Woman ordered to move because of her legally-owned guns

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Not sure if this belongs here or in general, feel free to move.

Landlord apparently rents apartments to unrelated parties to share, not sure if all of them are Harvard grad students like the woman in question. In the interview she said her roommates went through her belongings and found her guns. When she asked them why they said she is from the south and has a hat (a MAGA hat it turns out) they don't like. So the landlord is telling her to move. Nothing in the lease prohibiting firearms. She had the police over to look at the guns and explain to the landlord that everything was safe. (The interview did not mention how they are stored. Personally I am wondering how the roommates found them if they were locked in a safe, and if they were not locked in a safe, whether they were they safely secured in some other manner.) She said the landlord said she has to move because she is hurting the feelings of the roommates.

This is in Massachusetts, no idea whether there is any law backing up the landlord's decision,

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/12/...pirnie-asked-move-out-over-legally-owned-guns
 
She said the landlord said she has to move because she is hurting the feelings of the roommates.

When will people learn, you can't just go around hurting feeling by owning personal property. That's wrong! You can do whatever you want.... until someone's feeling get hurt. Then you have to stop, or else you're mean.

I think she's better off not living with such pathetically hypersensitive and self-important people.
 
When will people learn, you can't just go around hurting feeling by owning personal property. That's wrong! You can do whatever you want.... until someone's feeling get hurt. Then you have to stop, or else you're mean.

I think she's better off not living with such pathetically hypersensitive and self-important people.
Yes, but obviously she selected a shared living accomodation for a reason, likely as a full-time student she can't afford an apartment of her own. And right now the university is going into finals. Moving entails time and money, filing a lawsuit maybe she could get pro bono representation or the NRA would step up, but it's still a huge cost in time.
 
I argue with you folks a lot about gun rights issues but not this time. She should fight it and I would help her. I can’t believe her lease would not protect her...even in Massachusetts.
 
...I can’t believe her lease would not protect her...

Why can't you believe it? Do you have a copy of the lease? Have you read the lease? If you haven't read the lease you have no reason to believe that it would not protect her.

Maybe it was in fact written to balance in some way the interests of an individual tenant against the interests of the other persons sharing the apartment to have more say over who they would be sharing living arrangements with. Sharing an apartment with someone is different from having that person as a neighbor in the apartment next door.

There are a number of material things we don't know, like what the lease actually says and how Massachusetts landlord-tenant and non-discrimination laws might apply in roommate situations.
 
It may not be a case of the apartment manager forcing her out, but the terms of the apartment lease putting her at the mercy of her nosey roommates potentially leaving.

From an article in the Washington Free Beacon:
"If the other roommates were to move out, Leyla would need to find roommates to share the place or foot the entire $6000+ monthly rent herself," Lewis wrote in an email to Pirnie and her father.
 
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It may not be a case of the apartment manager forcing her out, but the terms of the apartment lease putting her at the mercy of her nosey roommates potentially leaving.

From an article in the Washington Free Beacon:
If the lease says something like all the roommates have to respect each other's rights to quiet enjoyment, it seems to me she has a case that the others going through all her private property without asking and without her present, violated HER rights to quiet enjoyment.

Sure would like to see the actual lease, hope some news outlet gets hold of it and publishes it.
 
The emails from the roommates and the management company that are linked in the Washington Free Beacon article do not claim a specific legal or contractual basis to force the woman to move.

The property manager only provides advice that the woman might prefer to leave rather than have her roommates leave and stick her with an astronomical lease payment.
 
If you don’t own the property, you don’t get to make the rules. They likely wouldn’t want you to rebuild engines or have a rat farm in there either.

I look it this the same way as I do the store owner that doesn’t want to bake a cake for a LGBT wedding, it’s their prerogative as owner.

I would flip the question around, why would you want to continue doing business with, much less live with, someone that was opposed to your rights and beliefs?
 
I don’t know the particulars of this case, but I do know that she could probably finish a doctorate before the landlord could have her evicted.
 
If you don’t own the property, you don’t get to make the rules. They likely wouldn’t want you to rebuild engines or have a rat farm in there either.

I look it this the same way as I do the store owner that doesn’t want to bake a cake for a LGBT wedding, it’s their prerogative as owner.

I would flip the question around, why would you want to continue doing business with, much less live with, someone that was opposed to your rights and beliefs?
If not wanting guns on the property was disclosed before she signed the lease and moved in, I might even agree with you. But she's already invested time and money and moving would require more of both. And either way why was it OK for the roommates to go through all her belongings without her permission and without her present?
 
Why can't you believe it? Do you have a copy of the lease? Have you read the lease? If you haven't read the lease you have no reason to believe that it would not protect her.

Maybe it was in fact written to balance in some way the interests of an individual tenant against the interests of the other persons sharing the apartment to have more say over who they would be sharing living arrangements with. Sharing an apartment with someone is different from having that person as a neighbor in the apartment next door.

There are a number of material things we don't know, like what the lease actually says and how Massachusetts landlord-tenant and non-discrimination laws might apply in roommate situations.
Calm down. We are having a conversation. I tell you what I believe and you tell me what you believe. You don’t tell me how I have to believe. In Texas, a notoriously conservative state, leases and the court judgements based on them are still extremely protective of the tenant. It is terribly difficult to evict a tenant without major cause. Legal ownership of guns would never qualify for that. The tenant is king. I’m not saying it had to be written in the lease. It is generally implied. You don’t toss out tenants for less than significant cause.
 
And either way why was it OK for the roommates to go through all her belongings without her permission and without her present?

I don’t think it is OK. Again, why would you want to live with such people?

What would be the right solution in your mind? I think having her roommates change their perspective on things is highly unlikely. They obviously don’t respect her opinions or right to privacy. So what’s next?
 
You would put up with a lot of crap to get decent place to live.

Yep, I lived in a dormitory in college and they didn’t want me to have guns either. I guess they didn’t go through my belongings as thoroughly as her roommates or I secured them better.

It’s really not that hard, certainly easier than earning a degree from Harvard. A decent safe is cheap and a “must have” if you are living with people you can’t trust, as in this case.

From the linked article
The roommate wrote that if the guns were to remain in the apartment, they should be locked in a gun safe.

I agree. If they were, in the first place, there wouldn’t be a problem to resolve.

This part “...if the guns were to remain...”. leads me to believe there is more to the story. If she is being evicted because she has hurt some snowflake’s feelings there would be no “if they remain” part.
 
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This thread, like the similar one that preceded it, will get shut down.

Just too many variables to nitpick argue over, and to no real substance.

Boston rents are astronomical. Rents an hour out of town (a very long commute for a college student) are sky-high.

Which places a gun owner needing to reside in Massachusetts on a very limited budget in rather a pickle.

Should that be an issue? The gun rights of it, maybe; but, complex living arrangements are complex.

Should Rents be allowed to be astronomical? Not an issue for THR.

Should roommates be allowed to search each others' things? Also not an issue for THR.

Should college students be expected to not be stupid and adhere to stupid political ideas? Also, also not for THR.
 
I don’t think it is OK. Again, why would you want to live with such people?

What would be the right solution in your mind? I think having her roommates change their perspective on things is highly unlikely. They obviously don’t respect her opinions or right to privacy. So what’s next?
- Bring legal action against the roommates for going through her things
- Bring legal action against the landlord for a) tacitly approving the roommates going through her things; and b) changing the rules in the middle of the game
- Find a way to secure the firearms that will prevent the roommates getting to them, cost to be part of the judgment against the landlord
- After finals find a new place to live, with the expenses of the move paid by the landlord
 
- Bring legal action against the roommates for going through her things
- Bring legal action against the landlord for a) tacitly approving the roommates going through her things; and b) changing the rules in the middle of the game
- Find a way to secure the firearms that will prevent the roommates getting to them, cost to be part of the judgment against the landlord
- After finals find a new place to live, with the expenses of the move paid by the landlord

That sounds much more time consuming than just finding somewhere else to live. Especially if she needs that time to study. Staying where she is sounds like a hostile living environment and so quite stressful. Best to just move, and move on with her life.
 
I don’t see this one going anywhere other than just being an ugly situation. That said, I think that there is more to the story than what is being put in print. Is the girl threatening them in some way, has there been discussion of compromise, is there another reason the roommates feel nervous about the guns? If it were as simple as “you have guns so you have to move” then I’m standing up for the girl. If she is mentally unstable, threatening, on drugs, etc then my stance changes, especially if there has been unsuccessful mediation. 1 room apartment, do your thing. Shared living space, gotta respect everybody else.
 
By going through her possessions without her permission (privacy violation) the roommates caused her to incur a fiscal liability (moving expenses) she would otherwise not have incurred. At least that’s the argument I would make when I filed suit against them in small claims court to pay my moving expenses.

I’m obviously not a lawyer, and I didn’t even stay in a Holiday Inn last night. I am, however someone who believes in getting even whenever you can. The roommates need to face some consequences for their actions and serving them with a notice to appear in court would be fun, even if you ultimately didn’t win.

And the girl needs to secure her guns better. If they had been locked in a box all this could have been avoided. She could have told her roommates the box was full of morning-after pills and they would have left her alone.
 
- Find a way to secure the firearms that will prevent the roommates getting to them, cost to be part of the judgment against the landlord

Had she done that, this thread wouldn’t exist. Why on earth should someone else have to pay for an expense she necessitated?

It remains in question what they actually had to go through to discover them. As the above quote from the article, if they remain they need to be secured. That should be obvious to any firearm owner. Heck I don’t even have roommates and keep many locked up myself. When I had young kids, I couldn’t even get dish soap from under the kitchen sink without having to bypass some sort of lockout device.

Being a gun owner, in and of itself, requires responsibility above not owning them. That’s not the fault of the person that built it, sold it to you, made the ammunition, taught you how to use it or anyone else, rather one you took on voluntarily when you elected to make the purchase.
 
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...I tell you what I believe and you tell me what you believe. You don’t tell me how I have to believe....
This is the Legal Forum, and the discussion is about what the law is. Beliefs, unsupported with evidence, legal authority, or other solid back-up, are irrelevant. It's not about what you or anyone else believes. It's about what the law is and how it applies.

If you can't back up your opinions with appropriate authority or evidence, don't bother to post. See the THR Legal Forum Guidelines:
...Comments and opinions should be based on legal principles and supported where appropriate with reference to legal authority, including court decisions, statutes and scholarly articles. Comments based on wishful thinking may be openly refuted or simply deleted by the staff.....
 
Might be hard to recoup moving expenses if she has only been asked to leave or told she should. I myself would suggest she move but that doesn’t compel her to do so.

"Despite all that, my landlord still said ... 'it seems that peoples' feelings are hurt, so you should leave,'" she said.

A Harvard graduate student who was asked to move out of her apartment after her legally owned firearms made her roommates "uncomfortable"

Gotta watch out for sensationalized stories, the more I read it the more I wonder why it leaves out details.

If you watch the video they quoted the landlords email where they said “it would be best if..” that’s pretty far from eviction, from a legal standpoint. Certainly not “ordered to move” from the evidence I can see.

She could treat the suggestion just like I treat noncompliant “no firearms” signs, ignore them.
 
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Had she done that, this thread wouldn’t exist. Why on earth should someone else have to pay for an expense she necessitated?

It remains in question what they actually had to go through to discover them. As the above quote from the article, if they remain they need to be secured. That should be obvious to any firearm owner. Heck I don’t even have roommates and keep many locked up myself. When I had young kids, I couldn’t even get dish soap from under the kitchen sink without having to bypass some sort of lockout device.

Being a gun owner, in and of itself, requires responsibility above not owning them. That’s not the fault of the person that built it, sold it to you, made the ammunition, taught you how to use it or anyone else, rather one you took on voluntarily when you elected to make the purchase.
I did raise the issue of how they were secured, early on in the thread, the part that didn't make sense to me was how the roommates were able to find them. I know people have things like trigger locks that supposedly prevent the gun from being fired, but that wouldn't prevent, for example, theft. Personally any gun I'm not using or expecting to possibly have to use while I am present, is in my safe. And when I go out any gun not with me is in the safe. And that is without roommates.
 
This is a breathless Fox story about which we have no real information. Time to move on . . .
 
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