Second Amendment

On March 2, 2026, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) heard oral arguments in Commonwealth v. Mikai P. Thomson, a case that could provide further clarity on the Commonwealth’s ability to implement gun control legislation following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. Thomson was convicted of, among other things, carrying a firearm without a license, after police officers found a handgun in his car when they pulled him over in 2021. Thomson now challenges his firearm conviction on the basis that the Massachusetts handgun license law, M.G.L. Chapter 140, §131, which requires license applicants to be 21 years old, is unconstitutional. During oral arguments, the SJC showed signs of sidestepping the Bruen issue as it applies to Thomson, and questioned whether Thomson, who was 20 years old at the time, had legal standing to bring his 2nd Amendment challenge.

Post-Bruen 2nd Amendment cases in Massachusetts

The Thomson case represents yet another chapter in this rapidly evolving area of the law. Since the Supreme Court decided Bruen in 2022, Massachusetts courts have grappled with its proper application. As we have noted, in Bruen, the Supreme Court adopted a history- and tradition-focused test for determining the validity of weapons regulations, directing Courts to look at whether the regulation is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of [weapons] regulation.” In United States v. Rahimi, which was decided in 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the regulation of a federal statute prohibiting persons subject to qualifying domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms and provided further guidance in how the lower courts should interpret the principles it outlined in Bruen. In its decision in Rahimi the Court noted that valid gun regulations did not need be a “dead ringer” in relation to historical analogues, or have a “historical twin,” to be valid.

As we recently wrote, states’ firearms regulations have faced legal challenges across the country since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which held that individuals have a Second Amendment right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. But how does Bruen affect regulations of other weapons besides firearms? Last week, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that its logic governed whether a switchblade qualifies as an “arm” under the Second Amendment. In Commonwealth v. Canjura, the defendant challenged the Massachusetts switchblade ban. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269, § 10(b) outlawed switchblade knives, defined as knives with a spring release device, as well as several other dangerous weapons. Violations of the statute are punishable by up to five years in state prison. In Canjura, the SJC held that the ban violated the Second Amendment under the two-part test the United States Supreme Court set out in Bruen. That means the switchblade band is no longer enforceable.

What is the Bruen test?

Under Bruen, the party challenging a weapons regulation must first show that their conduct falls within the plain text of the Second Amendment and is therefore presumptively protected. If the conduct is protected, the burden then shifts to the government to show that its regulation is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of [weapons] regulation.”

Articles Posted in Second Amendment

SJC Weighs Age-Based Firearm Licensing

Supreme Judicial Court Holds That a Switchblade is Protected Under the Second Amendment