Folks: I urgently need help on this. It is my understanding that the phrase "other dangerous weapon" in MGL Chapter 269 Section 10j has been ruled by MA courts to include OC spray. I urgently need a legal reference on this.
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Can you share it here? or PM?We found a 2018 decision.
With that analysis in Lord, we held that "old style mace" was dangerous per se. Lord, supra at 269, 270. While we expressly left open the question whether pepper spray was dangerous per se, id. at 270 n.10, we now answer that question in the same manner, for many of the same reasons. Like conventional mace, a pepper spray canister is "dangerous per se because it was designed for the sole purpose of bodily assault or defense and was constructed to inflict serious bodily harm through incapacitation, and because, in these circumstances, the defendant used it in a manner consistent with its design." Id. at 269–270.
There's a big legal difference between mere possession on a school property and using it to actually threaten or commit a battery with it. BCPD was prosecuting possession.
I'd also like the case reference if it didn't involve an assault. I'll send my Email address by PM.
The case does involve an assault. However, the court holds that OC is a dangerous weapon per se, so I think that effectively covers possession.
Sadly those cases set the groundwork to convict on mere possession. Very bad but not surprising for Mass Marsupial Courts. Thanks for the cites, they correlate with what I've been telling students and NES'rs for years. I would have preferred to have been wrong and over cautious.I'm curious too. Commonwealth v. Wynton W., 459 Mass. 745, 947 N.E.2d 561 (2011) says 10(j) includes weapons defined by the common law as dangerous weapons, capable of inflicting death or great bodily injury, or are designed for bodily assault or defense. The Lord decision suggests that mace or oc sprays are dangerous weapons by that definition.
Yup, in today's world all of us that took high school chemistry would be felons. Glass bending and subsequent spitballing was commonplace. Nobody made a big deal about it . . . back then.Hell, 10(j) criminalizes spitballs... Read the definition of firearm. It covers Nerf, Airsoft, BB and frankly spit balls. You can bet your ass anything remotely dangerous is covered.
(None of the following may add anything to the replies in this thread, but...)Folks: I urgently need help on this. It is my understanding that the phrase "other dangerous weapon" in MGL Chapter 269 Section 10j has been ruled by MA courts to include OC spray. I urgently need a legal reference on this.