Gun Rights Activists Sue Massachusetts Over Assault Weapons Ban

By George

[Reuters] – Gun rights advocates have sued Massachusetts over the state’s ban on assault weapons, saying that a crackdown begun last year on “copycat” assault rifles is a vague and unconstitutional violation of gun ownership rights.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court late Monday, challenges a 1998 state law banning rifles including the AR-15 and AK-47 and a July 2016 directive by the states attorney general banning guns that are similar in function but have been slightly modified to meet state requirements, such as by replacing folding stocks with fixed models or removing flash suppressors.

The group of gun owners, dealers and the state’s Gun Owners Action League, who have the backing of the National Rifle Association, said the July decision by Attorney General Maura Healey banned guns that had been purchased legally in the state over the past two decades and infringed on the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Massachusetts prohibits firearms it pejoratively defines as ‘assault weapons,’ which is a non-technical, entirely fabricated, and political term of uncertain definition and scope,” the 33-page lawsuit contends.

It said that 1.2 million such weapons were sold across the United States in 2014 and that that …Read the Rest

Source:: Patriot Outdoor News