> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.newbostonpost.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Massachusetts High Court To Consider Gun License ‘Suitability’ Standard Legality - URL: https://www.newbostonpost.com/massachusetts-sjc-gun-license-suitability-standard/ - Published: 2026-09-25T18:32:13.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-25T18:32:12.000Z - Description: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear a challenge to the state’s gun licensing suitability standard next month. - Author: CommonWealth Beacon - Tags: News, Politics, #lead, #morning-bell, morning-bell, #4, Massachusetts by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Beacon September 25, 2026 **THE STATE'S GUN** laws are not just under fire at the ballot box this fall. They are also in the crosshairs of a legal challenge before the state’s highest court, targeting the “suitability” part of the state’s prior licensing statue that gun rights advocates say allowed an unconstitutional level of discretion by licensing officials. In 2023, Holyoke Police Chief David Pratt denied Randy Westbrook’s application for a license to carry a firearm. Because of two sets of criminal charges more a decade prior — an assault and battery charge against his pregnant girlfriend and charges connected to a vehicle stop that discovered 17 baggies of powder and crack cocaine — Pratt determined that Westbrook was “unsuitable” for the license. Under the version of the state gun law in place at the time, as well as the sweeping 2024 gun law that retooled many of the state’s firearms laws, local licensing officials like police chiefs can consider a broad range of evidence to determine whether someone is suitable to be granted a license to carry. The law in place in 2023 prohibited issuing a license to carry firearms to an applicant determined to be unsuitable, “based on reliable, articulable and credible information” that the applicant exhibits or engaged in behavior that indicates they “may create a risk to public safety or a risk of danger to self or others” if given a license to carry. Westbrook challenged the decision, in a lawsuit funded by The Gun Owners Action League. His lawyers argue that the statute is “vague, overbroad” and violates due process protections because it does not offer clarity on what makes a person “unsuitable,” let alone how a person could remedy that issue. Citing a recent landmark US Supreme Court ruling that established a new test for state gun laws, a Holyoke District Court judge declared the licensing statute’s suitability standard unconstitutional. A Hampden County Superior Court judge overturned the ruling on appeal from the police chief and attorney general's office. The Supreme Judicial Court agreed to take up the case when it was appealed again, this time by Westbrook. The case is set for oral arguments before the high court on October 7\. Nearly identical suitability language exists under the new, more sweeping [gun statute](https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Chapter140/Section121F?ref=newbostonpost.com) enacted in 2024, so a ruling that this level of subjective discretion is unconstitutional could deal a devastating blow to the Bay State’s licensing rules. The US Supreme Court decided *New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen* in 2022, invalidating licensing rules in states like New York and Massachusetts that let licensing officials refuse to issue a license unless the person offered a “good reason” for needing to carry. In the 6-3 decision along ideological lines, with conservative justices in the majority, the nation’s high court said these licensing rules were unconstitutional because they were inconsistent with Founding-era laws. Then-Attorney General Maura Healey offered a scathing [response](https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-statement-on-scotus-decision-to-strike-down-new-yorks-concealed-carry-gun-licensing-law?ref=newbostonpost.com) but moved to obey the ruling, advising licensing authorities to stop working off the “good reason” standard. They should, however, keep enforcing the “prohibited person” and “suitability” provisions of the license-to-carry statute, she said. “These aspects of the statute are unaffected by *Bruen*,” declared the joint [advisory](https://www.mass.gov/doc/ago-eopss-ltc-guidance/download?ref=newbostonpost.com) from the attorney general’s office and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The District Court judge in Westbrook’s case concluded that there was no historical tradition supporting such “spongy terms” — like whether someone “may” be a risk to themselves or others — as a justification for limiting Second Amendment rights. But the Superior Court noted that the *Bruen* decision had approved licensing regimes with suitability requirements, like Massachusetts. The reasoning, according to the nation’s high court, is that states are not allowed to grant or deny licenses based on whether there is a suitable need or purpose, but can based on whether the person’s character or temperament is suitable to carry a gun. According to the court record, Westbrook allegedly shook and punched his then-girlfriend, who was nine months pregnant, then chased her to her friend’s apartment where she had to hide in the bathroom. He admitted to sufficient facts for a finding of guilty on the aggravated assault and battery charge and controlled substances charges, in exchange for a continuance in his case and eventual dismissal. The police chief denied Westbrook’s license application “based on serious criminal charges to which he admitted to sufficient facts for guilty finding,” wrote the attorney general’s office in its brief. “These assault and drug offenses underlying these charges are themselves violent or create the possibility of violence. And although the charges date from 2010 and 2014, Westbrook submitted no evidence to Chief Pratt that he no longer posed a danger to public safety.” A group of Second Amendment advocacy groups submitted a brief in support of Westbrook. They acknowledged that recent US Supreme Court and Massachusetts SJC cases [do allow](https://commonwealthbeacon.org/courts/post-bruen-decision-everyone-has-to-be-a-gun-law-historian/?ref=newbostonpost.com) for dangerous people to be kept from firearm licenses. But this case, they argue in a brief, is unconstitutional when it comes to Westbrook because it relies on cases for which there was no actual conviction. It is also, they [wrote](https://www.ma-appellatecourts.org/pdf/SJC-13822/SJC-13822%5F10%5FAmicus%5FSecond%5FAmendment%5FFoundation%5FEt%5FAl%5FBrief.pdf?ref=newbostonpost.com), unconstitutional because it lets licensing officials use discretion to determine if someone is unsuitable through “non-objective criteria,” including whether they “may” create a risk to public safety. The current suite of gun laws was passed in 2024 explicitly as a response to *Bruen.* They expanded the reasons that licensing officials could reject license applications, and expanded the category of regulated firearms to include things like 3-D printed guns and unserialized ghost guns. That gun reform law is heading toward [a repeal referendum](https://commonwealthbeacon.org/ballot-question/firearms/?ref=newbostonpost.com) on November 3\. Even if voters opt against repealing the 2024 law, the court will have the last word on the question of local officials’ ability to deny a license to carry a firearm to someone they deem unsuitable. This [article](https://commonwealthbeacon.org/courts/how-much-leeway-should-officials-have-to-deny-gun-licenses-sjc-will-decide/?ref=newbostonpost.com) first appeared on [CommonWealth Beacon](https://commonwealthbeacon.org/?ref=newbostonpost.com) and is republished here under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/?ref=newbostonpost.com). ![](https://i0.wp.com/commonwealthbeacon.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/cropped-Icon_Red-1.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1) ![](https://commonwealthbeacon.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=322173&ga4=G-1X7ZBDTLR0) Embedded JavaScriptEmbedded JavaScript