Our recent Franklin County victory demonstrates that losing your Massachusetts License to Carry does not necessarily mean you have permanently lost your firearm rights. For one of our clients—a military veteran—a single phone call to a VA mental health hotline during a difficult moment resulted in his firearms being confiscated and his Massachusetts License to Carry being taken away.
Attorney William J. Manchinton Jr., a Massachusetts Firearms attorney, is proud to share that after filing an appeal in a Franklin County district court and working directly with the local police chief, our client’s License to Carry has been fully restored. Just as importantly, he got healthy — and his story shows that seeking mental health treatment and keeping your Second Amendment rights are not mutually exclusive in Massachusetts.
What Happened: A Cry for Help, Then a Knock on the Door
Our client is a veteran who, like many who have served, went through a period of serious mental health struggles. To his enormous credit, he did exactly what we ask people in crisis to do: he reached out. He called a VA mental health hotline to get support.
Shortly afterward, police arrived at his home, confiscated his firearms, and his License to Carry was taken based on the licensing authority’s determination that he was no longer a “suitable person” to hold one.
This is a pattern we see far too often. Massachusetts police chiefs have broad discretion over who may hold a License to Carry, and a mental health crisis — even one handled responsibly — frequently triggers a suspension or revocation. The tragic side effect is that some gun owners become afraid to seek help at all, worried that one phone call will end their gun rights forever.
It doesn’t have to.
How Massachusetts LTC Suspensions and Revocations Work
Under Massachusetts law (G.L. c. 140, § 131), the local licensing authority — usually the chief of police — can suspend or revoke a License to Carry if the chief determines the holder is not a “suitable person.” Suitability is a broad standard, and chiefs routinely rely on it after mental health incidents, police responses to a home, or hospitalizations.
If your LTC is suspended, revoked, or denied, you have the right to appeal to the district court. But the window is short, and once it closes, your options shrink dramatically. If you’ve lost your LTC, contact a Massachusetts firearms attorney immediately to preserve your appeal rights.
The good news: a suspension based on a mental health episode does not have to be permanent. Courts — and chiefs — want to see that the underlying issue has been addressed. That’s exactly what we set out to prove.
Our Client Did the Most Important Thing: He Got Help
Right after the crisis, our client voluntarily entered an in-patient treatment program, where he spent six weeks getting healthy.
We cannot overstate how crucial this was — both for his life and for his case.
When we ask a licensing authority or a judge to restore someone’s License to Carry after a mental health incident, the single most persuasive thing we can show is genuine, documented recovery. A client who takes his own health seriously, completes treatment, and puts a plan in place for ongoing care isn’t just checking a box for the court. He’s demonstrating exactly the kind of judgment and responsibility that the “suitability” standard is supposed to measure.
Our Strategy: File the Appeal, Then Open a Dialogue
We filed an appeal of the revocation in Franklin County District Court to protect our client’s rights and keep every option on the table.
But litigation isn’t always the fastest — or best — path to getting a license back. While the appeal was pending, we reached out directly to the chief of police who had taken the license.
Rather than fighting it out in court, we proposed a practical resolution: if we could provide medical documentation showing our client’s recovery and a concrete plan for his future mental health care, would the chief agree to return the License to Carry?
The chief agreed.
We worked with our client and his treatment providers to assemble exactly what the chief needed: documentation of the six weeks of in-patient treatment he had completed, his providers’ assessment of his recovery, and his plan for continuing care going forward.
The Result: License to Carry Restored
The documentation did its job. The chief of police was satisfied that our client had addressed his mental health head-on and had a real plan in place — and agreed to return his License to Carry without the need for a contested court hearing.
Our client is healthy, his rights are restored, and he never had to roll the dice on litigation. This is the best kind of victory: one where everyone — the client, the licensing authority, and the community — ends up in a better place.
What This Means If You've Lost Your LTC After a Mental Health Incident
Lost Your License to Carry? We Can Help.
Whether your LTC was suspended after a mental health incident, a police response to your home, or a suitability determination you believe was wrong, you have options — but you need to move quickly.
Contact the Law Office of Matthew W. Peterson at 617-295-7500 to set up a strategy session today or leave a message below. We’ve restored licenses across Massachusetts, and we know how to build the case that gets results.
The information in this blog post is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Details of this matter have been altered or omitted to protect client confidentiality.
