The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJ) is hearing oral arguments today on the appeal of Commonwealth vs. O’Donnell, a case dismissed by a lower court. As reported previously,
These challenges to the state’s firearms licensing scheme stem in part from the prosecution of two motorists, Dean Donnell and Philip Marquis, who were both charged with gun possession felonies for crossing state borders while otherwise legally armed in their home state of New Hampshire.
Their cases were initially dismissed by Judge John Coffey of the Lowell District Court in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 NYSRPA v. Bruen decision, but state prosecutors have appealed the dismissals, along with the similarly situated cases of at least five other people from New Hampshire.
The full docket is available here. Links to documents can be found as well as a link to the stream which did not resolve for me when I tried it. Oral arguments may have been compete when I tried.
The case is significant. If Massachusetts is forced to acknowledge a lawful armed citizen with a carry license from a neighboring state, the Libs must feel sure the world will end. Just imagine people crossing into liberal states, armed to challenge their restrictions until one of these cases finds its way to the US Supreme Court.
Here’s a snippet from the Giffords and Brady Gun Grabbers.
The District Court’s decision must be reversed. Nothing in the Second Amendment prevents one state from adopting different and objective licensing requirements vis-à-vis another state. When carried to its logical conclusion, the District Court’s decision would nullify the firearm licensing laws of Massachusetts and would instead permit non-residents “to carry their own laws with them regardless of whether those laws are compatible with the law of the Commonwealth.” Br. for the Commonwealth at 45-46. The effect: state officials and private citizens within the Commonwealth would not know which state’s laws apply and under what circumstances creating anarchy, chaos, and a potential “regulatory race to the bottom.”
Nothing but the 14th Amendments enrollment of the Bill of Rights as inviolable by states and the fact that the second Amendment says nothing about permits or licensing. Oh, yeah, that.
I don’t expect the SJC to side with liberty but it could happen.
