A Sliver of Good News From Anti-Gun Massachusetts

If you’re a regular reader here at Bearing Arms, you might remember the name Kyle Culotta. He’s the Air Force veteran charged with violating Massachusetts gun laws for having several legally-owned firearms in his vehicle, which was essentially his living space when he was placed in handcuffs. 

Culotta and his girlfriend, who were essentially living out of their car after driving from Arizona to be closer to his girlfriend’s family, were pulled over for an alleged traffic violation back in July. When police discovered that the car wasn’t insured an officer arranged to have it towed and started taking inventory of the items in the vehicle, which led to Culotta informing the officer that there were several firearms inside. 

Though Culotta lawfully purchased those firearms in Arizona, he was still hauled away in cuffs and deemed to be “dangerous”, which allows the state to hold defendants for up to 120 days. The veteran, unlike at least one individual charged with a road rage shooting, hasn’t been allowed to bond out of his Massachusetts jail cell.

While Culotta is still in custody, the Gun Owners Action League reports some good news in Culotta’s case. 

The most serious charges, which include the “assault style firearm” and “large capacity” magazine and firearm charges were dismissed by the prosecutor thanks to the work of Attorney Dan Hagan. This means that the case sits squarely on the shoulders of the state district court in Worcester County. The court is hearing Kyle’s bail petition this Friday, September 26th and the SJC is still considering the constitutionality of the dangerousness classification. We are hopeful that the courts will see the light.

“While Mr. Culotta’s petition remains pending before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, our legal team – including Daniel Kelly, Kyle DeSousa, and myself – successfully secured the dismissal of the most serious charges against him,” said Attorney Dan Hagan. In light of that development, the district court has agreed to revisit the question of bail on Friday, September 26th. We want to thank everyone for their continued support, and we hope to return Kyle to his family very soon.”

GOAL stepped up and hired Hagan to represent Culotta in court, since he couldn’t afford an attorney on his own. It’s highly unusual for GOAL or any other state-level group to get involved in individual cases like these, at least before a conviction and appeal, but as GOAL’s Jim Wallace told me, this case is so egregious that the organization couldn’t just stand idly by while this veteran sits in a jail cell. 

It’s unclear to me what charges Culotta is still facing, but the prospect of a ten-year sentence for possessing “large capacity” magazines appears to be off the table, thankfully. Under Massachusetts’ “dangerousness” statute, however, Culotta could still be held without bond for 120 days. As of today Culotta’s been in custody for 87 days, so he might still have more than a month to go before he’s released. 

Hopefully common sense will prevail at Culotta’s bail hearing this Friday and the Supreme Judicial Court will see the outright insanity with allowing someone charged only with a possessory offense (and no evidence of violent intent) to be deemed “dangerous.” This is Massachusetts we’re talking about though, so common sense isn’t all that common, especially when our Second Amendment rights are concerned. 

Editor’s Note: The radical gun laws in Massachusetts should concern every Second Amendment supporter.

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