MA GUN LAWYER

Attorney Smith has appealed the Hampden County Superior Court’s decision overturning the District Court’s order that a man who was convicted of nothing, Randy Westbrook, be issued a firearms license.

Smith will be taking the case to the United States Supreme Court once necessary.

The case raises highly substantial issues as to whether the Massachusetts “unsuitability” law is unconstitutional- both facially and as applied to Mr. Westbrook’s case. Although the SJC addressed a more broad-based constitutional challenge earlier this year, the US Supreme Court will have the final say on these issues. Moreover, that decision does not address the more precise arguments Attorney Smith has raised in the Westbrook case.

Westbrook’s LTC application was denied by Holyoke Police Chief, David Pratt. Pratt subjectively concluded that Westbrook was “unsuitable” because of two years-old criminal cases, neither of which resulted in a conviction. Westbrook is a good, peaceful African American Massachusetts resident seeking simply to exercise the right to keep and bear arms that is guaranteed to him.

A judge in the Holyoke District Court had earlier held that Attorney Smith’s arguments were correct that the Bruen decision from the United States Supreme Court of 2022 invalidated Massachusetts’ patently unconstitutional “unsuitability” law.

Stay tuned.