Stun-Gun Rights Backed by Unanimous U.S. Supreme Court
The five-paragraph ruling overturned a conviction of a woman who was carrying the electrical weapon in a Massachusetts parking lot.
Thomas 'Tom' Smith, chairman and co-founder of Taser International Inc., holds a Taser X3 Electronic Control Device, ECD, during an interview in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, July 29, 2009.
Photographer: ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWSThis article is for subscribers only.
The U.S. Supreme Court suggested that people have a constitutional right to carry stun guns, unanimously ruling in favor of a Massachusetts woman convicted of carrying a weapon that she said she needed for protection from her ex-boyfriend.
In an unsigned, five-paragraph ruling, the justices set aside a lower court decision that upheld a Massachusetts ban on stun-gun possession. Although the high court didn’t explicitly strike down the ban, the justices said the reasoning used by Massachusetts’s top court was flawed.