Court Opinion

ID: 9725423
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:47:09.19616+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:15.032764
License: Public Domain

Nolan, J.
(dissenting). It is a crime to carry on one’s person or under one’s control in a vehicle a firearm without a license. G. L. c. 269, § 10 (a) (1988 ed.). Such a weapon is contraband and, therefore, subject to seizure. See Commonwealth v. Ortiz, 376 Mass. 349, 354 (1978).
The police officer received a report that the defendant was carrying a firearm and that he was operating a pickup truck. Apparently, when the defendant was searched outside his truck, he did not have a firearm on his person. Was there *184not, then, probable cause to believe that such weapon was in the defendant’s truck? Clearly, the officer had a right to stop the defendant, order him out of the truck, and to “pat-frisk” him. Not finding the weapon on his person, it was not unreasonable for the officer to search the truck. Even Commonwealth v. Toole, 389 Mass. 159 (1983), on which the court relies entirely, recognizes the propriety of a search of a vehicle for contraband. Id. at 164.
This is just another regrettable extension of the already regrettable exclusionary rule. I firmly dissent.