BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts has some of the stricted gun control measures in the United States. A recent memo by the Attorney General for the state of Massachusetts sought to expand those controls to rifles that supposedly looked similar to models of semi-automatic rifles outright banned by a 1998 state law.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy will now have to defend statements she made back in July, 2016.
As we pointed out when the memo was initially published, the memo was vague and left room for interpretation. This is a dangerous precedent for regulators to enforce because it could easily make criminals of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
The Gun Owners’ Action League has received backing from the National Rifle Association in its legal quest to break the blockade on a classification of firearms it argues are ‘non-technical, entirely fabricated, and a political term of uncertain definition and scope.’
via WSAU News
“Massachusetts prohibits firearms it pejoratively defines as ‘assault weapons,’ which is a non-technical, entirely fabricated, and political term of uncertain definition and scope,” the 33-page lawsuit contends.
The reason why we’re covering this issue so closely is because when politics is allowed to arbitrarily define one group of firearms as ‘good’ and another ‘bad’ — with no set specification as to what technically constitutes either — then that sort of nonsense can quickly expand into the world of daily concealed carry practices.
Massachusetts gun owners already have to go through a ridiculous level of scrutiny. Not only are they restricted as to what types of handguns they can carry, they are limited to their choice of magazine capacity and the level of police oversight into their daily lives.
“We are drawing a line in the sand where Massachusetts’ gun control agenda tramples the fundamental individual right to defend oneself and family in the home,” James Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League, said in a statement.
While this lawsuit began back in September of 2016, it is now getting towards the phase where a court must decide whether the claims that AG Maura Healy made back in July have violated the constitutional rights of Massachusetts citizens.
It will require a higher level of mental gymnastics for the Attorney General to tell her citizens that she can idly decide at any point in time that the guns they possess are now illegal.
Even as New Hampshire heads to permitless concealed carry, Maine recently adopted it in 2015, Massachusetts seems set on behaving more like New Jersey than a member of New England. It’s largely based around a small circle of Boston elites that do not report to any constituency. When will they be held accountable?
As for Massachusetts citizens, please contact your local state representation. Let them know that the Attorney General shouldn’t be able to make law-abiding citizens criminals because she doesn’t like the color of a hand grip or the look of a rifle stock.