“When police pulled up, they saw two men sitting in a pickup truck. The passenger, later identified as Freeman, had a black, semi-automatic pistol on his lap and a second gun was spotted on the center console moments later, according to the arrest report. Both men were arrested and charged with carrying a loaded firearm without a license.” A straightforward case of violating Massachusetts’ strict anti-gun laws, right? Well . . .
it seems that Richard Freeman, the man in the car with the pistol on his lap, is blind. But he hasn’t always been that way.
A gunshot to the head nearly killed Freeman several years ago and left him blind and suffering from seizures, (Freeman’s attorney Joe A.) Smith told Judge Bruce Melikian.
As for the firearm . . .
…Freeman had no use for the loaded, semi-automatic handgun that police allegedly found on his lap last weekend, his lawyer said.
“He’s blind,” attorney Joe A. Smith III explained Monday in Springfield District Court, moments before his client pulled a collapsible cane from his jacket and began to unfold it.
Freeman’s no choir boy. He has a record that includes drug convictions and under-age possession of a firearm.
But let’s consider blindness per se. Let’s say someone in a constitutional carry state who isn’t a prohibited person wants to exercise his or her right to keep and bear arms. After all, blind people are victimized by criminals, too. You OK with that?