Returning Resident Being Detained Without Bail for Mere Possession Without a License

GOAL was recently contacted by a woman whose fiancé was arrested for possession of firearms, one being a large capacity. The couple had been living in Arizona and had just returned to Massachusetts to live near family. For the most part they were living out of their car and short on money. To get back on their feet, they were trying to make some money doing food app deliveries. In doing so they were stopped by police for having an expired registration.

Because the car would have to be towed, the officer asked them to get what they needed out of the car. In the process, the officer said he noticed a “greenish” ammunition b0x and asked if there were guns in the car. The driver (Kyle) said yes and was subsequently arrested for possession of firearms without a license, one of them a large capacity.

He is now being detained without bail under the Commonwealth’s dangerousness statute. The law allows citizens to be held without bail for mere possession of a firearm without a license for up to 120 days.

“The fact that a U.S. citizen can be detained without bail for exercising a civil right without government permission is unconscionable and unconstitutional,” said Jim Wallace, Executive Director of GOAL. “Kyle is an Air Force veteran with no criminal record that we are aware of, yet he was declared dangerous by the state. If he was pulled over a few miles north in New Hampshire he would have only been charged with an unregistered vehicle.”

Since the passage of Chapter 135, GOAL has desperately been warning non-residents, and potentially new residents, about the convoluted laws. Here is a perfect example of how Governor Healey’s bigotry toward the Second Amendment Community is destroying lives.

GOAL is currently consulting with legal counsel to see if there is anything we can do. We are also reviewing the Commonwealth’s dangerousness statute to consider filing legislation to amend it. Only prohibited persons or persons being arrested for a violent underlying offense should be considered potentially dangerous. Not an innocent citizen caught up in unconstitutional laws.