Dismissal of lawsuit by Patriot Arms against town upheld

[DispositionMatrix]

Appeals court upholds dismissal of suit over firearms charges

IPSWICH — When an Ipswich police lieutenant filed charges of improper storage of a firearm against an Ipswich gun shop owner following the theft of two handguns from the store, he was correct to believe the law applied to firearms dealers, regardless of what a district court judge later concluded, a state Appeals Court panel has ruled.

In a decision released Monday, the judges upheld a Superior Court judge's decision to dismiss a 2016 lawsuit brought by John Goudreau against the town, Chief Paul Nikas and Lt. Jonathan Hubbard, in which Goudreau claimed damages for malicious prosecution, tortious interference with contractual relations, and defamation.

The Appeals Court disagreed with Goudreau's contention, and the district court judge's finding, that the section of the gun law concerning proper storage of guns in a locked and secure facility does not apply to dealers.

 

[Drix]

To be fair, this has always been the case and it's not a radical interpretation of the law.

This guy let his PP son, who had a history of assault and burglary, wander around his gun shop, into a back room, walk out with firearms, and then didn't report it for 48h.

FFL's are generally secure, this isn't going to be a radical deviation, most are safe's in among themselves, the law makes exemption for being kept and includes being under control of the owner or authorized user- the owner of the store obviously lost control, and it wasn't in possession of an authorized user, nor did it have some sort of lock.

 

[MAJoe]

More discussion here:

Gun Stores - Firearms Storage

Haven't seen this posted anywhere yet, but his ruling just came down wrt storage. After a judge dismissed criminal charges against an Ipswich gun dealer whose recently released convict son walked out of the store with two guns kept in unlocked boxes out back, the dealer sued the town's police...

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