Three stores in western Massachusetts are among the four gun shops in the state suing Attorney General Maura Healey over her decision to enforce a ban on so-called “copycat” assault-style weapons.
Grrr Gear of Orange, Guns and Gear LLC in Agawam, Paper City Firearms of Holyoke and Pullman Arms Inc. in Worcester are all participants in the lawsuit. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Newton, Connecticut, which describes itself as the trade association for the firearms industry, also joined.
On July 20, Healey announced a crackdown on the state’s assault weapons ban. She issued a warning to all gun sellers and manufacturers in Massachusetts that her office planned to increase the ban’s enforcement.
According to the attorney general’s website, copies or duplicates of banned assault rifles — including copies of the Colt AR-15 and the Kalashnikov AK-47 — are prohibited in Massachusetts. However, an estimated 10,000 copycat assault weapons were sold in Massachusetts last year, according to the announcement.
An enforcement notice issued the same day outlines what constitutes a “copy” or “duplicate” weapon under the assault weapons ban. A weapon is a copy or duplicate if “its internal functional components are substantially similar in construction and configuration to those of an enumerated weapon” or if “it has a receiver that is the same as or interchangeable with the receiver of an enumerated weapon.”
According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by attorney David R. Kerrigan of Kenney & Sams P.C. in Boston, Healey’s action was “unconstitutionally vague both on its face and as applied.”
Kerrigan deferred all questions to Michael Bazinet, public affairs director for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Bazinet said the enforcement notice is a unilateral action that goes against nearly two decades of interpretation of gun law.
“These are civilian weapons. For instance the AR-15 rifle has been available to the public since the 1960s,” he said, adding that it is not a copycat weapon. “This is a phrase that the attorney general has decided to introduce.”
The lawsuit states that the enforcement notice applies to all semi-automatic weapons if it is broadly interpreted.
“If that is a correct reading of the regulations, they violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution to keep and bear arms because it bans the manufacture, sale, and possession of a broad universe of rifles, pistols, and shotguns that are commonly owned and used by citizens of Massachusetts for lawful purposes including self-defense in the home,” according to the lawsuit.
The Second Amendment refers to a well regulated militia being necessary “to the security of a free State.” The 14th Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws.
According to the lawsuit, Grrr Gear has previously sold Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 rifles but no longer does due to fears of prosecution.
Bazinet also said his association objects to the lack of hearings or due process before the notice.
“They’re misleading the American public and the citizens of Massachusetts into thinking this is going to make their state safer, because it will not,” he said. “We assume the court will come to the right decision here.”
Bazinet also said criminal activity involving firearms typically consists of illegally acquired handguns and members of his association wish to curb violence by cracking down on this.
Jillian Fennimore, Healey’s press secretary, released a statement about the enforcement notice.
“(It) has effectively ended the sale of copycat assault weapons in Massachusetts that have been illegal since 1998. It is working,” the statement reads.