After months in pre-trial detention, an Air Force veteran is out on bail for charges of illegally possessing guns shortly after arriving in a state with tougher gun laws than where he came from. Kyle Culotta, a former Air Force postal specialist, was arrested after firearms he’d purchased legally in Arizona were found during a routine police stop in Massachusetts.
The case has become a proxy fight for gun rights groups that are seeking to overturn the law under which Culotta was detained in the 2026 election.
Culotta traveled across the country on June 23 from Arizona to Massachusetts with his girlfriend, Sarandë Jackson. They were living out of her car and planned to take up residence in the Bay State. In the meantime, Jackson told the Boston Herald, they were delivering food via DoorDash.
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2024 arrest
According to the Gun Owners Action League (GOAL), a legal firm affiliated with the National Rifle Association that is representing Culotta, he was pulled over a day after arriving in Massachusetts for having an expired registration. Police told the couple that their car would be towed for lack of insurance and instructed them to remove their belongings from the vehicle.
Officers found Culotta had multiple firearms in the car and one magazine that held more rounds than allowed by Massachusetts law. Boston Herald reports police found three handguns, five rifles, and a “fully stocked military-style ammo” case in addition to a handgun he was carrying. He was arrested and denied bail under the state’s “dangerousness law,” which allows for a person arrested on certain gun charges to be held without bail for up to 120 days.
Push for bail
Jackson spent months pushing for Culotta’s release. She set up an online fundraising campaign to pay for legal services and the eventual bail. But Culotta’s attorneys were unsuccessful with three separate bail requests.
The law under which Culotta was jailed is meant to keep violent offenders locked up before trial on serious gun charges. Culotta’s attorneys told the Boston Herald that he had a clean record with the exception of three cannabis-related offenses from 2006 and 2007 and had never been to jail.
“The fact that a U.S. citizen can be detained without bail for exercising a civil right without government permission is unconscionable and unconstitutional,” Jim Wallace, executive director of GOAL, said in a page devoted to the case.
A Gardner District Court judge agreed on Oct. 21 not to extend a “dangerousness” detention on Culotta. Jackson posted his bail on Monday, securing his release.
Massachusetts law
Massachusetts gun laws are some of the most stringent in the nation. Gun control advocacy group EveryTown for Gun Safety ranks the state second in the country in terms of the strength of its gun laws.
Massachusetts does not recognize firearms licenses from other states, a practice known as reciprocity. New residents who are gun owners must get a firearm license within 60 days of moving to the state and are only able to keep their firearms in their home during that time. Culotta and his girlfriend were living out of their car, lawyers said.
The more serious charges Culotta faced were for possession of a magazine capable of carrying more than 10 rounds of ammunition and possession of an “assault-style firearm.” The state banned “large capacity feeding devices” of that nature in 2024.
Ballot measure
Culotta’s detention has become the latest battle cry for gun rights groups in their push to repeal the landmark gun laws Massachusetts passed in 2024.
Voters will have a choice to roll back the law via the Massachusetts Firearm Regulations Referendum in the November 2026 election. The referendum would repeal the law that banned assault-style firearms and “ghost guns,” required training classes before receiving a firearm owner’s permit and instituted red-flag laws, among other provisions. The law was enacted after a series of mass shootings in the state.
Wallace told the Herald that they were taking Culotta’s case to shed light on state law and national gun rights in general.
“This is our fight,” he said in September. “This right here, nationwide, is the fight of the Second Amendment.”
