Heads must be spinning at the Brady Campaign’s headquarters with news that the Second Amendment Foundation just won its fourth Second Amendment case this month. The latest case is from Massachusetts where U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodcock found that the commonwealth’s ban on handgun possession by permanent resident aliens contravened the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n
From the Second Amendment Foundation’s announcement of their win in Fletcher v. Haas<\/i>:<\/p>\n SAF WINS 2A CASE IN MASS, STRIKING DOWN GUN BAN FOR LEGAL ALIENS<\/p>\n For Immediate Release: 3\/30\/2012<\/p>\n BELLEVUE, WA \u2013 A Federal District Court Judge in Massachusetts today granted summary judgment in a Second Amendment Foundation case challenging that state\u2019s denial of firearms licenses to permanent resident aliens.<\/p>\n U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodcock concluded that \u201c\u2026the Massachusetts firearms regulatory regime as applied to the individual plaintiffs, contravenes the Second Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n The case involves two Massachusetts residents, Christopher Fletcher and Eoin Pryal, whose applications for licenses to possess firearms in their homes for immediate self-defense purposes were denied under a state law that does not allow non-citizens to own handguns. SAF was joined in the case by Commonwealth Second Amendment, Inc. and the two individual plaintiffs. The case is Fletcher v. Haas.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our fourth court victory this month in our campaign to win back firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time,\u201d said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. \u201cIt is one more step toward repairing decades of Second Amendment erosion.\u201d<\/p>\n In his 41-page ruling, Judge Woodcock wrote, \u201cThe Massachusetts firearms regulatory regime, as applied to Fletcher and Pryal, does not pass constitutional muster regardless of whether intermediate scrutiny or strict scrutiny applies\u2026The possibility that some resident aliens are unsuited to possess a handgun does not justify a wholesale ban.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith each strategic victory over a specific statute,\u201d Gottlieb said, \u201cSAF and its fellow plaintiffs are advancing the line a little more. Since our landmark victory in the McDonald case that incorporated the Second Amendment to the states, we\u2019ve been carefully picking laws to challenge, chipping away at years of gun control extremism. So far this month, we have posted victories in Maryland, North Carolina, Washington and now, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n \u201cOur battle is hardly finished,\u201d Gottlieb concluded. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to roll back generations of onerous gun laws. It\u2019s going to be a long march, and these wins are just the first small steps.\u201d <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n