Mass. Court Hears Challenge To Gun Storage Law

The state’s highest court is considering a challenge to the Massachusetts law that requires gun owners to lock weapons in their homes. The case involves a Billerica man whose son allegedly shot a BB gun at a neighbor.

The 18-year-old showed police where his father kept other unlocked guns and the man was charged with improperly storing his weapons.

A judge threw out the case against the youth’s father, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Washington, D.C., case that found that the Second Amendment gives people the right to keep and bear arms for their personal use.

Middlesex County prosecutors argued Thursday that the Massachusetts law requiring guns to be safely locked is very different from the Washington law, which required gun owners to keep their weapons disassembled.