BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office announced today she led a coalition of 18 state attorneys general, filed an amicus brief supporting Rhode Island’s restrictions on large-capacity firearms magazines.
An amicus brief is a written legal argument submitted to a court by a person or group who is not a party to a case, but has a strong interest in the matter before the court.
The 18 attorneys general filed the brief in Ocean State Tactical, LLC, et. al. v. State of Rhode Island, a lawsuit by a group of Rhode Island gun shop owners who seek to overturn a 2022 Rhode Island law restricting magazines to a maximum of 10 rounds of ammunition. Massachusetts has a similar law, restricting possession of large capacity magazines in M.G.L. Ch. 140 § 131M and defining a high capacity magazine in M.G.L. Ch. 140 § 120.
A U.S. District Court ruled that Rhode Island’s limitation on the size of magazines should stand while the case proceeds. The First Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing that decision. the brief filed by the coalition of 18 state attorneys general argues the District Court ruling should be upheld.
The brief argues that Rhode Island’s large-capacity magazine law is a constitutionally permissible restriction, as the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not prevent states from enacting common-sense gun regulations and because Rhode Island’s law is consistent with a historical legal tradition of regulating and imposing restrictions on new and distinctively dangerous forms of weaponry.
The the Attorneys General of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin joined with Campbell in the brief.
