Air Force Vet Held Without Bond Over Legal Guns, While Accused Road Rage Shooter Gets Released

Second Amendment advocates in Massachusetts have complained for decades that lawmakers and politicians in the state are more interested in targeting rank-and-file gun owners than violent criminals, and a couple of ongoing cases in the Bay State are proving them correct. 

As we’ve previously reported, Air Force veteran and legal gun owner Kyle Colutta remains stuck in a Massachusetts jail after he was deemed “dangerous” and denied bond for merely possessing legally owned firearms and magazines without a Massachusetts permit. Colutta 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 earlier this month. 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 Colutta informing the officer that there were several firearms inside. 

Though Colutta lawfully purchased those firearms in Arizona, he was still hauled away in cuffs and deemed “dangerous” by a judge, which allows the state to hold him in custody for up to 120 days without the opportunity to post bond. 

Meanwhile, a man accused of shooting at a pregnant woman on a Boston interstate was allowed to walk free last week even though he faces charges of assault with intent to murder. 

A Quincy man is facing assault and firearms charges after police say he shot at a vehicle carrying a pregnant woman during a road-rage incident on the Southeast Expressway in Boston earlier in July.

Michael Bragel, 33, was arraigned Friday, July 25, in South Boston District Court on multiple charges, including assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and attempted assault and battery with a firearm, according to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.

Judge Steven Kim set bail at $3,000 with GPS monitoring if released. Bragel was ordered to have no contact with the other people involved and not have any weapons. He is due back in court Aug. 28 for a probable cause hearing.

This is utterly insane. Granted, we’re talking about two different judges in two different counties, but why on earth would Colutta be deemed “dangerous” for simply possessing firearms without a Massachusetts license, while Bragel isn’t considered dangerous even though he’s accused of shooting at a woman? In fact, Bragel’s also facing charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, so he might not have had the proper paperwork for his pistol either. 

Colutta’s arrest was a travesty of justice to begin with. The officer could have warned the pair that Massachusetts and Arizona have very different laws in place and told him what he need to do to get legal now that he was no longer living in the land of the free. Instead, he was hauled away in cuffs, has been sitting in a jail cell for the past five weeks, and faces more than a decade in prison for the “crime” of possessing a few firearms and a “large capacity” magazine. 

The Gun Owners Action League has engaged a legal team to serve as Colutta’s attorneys going forward, and GOAL Executive Director Jim Wallace told me earlier today that the group’s first goal is to get him released from custody. Maybe the attorneys can ask a judge to just treat Colutta like he was the suspect in a road rage shooting: give him a bond of a few thousand bucks, slap a GPS device on his ankle, and tell him to show up for his next court hearing. 

If you’d like to help GOAL defend Colutta or learn more about his case, head over to GOAL’s website. And if you’re heading to Massachusetts anytime soon, be aware that the state likely thinks that if you’re bringing any of your guns with you, you’re automatically dangerous enough to lock up for months if you don’t have your paperwork in order. 

Editor’s Note: Radical leftist judges are doing everything they can to hamstring our Second Amendment rights.

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