Massachusetts’ “assault weapons” and “high capacity” magazine ban (Worman v. Healey) is just one of 10 Second Amendment cases the Supreme Court relisted last week. Fingers crossed that we’ll be getting some good news on one or more of these cases before the Court adjourns for the summer.
Joyce Lee Malcolm, a law professor at Antonin Scalia Law School in Virginia who has argued on behalf of gun rights advocates in Heller and other cases, said the law gives local licensing authorities too much leeway to decide if a “good reason” is good enough.
“If it’s that arbitrary, that it can depend on the individual administrator to just decide that he is never giving anybody that right, that’s not really fair,” Malcolm said.
Likewise, Malcolm said Massachusetts’ assault rifle and ammunition ban, based on the former federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, is also ripe for the court to consider, because — like in other similar state laws — the definition of what qualifies as an assault weapon is so vague.
“It automatically makes the millions of people (across the country) who have these weapons felons for owning them,” Malcolm said. “They bought them legally, and then suddenly, because some people find them scary, they’re illegal.”
– Kimberly Atkins in Mass. Gun Laws Challenge Could Become A Second Amendment SCOTUS Blockbuster