BOSTON — Jaime Caetano was beaten so seriously by her former
boyfriend that she ended up in the hospital. So when a friend offered
her a stun gun to protect herself, she took it.
Caetano, who is homeless, never had to use it but she now finds
herself at the center of a Second Amendment case headed to the highest
court in Massachusetts.
The Supreme Judicial Court is being asked to decide whether a state
law that prohibits private citizens from possessing stun guns infringes
on their right to keep and bear arms. In an unusual twist, the court is
also being asked to examine whether the Second Amendment right to defend
yourself in your own home applies in the case of a homeless person.
Police found Caetano’s stun gun in her purse during a shoplifting
investigation at a supermarket in 2011. She told police she needed it to
defend herself against her ex-boyfriend, against whom she had obtained
multiple restraining orders.
During her trial, Caetano, 32, testified that her ex-boyfriend
repeatedly came to her workplace and threatened her. One night, she
showed him the stun gun and he “got scared and left me alone,” she said.
She was found guilty of violating the state law that bans private
possession of stun guns, devices that deliver an electric shock when
pressed against an attacker.
In her appeal, her lawyer, Benjamin Keehn, argues that a stun gun
falls within the meaning of “arms” under the Second Amendment. Keehn
wrote in a legal brief that the state’s ban “cannot be squared with the
fundamental right to keep and bear arms.” He also argues that
self-defense outside the home is part of the core right provided by the
Second Amendment.
Massachusetts is one of five states that ban stun guns and Tasers for
private citizens, said Eugene Volokh, a constitutional-law professor at
UCLA who has written extensively about Second Amendment issues. The
devices are used by law-enforcement agencies around the country.
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2025125177_stungunxml.html
No comments:
Post a Comment