The fight over the fate of a sweeping new gun law expanded to another front late last week with a second lawsuit challenging the measure’s constitutionality.
Gino Recchia and the Bellingham gun shop he owns, Mass Armament, filed a complaint in federal court Friday, alleging that sections of the new law updating the definition of assault-style firearms run afoul of Second Amendment protections.
The 10-page complaint argued that certain assault-style weapons are allowed under federal law after Congress in 2004 let a ban expire. Plaintiffs said restricting access to those guns in Massachusetts — which has had its own state-level ban since 1998 — would violate equal protection, interstate commerce and firearms rights sections of the U.S. Constitution.
Business at Mass Armament “is, and has been built up, centered around firearms and large-capacity magazines banned by the Act,” the complaint said, estimating that about 70 percent of the shop’s business will be lost under the new limitations.