CIR Files Complaint Against Massachusetts Stun Gun Ban

The Center for Individual rights, in cooperation with McCarter & English, has filed a complaint challenging the state of Massachusetts’s ban on stun guns in the U.S. District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CIR is representing three clients who want the option of non-lethal means of self-defense but are threatened with arrest, prosecution, and even incarceration under current Massachusetts law.

Our complaint argues that the law violates the Second Amendment by punishing those who seek to use stun guns for self-defense. Many people do not wish to use lethal means of self-defense, yet the Massachusetts law forces them to either face criminal prosecution or remain defenseless. There is no compelling reason for states to criminalize law-abiding citizens for seeking a non-lethal alternative to weapons already on the market in their attempt to exercise their Second Amendment rights.