Billerica gun owner's case heads to court next month
The Lowell Sun
Updated: 10/09/2009 06:36:44 AM EDT
BOSTON -- The state's highest court plans to review a Billerica case next month in a challenge of the constitutionality of a state law that requires gun owners to lock their weapons.
The state Supreme Judicial Court has scheduled a hearing on the case on Nov. 5.
The Supreme Judicial Court decided to look at the law after a Lowell District Court judge cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision in dismissing firearms charges against Richard Runyan of Billerica, who had been accused of keeping unlocked weapons that were easily accessed by his handicapped son.
The federal decision out of Washington, D.C., says gun owners cannot be required to keep their weapons disassembled, and that the Second Amendment gives people the right to keep and bear arms.
But Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone, bolstered by the support of state Attorney General Martha Coakley, argues that the Constitution allows states to make their own gun laws. Massachusetts' gun laws do not prohibit people from owning guns; it merely requires that they be kept in a safe manner.
The Lowell Sun
Updated: 10/09/2009 06:36:44 AM EDT
BOSTON -- The state's highest court plans to review a Billerica case next month in a challenge of the constitutionality of a state law that requires gun owners to lock their weapons.
The state Supreme Judicial Court has scheduled a hearing on the case on Nov. 5.
The Supreme Judicial Court decided to look at the law after a Lowell District Court judge cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision in dismissing firearms charges against Richard Runyan of Billerica, who had been accused of keeping unlocked weapons that were easily accessed by his handicapped son.
The federal decision out of Washington, D.C., says gun owners cannot be required to keep their weapons disassembled, and that the Second Amendment gives people the right to keep and bear arms.
But Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone, bolstered by the support of state Attorney General Martha Coakley, argues that the Constitution allows states to make their own gun laws. Massachusetts' gun laws do not prohibit people from owning guns; it merely requires that they be kept in a safe manner.
