Davis V. Grimes, MA re: Arbitrary Denials of LTC

[Gary L. Griffiths]

Commonwealth Second Amendment, a MA gun rights group, has filed suit against four MA police chiefs for violating Second Amendment rights by imposing unreasonable and unlawful restrictions on concealed carry applicants.

Read about it here: http://onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com/2013/02/comm2a-goes-to-federal-court-against.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&************=Feed%3A+NoLawyers-OnlyGunsAndMoney+%28No+Lawyers+-+Only+Guns+and+Money%29

This one looks like it might have legs....

 

[SamNavy]

Outstanding... looks like a team effort in the right direction.

 

[2ndsojourn]

Maybe a few with more time and money than I will follow suit in NJ.

 

[Tom Servo]

The argument:

This suit challenges Defendants’ imposition of “sporting,” “hunting,” and/or “target” restrictions on handgun licenses. These restrictions prevent Plaintiffs from using handguns for the purpose self-protection, which contravenes “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” that the Second Amendment secures.

Heller recognized a "right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation." Restricting the carriage of weapons to "sporting" or "hunting" uses would violate that.

 

[Al Norris]

I've just RECAPPED the case and it will appear within a few minutes. I'm also about to enter the initial data into the Current 2A Cases thread.

The complaint was originally filed on Feb. 7, 2013. The complaint referenced in the blog (and located at the Comm2A website) is actually a FAC (First Amended Complaint) and was filed on Feb. 10th.

This appears to be a second attempt (with otherwise "clean" plaintiffs). unlike the ill-fated Hightower case. The reasons that the CA1 rejected Hightower are not precedential here and do not apply.

David Jensen, a protege of Alan Gura, will be the lead attorney.

 

[Al Norris]

Case entered and may be referenced at the Internet Archive.

 

[press1280]

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_c...8147&q="bear+arms"&hl=en&scisbd=2&as_sdt=6,49

Order is out. Case is being certified to MA Supreme Judicial Court. Judge notes the policies of these police chiefs may violate MA state laws, and wants to avoid the 2A question.
These chiefs have a policy of not issuing unrestricted licenses to first time applicants, no matter their reason.
The order also notes the split with Peruta/Moore and CA2-4. When first reading it I got the strong impression the judge would rule in our favor. But he seems reluctant to pull the trigger.
I see this as a signal that he's allowing the MA state court to make this case go away.

 

[KyJim]

Looks like the judge is punting the ball down the road and hoping it is either resolved by a referral to the state courts or a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court specifically addressing the right to carry outside the home.