Gun Association Plans Legal Action on Mass. AG's Assault Weapons Enforcement

BOSTON, MA — The gun industry’s largest trade association is working up a legal challenge to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's controversial crackdown, bringing in a former U.S. District Attorney to fight the AG's enforcement on what's been termed a "loophole" in the state's assault weapons ban.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the firearms and ammunition industry, said Thursday it will pursue legal action, challenging Healey's enforcement because it "would appear to ban sales of semiautomatic rifles in the commonwealth."

“With this ‘Enforcement Action,’ the Attorney General’s office has demonstrated how little it understands about firearms and has generated considerable uncertainty and confusion,” NSSF general counsel Lawrence Keane said in a press release.

Healey sent an enforcement notice to 350 Massachusetts gun dealers on July 20, telling them her office is cracking down on the sale of certain modified guns, which will now be treated as "copies and duplicates" of assault weapons as defined (and long banned) under state law.

Read more: Mass. AG Cracks Down on Assault Weapons Ban 'Loophole'

Legal action against Healey's notice has been foreshadowed for weeks, including by a top Democratic leader in the state Legislature, who declined to take up proposed legislative remedies to the AG's actions this session.

"There's no possible way we could have an issue such as a gun debate be debated and acted upon within two days," House Speaker Robert DeLeo said last week. "Probably ultimately it will be the courts that will decide as to whether she had that authority."

The governor, too, has pressed Healey for clarity on implementing her enforcement action. It grandfathers in owners of the "copycat" weapons, and instructs local dealers to sell off existing stocks of such guns outside state lines.

Read More: Gun Enthusiasts Up in Arms Over AG's 'Copycat' Assault Weapons Ban

Like many critics of the enforcement, Keane and the NSSF characterized Healey's action as "overreach," a decision "to legislate from her office without the benefit of any public process."

"The Attorney General has undermined the legislative and public process by unilaterally declaring products that were legal to be illegal," he said. "In doing so, she has endangered the livelihoods of family-owned businesses and made potential felons out of tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens.”

Massachusetts' former U.S. District Attorney Michael Sullivan, of the Ashcroft Law Firm, will head up its legal fight, according to the NSSF. Sullivan additionally previously served as acting director for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"NSSF is preparing and will file its action soon but will not discuss detailed legal strategy, potential co-plaintiffs or other details at this time," the press release said.

Newtown, Connecticut-based NSSF's coffers have recently been well-stocked by Springfield, Massachusetts, gun manufacturers Smith & Wesson, which on Wednesday made a $500,000 contribution to an NSSF voter registration and education campaign.

It marks the largest contribution the campaign to date, according to the NSSF, and Smith & Wesson's motive behind the big donation was not hard to puzzle out.

“We are honored to support this effort on behalf of our employees and especially the law-abiding firearm owners of Massachusetts, who have so recently been denied their fundamental rights through arbitrary government action that threatens to turn lawful gun owners and dealers into criminals," Smith & Wesson's CEO said, as quoted in the NSSF press release out Wednesday.

Read more from Patch:

• Protesters of Massachusetts Assault Weapons Crackdown Take to Beacon Hill
• Governor Calls for Clarity in Assault Weapons Ban Enforcement

>> Photo via Maura Healey Twitter