By Katie Lannan State House News Service BOSTON -- A plaintiff in the case challenging the state's 1998 assault weapon ban plans to decide "pretty shortly" if they will appeal a federal judge's ruling that upheld the law. Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League, said his organization and the other plaintiffs in the suit against Attorney General Maura Healey have 30 days after the ruling, which was filed Thursday, to respond if they decide to appeal. They have not yet made a decision, he said. "I think people who may be celebrating this decision need to take a closer look at that language," GOAL executive director Jim Wallace said, "separate from the gun issue." [Photo: Sam Doran/File/SHNS] "We'll be having those conversations pretty soon, I guess," Wallace told the News Service. He said he met with attorneys Monday morning to discuss the timeframe and other details. In January 2017, GOAL joined with individual gun owners and retailers to sue Healey, Gov. Charlie Baker, the Massachusetts State Police and Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett, arguing that between the ban and a July 2016 crackdown by Healey on copies or duplicates of forbidden guns, "Massachusetts effectively bans the acquisition of the most popular rifles in the nation." On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge William Young filed a 47-page order that said the AR-15 "and its analogs, along with high capacity magazines, are simply not weapons within the original meaning of the individual constitutional right to 'bear Arms.'" "In the absence of federal legislation, Massachusetts is free to ban these weapons and large capacity magazines," Young wrote. "Other states are equally free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens. These policy matters are simply not
Gun-rights group weighs weapons ban appeal
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