Landlord bans guns, sue landlord
I guess private property claims are avoided by the fact the housing is subsidized:
A disabled former lobsterman who shot an intruder after buying a gun to defend himself sued his landlord Monday over a policy that prohibits him from keeping a gun in his subsidized apartment.
Harvey Lembo, who uses a motorized wheelchair, was warned by his property management company that tenants are prohibited from having firearms after he shot an alleged burglar in the shoulder after five break-ins.
November 17th, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Lot of interesting cases balancing the civil rights of the renter to exercise their legit constitutional freedoms in their home vs. the rights of the property owner. It swings both ways over the years.
November 17th, 2015 at 7:49 pm
My feel on this is that ownership of the rented property does not empower the owner to deny Constitutional rights to the tenants.
November 17th, 2015 at 10:33 pm
So the question really should be what is in the lease that he signed. If it prohibits guns, then he should not have them in the dwelling (though there is an interesting side discussion here of the principle that there are some rights that you cannot sign away, i.e. you cannot contract yourself into slavery). If it is not in the lease, then the property owner does not have a leg to stand on.
November 17th, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Yup, the landlord can’t change the terms of the tenancy unilaterally. But even if the prohibition is in the original lease, it can still be held invalid because of the “subsidized”. I would argue 1) the landlord can’t do it unless the government allows the prohibition and 2) if the government goes along with the landlord it’s state action and the Second Amendment comes into play.
November 18th, 2015 at 11:05 am
As a landlord myself, I constantly have renters asking about the way I allow soldiers to be quartered in their rental apartments, the way the police are encouraged to come in without warrants at all hours, and my insistence that they never say anything while in their apartments, especially anything relating to politics. Gatherings of 2 or more people in one room are banned. So is printing anything about my renter’s rules.
They are oddly OK with my insistence they all practice my own faith, Lapsed Catholicism. We LCs are an easygoing branch of the Roman Catholics, and welcome all those willing to lapse in faith.
2nd Amendment? I made it clear long ago I have more guns than them, which settled the issue.