A former Framingham Police Department employee was arraigned Tuesday, charged with illegally issuing firearm licenses, said Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone.

Kelly McKinstry, 46, of Framingham, was arraigned in Framingham District Court on charges of falsifying a firearm license/FID card, false statement on firearm ID card application, and false report by a public employee.

Framingham District Court Judge Healy released her on personal recognizance. She is due back in court November 10 for a pre-trial haering.

McKinstry was a civilian employee assigned to the department’s licensing bureau and was fired for the alleged offenses.

Police began investigating McKinstry in February with the lieutenant assigned to the bureau noticed that two licenses he approved as Class D (restricted pepper spray only) Firearm Identification Cards where entered
by the employee as Class A (large capacity firearm) licenses in the Massachusetts Instant Records Check System database.

The lieutenant then audited the firearms license application files and the MIRCS database.

He found 44 applications, nearly all from soldiers, which were suspect.

Several licenses were never submitted for review and approval by the lieutenant as required, but were processed and issued to people who gave fake addresses.

The illegal licenses also include Class E licenses, which are licenses for machine guns.

All the licenses were pulled and 19 firearms were confiscated.

About The Author

John Guilfoil is the editor-in-chief of Blast: Boston's Online Magazine and the Blast Magazine Network. He can be reached at [email protected]. Tweet @johnguilfoil.

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