Opinion
The National Shooting Sports Foundation®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, rebukes legislation proposed by Massachusetts House and Senate lawmakers that would denigrate the Second Amendment to a state-granted privilege and do nothing to hold criminals accountable for the criminal misuse of firearms.
State lawmakers negotiated a compromise through a closed-door conference committee with no input from the firearm industry, releasing the bill with just two weeks left in the session. However, this bill is anything but a compromise. It runs roughshod over the fundamental rights to keep and bear arms by creating unconstitutional age-based gun bans and magazine bans and subjects lawful firearm owners to onerous licensing requirements and searchable databases that compromise privacy.
“After nearly a year, in the state where the American Revolution began, Massachusetts legislators are seeking to rush through a 111-page bill that will do nothing to stem violence in the Commonwealth and will only create a bloated bureaucratic mess that impacts law-abiding gun-owners,” said Jake McGuigan, NSSF’s Government Relations – State Affairs Managing Director.
“The legislature had the opportunity to do something truly special with a strong bill to address violence. Instead, the bill aims to suppress the exercise of the Second Amendment by implementing onerous training requirements just to purchase a firearm, bans all of the most commonly-used guns in America and implements a draconian gun registration scheme that criminals will ignore. It even makes it illegal for a 15-year-old Boy Scout to use a .22 caliber rifle to earn a merit badge. Judges continue to set free criminals in the Commonwealth while the legislature makes law abiding citizens immediate felons.”
The negotiated legislation now includes, among other restrictions:
- Full registration of ALL guns.
- Onerous licensing and administrative requirements on retailers. For example, all guns in inventory need to be registered with the state before they are even sold.
- Bans all legally-owned magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds. Those standard-capacity magazines already lawfully owned would be barred from transfer.
- State police would create a roster of banned semi-automatic rifles and database of all guns.
- Commissions to study “technologies” like microstamping that has already been proven by independent peer review research to be flawed and unreliable.
- Live-fire requirement despite the fact there are very few public ranges where this can be done.
- Publicly searchable in database of all lawful firearm owners.
- Creates another government database to issue serial numbers for all firearms.
- Small, independent retailers will be saddled with inventory they can no longer sell.
Failure to register a firearm could be punished by a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offense; (ii) by a fine of up to $7,500 or imprisonment up to six months, or by both, for a second offense; or (iii) by a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment for between one and five years, or by both, for a third or subsequent offense.
Massachusetts lawmakers introduced this legislation in reaction the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, that affirmed the Second Amendment is an individual right and governments cannot infringe on the ability to exercise that right in public. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion, “The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees. We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”
This proposed legislation by Massachusetts lawmakers is clearly unconstitutional as it would deny the Constitutionally-protected rights to keep and bear arms to adults under 21, who are fully-vested in the entire spectrum of their rights. This legislation is not compromise. It is a frontal attack on the liberties and rights belonging to law-abiding citizens of Massachusetts.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
Feels like early April 1775.
IMOA, most wouldn’t comply and if you’re now considered a criminal, no need to tell them you have weapons so as not to self-incriminate yourself. They already know criminals won’t come forward.
What the Trump attacked proved is that even with lawmakers and cops fully behind somebody, they’re still not exempt from being shot. German officers in the Stalingrad occupation were often shot dead the day they arrived.
I’ve lost count on how many times we point out that FOPA makes it illegal for any new firearms database whether Federal, State or subdivision thereof. Of course the State does not mind spending near limitless taxpayer money to defend the law against the limited funds donated by the small number of gun owners who value their rights and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
Wow. If they sentenced me to 1-5 for each of my guns (minus 2) – it would be a life sentence. Since I would not comply with that law, I’d be left with no option but lethal defense against and LEO who seems likely to discover my noncompliance. Legitimate self-defense as they would represent an imminent and credible threat to my free life.
there will be a trial by fire of the mass police and will not be pretty , many ex mass residents went to Vermont or New Hampshire because of this people still there are new yak transplants
that too, large number of people from Venezuela that overstayed their visas and the boarder jumpers
We’ve a trove of these North Eastern liberals down here in Florida, where I live! They are Hell bent on making it more like where they came from!
You can’t reason with them because they’ve been indoctrinated!
What’s crazy is they usually left because they hated that place!
they hat all the rules and taxes, then they want a special taxing district so they can have rules about trees and …………..
Identify them, group them together and we do a reverse Mariel boatlift and ship their POS azzes to cuba. Sell it on great beaches and even better mojitos. They can celebrate their commie ideals with current prez diaz-canel and the good ole days of the castro brothers.
Publicly searchable database struck me right between the eyes, what a way to encourage both public animosity towards gun owners as well as targeting them for both harassment and theft. Registration of firearms is prohibited by federal law, how can any state overrule a federal law?The Cradle of Liberty has dumped the occupant in favor of tyranny
isn’t it appalling that in the state where the “shot heard ’round the world” occurred is passing this nonsense?
General Gage and King George III must be dancing over this legislative rubbish.
Baystaters the only moral and responsible response to this legislation is do not comply
all the trash that went to Canada came back
Hello, I had sent a valid question days ago concerning this ‘new law’ being implemented on 8-1, GOAL never responded. It was a question as to why GOAL/NRA did not immediately put a TRO on this ‘law’ that was just passed so as to keep gun owners from harm while letting it go through the courts for review, GOAL and the NRA need to address that question. Gun club members/ gun owner’s in general all over the state are wondering why they send you money and you do nothing with it to protect them from the harm this bill does?… Read more »