MA GUN LAWYER

Attorney William Smith has filed pleadings asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to hear his major case raising the issue of the constitutionality of the Massachusetts Gun Licensing Law- Westbrook v. Pratt. Smith will thereafter 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 held in 2024 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. That decision was overturned by a Superior Court judge earlier this year.