapons, including firearms. Slightly modified to avoid ban.
Healy sent the notice in July 2016, a month after a gunman killed 49 people with a semi-automatic rifle and pistol at an Orlando nightclub. The Ordinance redefined an imitator as a prohibited weapon with operating systems substantially similar or components that are interchangeable with a prohibited weapon.
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"The decision says we, the people of Massachusetts, have the right to defend ourselves by banning these weapons," he said at a news conference. "And it clearly indicates that my office has the authority to enforce the law."
The lawsuit was filed in January 2017 in response to Healey's notice to gun manufacturers, but the lawsuit challenged the state's 1998 ban.
The state ban was enacted four years after the federal ban was enacted. Massachusetts law was written to mirror federal law, and the state legislature made it permanent in 2004 when the federal ban expired.
In their lawsuit, the gun retailers and their defenders argued that the AR-15 rifle, banned in Massachusetts, should not be considered a military-style assault weapon like the M-16 rifle, because it does not fire in full auto mode. .
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"Simply put, AR-15-style rifles are the same as M16 rifles and fall outside the scope of the Second Amendment," Young said.
The lawsuit challenged Healy's enforcement notice on the grounds that it would make people who bought counterfeit guns vulnerable to lawsuits before July 2016 and that it did not clearly define what guns would be considered a copy of the AR-15.
But Healey, who ruled Young, declined to apply the directive retroactively and clarified which firearms are prohibited.
Dave Workman, editor of thegunmag.com, the official magazine of the Second Amendment Foundation, said Young's decision did not take into account the popularity of the AR-15, the best-selling rifle.
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"If there's ever been a Citizen Militia called [the AR-15] maybe you'd expect it to show up," Workman said. "When the First Amendment was created, we didn't have broadcast journalism, the Internet, or cell phones. So nothing is protected? That's a question that, at some point, will have to be dealt with by a higher court.
In that case, Judge Timothy S. Hillman agreed with gun retailers that his order was not clear enough and that Healey's decision deprived gun owners of their ownership — the ability to sell counterfeit guns — without due process was "a plausible justification."
"Plaintiffs now complain that they are prevented from selling such weapons because such sales may, but certainly are not, illegal," Hillman wrote.
Black News Hour Hosted by Black Journalists at The Boston Globe Presented by The Boston Globe, "Black News Hour," a new radio show that connects with our community and provides credible information that expands on the deep issues impacting our city. A federal appeals court has dismissed a challenge to Massachusetts' assault weapons ban, which Attorney General Maura Healy called a "defeat for the gun lobby."
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The First Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a federal judge's decision last year to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of gun advocates and gun retailers.
"This case involves a matter of paramount importance," read Friday's decision. "In light of semi-automatic assault weapons and [high-capacity magazines] becoming more frequent acts of mass violence, the interests of state and local governments in regulating the possession and use of these weapons deserve greater weight."
After the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Healy's office reviewed Massachusetts' assault weapons ban and gun sales in the state. The ban was established by legislation in 1998. During the review, officials determined that gun manufacturers had ignored the wording of the law and advertised firearms sold as copycat weapons, such as the AR-15 and AK-47.
The guns are described as "Massachusetts compliant" and more than 10,000 guns were sold in the state in 2015, Healy's office said.
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In 2016, he warned gun manufacturers and dealers to stop selling copycats. In response to this notice, a lawsuit was filed in 2017 challenging the state's 1998 ban.
In the lawsuit, gun retailers and lawyers argued that the AR-15
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