This is from www.fox25.com (the Boston FoxTV affiliate), sorry i don't have the direct
link, you'll have to search.
I know that the US Supremes have already ruled on this, but this is a stunning revelation in the Peoples Socialist Republick of Massachusetts.
Appeals Court: Police Can't Stop and Frisk for Guns
Police cannot stop and frisk people simply based on a tip that they are carrying a gun, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled Monday. The court said that "unless the Legislature says otherwise, carrying a gun is not a crime." However, it indicated that such a stop could be allowed if there was evidence somebody was about to commit a crime with the gun or was too young to carry a gun. The court acknowledged that its ruling would be "surely a source of frustration to law enforcement authorities that they may not play a hunch based on experience and street savvy." But, it said, "In a free society, the balance between the public interest and individual freedom from governmental interference tilts in favor of individual freedom." The 11-page opinion by a three-judge panel was written by Judge Rudolph Kass. In a one-page concurring opinion, Judge George Jacobs noted that documents filed in the case indicated the defendant was actually under the legal age for carrying a gun when he was arrested, though that fact hadn't been raised in the case. Jacobs cautioned that such cases need "careful and thorough prosecution." The ruling came in the July 1998 arrest of Rui Barros in Brockton. The court overturned Barros' convictions of carrying a gun without a license and possessing ammunition without a license.
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~USP
"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998
link, you'll have to search.
I know that the US Supremes have already ruled on this, but this is a stunning revelation in the Peoples Socialist Republick of Massachusetts.
Appeals Court: Police Can't Stop and Frisk for Guns
Police cannot stop and frisk people simply based on a tip that they are carrying a gun, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled Monday. The court said that "unless the Legislature says otherwise, carrying a gun is not a crime." However, it indicated that such a stop could be allowed if there was evidence somebody was about to commit a crime with the gun or was too young to carry a gun. The court acknowledged that its ruling would be "surely a source of frustration to law enforcement authorities that they may not play a hunch based on experience and street savvy." But, it said, "In a free society, the balance between the public interest and individual freedom from governmental interference tilts in favor of individual freedom." The 11-page opinion by a three-judge panel was written by Judge Rudolph Kass. In a one-page concurring opinion, Judge George Jacobs noted that documents filed in the case indicated the defendant was actually under the legal age for carrying a gun when he was arrested, though that fact hadn't been raised in the case. Jacobs cautioned that such cases need "careful and thorough prosecution." The ruling came in the July 1998 arrest of Rui Barros in Brockton. The court overturned Barros' convictions of carrying a gun without a license and possessing ammunition without a license.
------------------
~USP
"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998