CARRYING FIREARMS, POSSESSION OF A GUN CHARGE
The state of Massachusetts has some of the strongest firearms laws in the nation. Penalties for violations of the gun laws are severe, including various mandatory minimum sentences in either the House of Corrections or State Prison for certain firearms offenses. If you have been arrested or charged with unlawful possession of a firearm or ammunition, it is imperative that your lawyer has experience in litigating these cases. Attorney Rayburn has extensive experience and successes in defending against gun and gun-related charges.
Licensing and Background Checks: Massachusetts requires individuals to obtain either a Firearms Identification Card (FID) or a License to Carry (LTC) to purchase or possess a gun.
Universal background checks are mandated for nearly all transfers, sales, and purchases of firearms, including those involving unlicensed sellers transferring up to four guns per year.
Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazines: The state has a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity feeding devices (magazines).
Ghost Guns: Massachusetts has taken steps to regulate the proliferation of “ghost guns” – untraceable firearms that can be manufactured at home.
Secure Storage: It is one of the only states to require secure storage for any firearm not under the immediate control of the owner.
Extreme Risk Protection Orders (Red Flag Laws): Massachusetts allows family or household members, police officers, healthcare providers, and school administrators to petition for an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) against an individual deemed a threat to themselves or others.
SUSAN M. RAYBURN, A Skilled Defense ATTORNEY gun Charges lawyer
Attorney Rayburn is never afraid to challenge law enforcement to ensure that your constitutional rights are not trampled. She will evaluate their claims of statements made by you, the circumstances of the searches of you, your vehicle, or your home, and the seizure of firearms and ammunition.
A lawyer who does not shy away from scrutinizing the credibility of officers who often behave with an “ends justify the means” mode of operation when it comes to their interaction with the public and their seizures of firearms.
Some particular units are notorious for persistently violating the rights of individuals due to racial or ethnic biases, and because they have been permitted to violate the rights of certain members of the community due to the dangers sometimes involved with unlawful possession of firearms.
Attorney Rayburn knows that constitutional protections from unlawful stops, unlawful searches and unlawful seizures are for everyone and she will do everything she can under the law to expose these officers when they have violated your rights, regardless of what they claim to find after an unlawful search.
Challenging Search and Seizure:
You deserve a lawyer who is not intimidated by police tactics that violate your constitutional rights.
Attorney Rayburn will do everything possible under the law to challenge unlawful stops, searches, and seizures because illegal searches should not result in any evidence being used against you, even if that evidence is a gun and even if it is not your first offense.
Excellent investigative techniques and developing an effective strategy must be part of any zealous defense. With firearms charges this includes scrutinizing police reports and the internal affairs histories of officers who write them.
All evidence needs to be carefully reviewed, including photographs, RMV records, ATF records, body-worn camera video, turret recordings of police communications at the time of their alleged surveillance and actions, including stops of people or vehicles, exit orders, searches and seizures and arrests.
Anyone charged with a serious offense, including firearms offenses, which carry mandatory minimum sentences, needs an attorney who is fearless, experienced, skilled, and dedicated to uncovering any violations of law enforcement’s own procedures or violations of your constitutional rights.
Did police follow proper procedures? Was their reason for stopping and searching you in violation of your state or federal constitutional rights? Is the report they wrote about your case complete? Is it credible? Is there evidence that would tend to show that officers misrepresented the facts as they actually occurred? Were you racially profiled?
Attorney Rayburn will scrutinize the circumstances of the initial stop and all that led up to your arrest in order to find anything improper, and she will challenge accusations using her extensive experience in defending individuals charged with firearms offenses in Massachusetts.
In Massachusetts, firearms offenses encompass a range of violations including unlawful possession, improper storage, and carrying without a license.
Gun offenses can involve possessing a firearm without the required license, known as a Firearm Identification Card (FID) or License to Carr (LTC), carrying a loaded firearm outside of your home or business without a license to do so, improper storage of a firearm, possession of ammunition, possession of a high-capacity magazine, possession of machine guns or sawed-off shot guns and possession of a firearm with a de-faced serial number.
Attorney Rayburn has defended people accused of violating these laws as a first offense, second offense and third offense. She is experienced in representing people charged as Armed Career Criminals at every level, as well as people charged as “Habitual Offenders”.
Some firearms charges have no district court jurisdiction, meaning they cannot be resolved in the lower court. If the District Attorney’s Office wants to prosecute you for certain offenses, they will have to present the case to a Grand Jury and seek an indictment which will result in your case being brought in superior court. Most gun cases start in the district or municipal court. If the prosecution chooses not to indict you for any number of reasons, they will have to dismiss or reduce certain charges brought by the police in order for the case to be settled with a dismissal, an admission, a guilty plea or a jury trial to verdict in the lower court.
Experience Matters When Your Future is at Stake
Don’t delay seeking legal help. Call Attorney Rayburn to answer your questions, to help you to understand the charges against you and build a strong defense strategy based not only on what the police say happened, but on what YOU say happened along with a thorough investigation of your case.
Attorney Rayburn is a dedicated criminal defense attorney available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You deserve to benefit from her many years of handling a vast array of firearms and firearms related cases.
Gun/ Firearms Weapon Charges
- Unlawful Possession
- Carrying without a F ID Card
- Carrying a Loaded Firearm
- Illegal Sales
- High Capacity Magazine
- Possession of Ammunition
- Subsequent Offenses
- Armed Career Criminal
- Improper Storage
Attorney Susan Rayburn has over 25 years of criminal defense experience. She has an excellent record of favorable outcomes for her clients, whether through dismissals, negotiated resolutions, or jury trials. Attorney Rayburn is known to be a skilled, aggressive, and successful criminal defense attorney who ethically and creatively fights for her clients’ rights.
Attorney Rayburn effectively and aggressively represents people accused of a wide variety of criminal offenses, including crimes of murder, assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with serious bodily injury, domestic violence offenses, rape, sexual assault, armed robbery, home invasion, arson, human trafficking, drug trafficking, possessory offenses, financial crimes, identity, and credit card crimes. She handles major felonies and misdemeanors, grand jury subpoenas, trial subpoenas, immunity agreements, witness representation, restraining orders, and clerk magistrate hearings.
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Police stopped the car I was driving, searched the car and found a firearm, am I going to have to serve a mandatory minimum sentence?
When a gun is found in your car, you can be charged with constructive possession of that firearm.
The prosecution will need to prove that you knew it was there and that you had the intent, and the ability to establish dominion and control over the gun. Make sure that you hire an experienced attorney who has handled multiple firearms cases because, unfortunately, the stakes are high if you are convicted, including mandatory sentences and a criminal history that can make it hard to find employment in the future.
Attorney Susan Rayburn is a skilled and experienced attorney, she has won motions to suppress, motions to dismiss and achieved not guilty verdicts on gun possession charges.
The police stopped me, they searched me and they found a gun on me, does this mean I am automatically going to be convicted and have to serve a mandatory minimum sentence?
Absolutely not. There are many cases where police stop and search people without the required probable cause or exigent circumstances to do so.
Call Attorney Susan Rayburn for a free consultation and she will use her experience and knowledge of the law to evaluate whether the officers had the right to stop and search you. If they did not, and you prevail at a Motion to Suppress Evidence, then you will not be convicted and you will not have to serve any sentence.
Police charged me with a gun but the gun doesn’t have my fingerprints on it, shouldn’t my case be dismissed?
If the gun was not found on your person, or is an alleged “tossed gun”, or found in a vehicle you were present in, the prosecution does not need fingerprints to prove their case against you.
What they do need is more than just “mere presence” in the vicinity of an unlawful firearm. Please call Attorney Rayburn for a free consultation about the various defenses you may have to avoid conviction and a mandatory sentence in either the House of Corrections or State Prison.
The police stopped a car I was in and ordered me out of a car before searching it. They found a gun in the vehicle and arrested me for possessing that gun, can they do that?
When law enforcement orders you out of a car or physically removes you from your car after a traffic stop in Massachusetts, that is called an “exit order” and the law requires certain criteria for the police to issue and exit order.
If the police do not have probable cause to arrest you for a crime, they cannot order you out of the vehicle unless they have to have a reasonable, articulable suspicion that you are armed and dangerous.
Just because an officer claims they had that suspicion does not necessarily mean a judge will find it to be reasonable or articulable. You need a skilled and dedicated attorney who knows the law and is not afraid to vigorously cross-examine police witnesses to expose possible lies or inadequacies from their reports and testimony at a Motion to Suppress Evidence and Statements and if that motion is denied, a lawyer who has tried gun cases and won. Call Attorney Rayburn for a free consultation and a fair flat rate fee quote.
Hire Attorney Susan Rayburn if you want to be represented by a skilled, dedicated, fearless and experienced criminal defense attorney.