Massachusetts: Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security Firearm Legislation Hearing Scheduled

On Thursday, November 16, 2017, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security will be holding a public hearing at 11:00 A.M. in room A-1 to discuss 55 bills pertaining to firearm laws in the state.  It comes as no surprise that many of the proposals before the Committee for consideration are anti-gun measures and would place further burdens on law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen.  Some of the latest in this line of ill-founded proposals proffered are:

• Mandatory liability insurance for gun owners
• Firearm rationing schemes
• Further limits on magazine capacity
• Further regulating the private transfer of firearms
• Firearm bans

Fortunately, there are a number of pro-gun proposals before committee which would make positive changes for firearm owners in the Commonwealth.  Two such bills are, S.1316 and S.1326, which address the “executive action” taken by Attorney General Maura Healey to ban many common firearms that have been sold for nearly two decades.  Please contact committee members and urge them to support these two bills!  Click the “Take Action’ button below to contact them.

Clearly, Attorney General Healey has overstepped her authority as Attorney General by creating her own definition for “copies or duplicates” outside of the statute that currently regulate so-called “assault weapons” in Massachusetts.  This needs to be fixed!

Senate Bill 1316, sponsored by Senator Anne Gobi (D-Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire and Middlesex), calls for striking out the words “or copies or duplicates of the weapons” in the current law.  This would allow many formerly legal firearms to be removed from the ban instated by Attorney General Healey.  Senate Bill 1326, sponsored by Senator Don Humason (R-Second Hampden and Hampshire), would remove the attorney general's authority to regulate weapons and repeals the previous regulations put in place.

The time to act is now and restore lawful firearms sales to the point before the Attorney General decided to take matters into her own hands.  Ask your elected officials to promote and support effective firearm laws that make life difficult for the criminal who possesses a firearm while removing burdensome restrictions for law-abiding gun owners.  A complete list of bills that will be discussed at the hearing can be found here.

Again, please contact members of the committee today and urge them to support S.1316 and S.1326 and oppose any and all anti-gun measures.  Stay tuned to www.nraila.org and your email inbox for further updates.