The First Circuit Just Heard Massachusetts’ Handgun Roster — With DOJ Sitting With the Gun Owners

Firearms Policy Coalition’s case page lists oral argument in Granata v. Campbell on September 9, 2026, with the First Circuit audio posted at ca1.uscourts.gov for No. 25-1918. The caption in the district court is D. Mass. No. 1:21-cv-10960; the circuit numbers are 22-1478 and 25-1918. Plaintiffs: Stefano Granata, Cameron Prosperi, The Gun Runner, LLC, and Firearms Policy Coalition. Defendants: Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Gina Kwon. Litigation counsel listed by FPC includes Richard C. Chambers, Jason A. Guida, David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson, and William V. Bergstrom.

The United States moved on August 5, 2026, as amicus to participate in oral argument. That followed a January 28, 2026, brief for the United States as amicus curiae supporting appellants and urging reversal. District Judge’s August 29, 2025, opinion had gone against the plaintiffs; notice of appeal was September 24, 2025. FPC’s summary is a “Federal Second Amendment constitutional challenge to Massachusetts’ Approved Firearms Roster and Attorney General’s Handgun Sales Regulations.” A roster is a permission list. If the gun is not on it, a licensed retailer is not supposed to sell it. That is how a state runs a handgun ban without printing the word ban on the cover.

Argument is not a holding. The First Circuit has not issued an opinion in this round. Capen still sits in the circuit’s recent 2A file. What changed last Wednesday is that the United States asked to stand at the lectern with the gun owners against a blue-state roster. Watch the docket, not the stream.