A decision by Chief United States District Judge Denise J. Casper has upheld Massachusetts’s ban on modern, constitutionally protected handguns and granted summary judgment to the state, concluding that the roster does not violate the Second Amendment.
“The Court’s opinion is as dangerous as it is wrong,” said Firearms Policy Coalition President Brandon Combs. FPC is joined in the litigation by two individual members as well as The Gun Runner, LLC, a retailer in the state.
The opinion in Granata v. Campbell can be viewed here. The opinion was published on August 29, 2025.
Combs added, “Incredibly, the judge held that Massachusetts’s handgun ban doesn’t even implicate the Second Amendment. In this bizarre and deeply flawed decision, the Court effectively said governments could ban every handgun make and model but one. This decision is absurd, lawless, and impossible to reconcile with binding Supreme Court precedent or the text and history of the Constitution.”
The Massachusetts’ handgun roster blocks licensed dealers from selling many popular pistols that are available in most of the country. Massachusetts publishes a state-approved list of handguns that dealers may sell. If a gun lacks a required feature, the dealer cannot sell it.
FPC President Brandon Combs. “Make no mistake: FPC will appeal this insane ruling and we will fight until this unconstitutional ban is struck down—whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.”
