Four Massachusetts firearms dealers and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) have filed suit in federal court against Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, seeking to block her unilateral rewrite of the state’s 1998 semi-auto firearm ban, a rewrite that the lawsuit argues is “unconstitutionally vague, invalid and unenforceable,” the Boston Globe reports.
As America’s 1st Freedom reported here in July, Healey issued an “enforcement notice” warning that “if a gun’s operating system is essentially the same as that of a banned weapon, or if the gun has components that are interchangeable with those of a banned weapon … it is illegal”—effective immediately.
As the suit points out, firearms dealers “cannot determine the meaning and scope of the Enforcement Notice and whether certain firearms fall within” the expanded ban, and since they could face criminal penalties for violations, the policy violates their due process rights. “She has absolutely no authority to take it upon herself to issue regulations … that redefine the statutory terms,” said NSSF’s Lawrence G. Keane.
