Several Second Amendment advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), submitted briefs to the court to defend Dean Donnell.
The New Hampshire resident was stopped by police in Massachusetts and charged with possession of a firearm without a license. Donnell brought a motion to dismiss the case as the Bay State law should not apply to an out-of-state resident.
The trial court agreed. In its ruling, it determined that a great injustice had been done to the visitor.
The judge wrote that “a law-abiding resident of New Hampshire who is exercising his Constitutional right should not become a felon by exercising that right when he is traveling through Massachusetts merely because he has not obtained a Massachusetts license to carry…This Court can think of no other Constitutional right which a person loses simply by traveling beyond his home state’s border…”
The ruling was appealed, and the state’s highest court surprised observers by taking up the case directly instead of allowing it to meander through appeals.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court asked for amicus briefs from interested parties, and several were submitted.
The most recent filing by the NRA and SAF powerfully argued for the preservation of Donnell’s Second Amendment rights. “Because the Supreme Court has already held that the Second Amendment’s 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.”
The brief correctly notes that the onerous Massachusetts law should be tossed aside under the Constitution and the high court’s Bruen decision. Proceedings should be closely watched and have extensive implications for gun rights advocates far beyond the local region.
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