License to Carry Suitability Win in Massachusetts Middlesex Superior Court

By Ammoland

Massachusetts – -(AmmoLand.com)- Wakefield PD returns License To Carry and Firearm.

Last month Massachusetts’ Middlesex Superior Court handed down an important decision overturning a Wakefield License To Carry revocation based upon ‘suitability’ and failure to disclose prior court appearances. In doing so, the court affirmed the current statutory language that requires that suitability denials be based upon a credible threat to public safety. This is an important decision because district courts have continued to allow police chiefs broad discretion in determining ‘suitability’ despite a 2014 statutory change that established a suitability standard based upon an actual risk to public safety.

The case involves a Wakefield resident with a non-violent criminal record in Canada for which he’s since received a pardon from the Canadian government. When Wakefield PD learned of this record they revoked the resident’s License To Carry citing three reasons:

• The ‘disqualifying’ Canadian convictions (since pardoned);
• Failure to disclose Canadian court appearances on the license application;
• Being an ‘unsuitable person’ due to his Canadian convictions.

Using information provided by Comm2A the individual challenged the license revocation in district court. The court ruled that, based upon US v. Small, the application question regarding criminal court appearances …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand