Massachusetts: House to Vote On Firearm Penalty Legislation Today!

This afternoon, the State House of Representatives has scheduled a vote on H.4703 “An Act Reforming the Administrative Procedures Relative to Criminal Offender Record Information and Pre and Post Trial Supervised Release”.

The proposal, commonly referred to as the “CORI”, has a provision which would allow the courts to hold citizens without bail for any matter involving unlicensed possession of a handgun (loaded or unloaded), machine gun or “large capacity weapon.” This language is in violation of a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) Ruling, Commonwealth vs. Young, in May of 2009. This ruling stated that simple, unlicensed possession is a regulatory matter not a criminal matter.

State Representative George Peterson will be offering an amendment to correct the language in H.4703.  The Peterson amendment will restore the standard created by the Supreme Judicial Court in the existing pre-trial detention law while in possession of an unlicensed gun.

Please contact your State Representative and urge them to support Representative Peterson’s amendment.  Contact information can be found here.