Monday, September 20, 2010

Don't Hold Your Breath...

Man challenging constitutionality of gun permit revocation
WORCESTER — Citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, a Shrewsbury man is challenging the constitutionality of a state law under which his license to carry a firearm was revoked five years ago by Police Chief Gary J. Gemme.

Lawyer Mel L. Greenberg, who represents Raymond J. Holden, filed an amended petition in Central District Court Sept. 10 appealing Chief Gemme’s 2005 revocation of Mr. Holden’s firearm’s license based on a determination that Mr. Holden was not a “suitable person” to carry a gun.
In a nutshell, Holden had a complaint sworn out against him which was dropped shortly thereafter. The police chief decided that Holden was no longer "suitable" to carry (in MA = own) a firearm and revoked his permit. Even though the charges were dropped, the allegations recanted, and a judge ordered the permit be restored, the chief of police took it upon himself to revoke this man's gun permit. What this means in MA, mind you, is that he to immediately divest of every single firearm in his collection - i.e. bring them all to a gun shop and leave them on consignment.

Even though he wasn't even charged with a crime. Welcome to Massachusetts, the birthplace and graveyard of liberty.

This is an uphill battle, one that I certainly hope is won but won't hold my breath waiting for. The local police chiefs wield complete and total authority over the granting of firearms permits; they are very reluctant to give up this power. In some cases it's good - there are cities and towns in MA where the chief realizes that the second amendment means something and will issue a permit to anyone that asks (that isn't prohibited, of course). In some cases - like in Boston proper - no permits are given save to favored political hacks, the offspring of sports stars, or the rich and famous.

I'm surprised that MA hasn't already been more in the forefront in the 2A battle. The system in place here in MA for granting permits is blatantly unconstitutional - one cannot own a pistol except at the whim of the local Chief Law Enforcement Officer. Even with a perfectly clean record, you can be denied a permit to OWN a handgun for no reason other than the Chief doesn't like the way you look. It's interesting that no one has seized on this travesty yet to highlight the insanity of "May Issue" CCW laws.

In any case, I wish Mr. Holden the best of luck - because he's gonna need it.

That is all.

Link comes courtesy of The Packetman - thanks!

10 comments:

Stan said...

If he was ordered to restore the permit by a judge why isn't Chief Powertrip being arrested for contempt for failing to do so?

Jay G said...

He did restore the permit.

Then he promptly revoked it for "suitability" purposes, which he - as the licensing authority - is duly allowed to do.

You see, in MA, one has one's permit to *OWN* a firearm entirely at the whim of the local licensing authority - almost exclusively the Chief of Police and/or his designee.

They can revoke your permit at any time for any reason under the guise of "suitability", as in "not suitable to own a firearm."

The only exception to this is the FID, which covers shotguns and low-capacity rifles (rifles which cannot accept high capacity magazines) - IOW, guns which are NOT in common use in the military.

The guns that are in common use (that we can own, like AR variants, and handguns) are covered by the Class A or B permits, both of which are "May Issue" and can be denied or revoked for literally any reason the Chief of Police dreams up.

Sure, there are procedures one can follow to get one's permit back if one feels that it has been revoked without cause. However, the moment your permit is revoked, you need to get rid of every single firearm, feeding device, and ammunition - or you become a felon.

So if the chief revokes your permit, you have to make arrangements to store your firearms elsewhere while you fight to get your permit back. It may take months and months and cost multiple thousands of dollars, too.

Like I said: Welcome to Massachusetts, the birthplace - and graveyard - of liberty.

Brad_in_IL said...

Jay,
Do you know if GOAL has taken any action on this case? What about well known "firearms" attorney Jesse Cohen? I bet this sort of thing just chaps his ass.

- Brad

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

I'm also surprised Alan Gura (or someone like him) hasn't used MA to go after arbitrary "may issue" licensing, especially since it's a license to own, not just carry. That would seem to make it a slam dunk in the wake of the Heller and McDonald decisions.

Lissa said...

*waves to MA as the plane takes off*

Kris, in New England said...

I grew up with many members of the Gemme family.

Gary Gemme is not someone I know personally but if he's anything like the family I grew up with - this is not surprising and he'll never back down.

Eck! said...

The laws are so vague I've tried to figure out if doing target practice with my Crossman .22 pellet rifle is legal on my own property. Conclusion
is I don't know! Dare to elimiate a pesky squiggle or other rodent with it and it appears the world could cave in.

It does seem that FID and "hunting rifles" are oddly different from others. For example a M1 Garand is fine but a M1 Carbine is not.. completely nuts.


Eck!

ASM826 said...

Every single taxpayer in Massachusetts, including Mr. Holden, participates in this travesty. If he continues to live there, when the opportunity to have more, if still limited, freedom can be had, he is complicit in his own subjugation.

People left countries, sometimes taking nothing but the clothes they wore, to come to America for the dream of freedom.

The men you are speaking of, when you speak of the birthplace of freedom, risked and sometimes lost their lives with weapons in their hands to gain their freedoms.

Now, when all that is required to rent a U-Haul and drive away, leaving Massachusetts to sink under the weight of the non-taxpayers that remain, it is appalling that every freedom loving gun owner hasn't taken their income and their votes and left, north or south.

Wally said...

I left in MA in 97, when the gun laws went from bad to worse.

*spit*

Just remember the underground railroad has a stop at Wally World.

Bram said...

I legally bought an HK91 in MA in 1989. I was considering a Steyr AUG but too expensive.

I left in '91. I'll never return as a resident.