BELLEVUE, WA – A Massachusetts Appeals Court panel unanimously “made the right call” in ruling a wife cannot be denied an application for a license to carry (LTC) because of past incidents involving her husband, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms observed.
In the case of Guinane v. Chief of Police of Manchester-by-the-Sea, the three-judge panel reversed lower court rulings and ordered that Barbara Guinane’s application for a license to carry be granted, even though her husband’s LTC had been suspended.
“This is a proper ruling which recognizes that one person may not be penalized because of the behavior of another person, even a spouse,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “The police chief acknowledged during court testimony there was ‘no behavior by Guinane suggesting that her licensure might create a safety risk.’ You can’t deny one person’s rights based on another person’s past behavior.”
Writing for the court, Justice Peter Sacks noted, “Although the chief was understandably concerned about public safety, there was no reliable information about behavior by the applicant suggesting that, if issued a license, she would create a risk to public safety or a risk of danger to herself or others. That is the focus of the standard.”
Justice Sacks was joined in his 14-page opinion by Justices Gregory Massing and Jennifer Allen. Near the end of his ruling, Sacks wrote, “Absent the evidentiary support required by (law), the chief’s concerns, while plainly understandable, were not sufficiently ‘reasonable and legitimate’ to warrant a determination of unsuitability. As the statute makes clear, denial of an LTC application cannot be based on speculation.”
“Even in Massachusetts,” Gottlieb commented, “common sense can prevail in gun-related cases. Mrs. Guinane’s small personal victory could translate into something more significant for other Bay State residents who may face similar circumstances.”