Commonwealth v. Runyan: Safe Storage Laws in the Crossfire of Second Amendment Litigation

Abstract

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s 2010 decision in Commonwealth v. Runyan upheld a state law requiring firearms to be securely locked when not in the possession of a legally authorized user. The court ruled that the Second Amendment does not apply against the states and that the safe storage law does not infringe upon an individual’s right to bear arms for self-defense. The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states via the Fourteenth Amendment has cast the validity of Runyan into doubt. This Case Comment argues that the safe storage law implicated in Runyan does not infringe upon the rights protected by the Second Amendment as interpreted in recent Supreme Court decisions and concludes that the safe storage laws of other states—which are all less restrictive than the Massachusetts statute— remain constitutional.