We’ve got just a couple of days before Massachusetts’ latest attack on the right to keep and bear arms takes effect, and its shaping up to be an absolutely chaotic rollout. As we discussed on yesterday’s Cam & Co with firearms instructor Charlie Cook, the state has yet to reach out to trainers or retailers to give them any information about all of the changes that are in store, which include an entirely new training curriculum for those seeking a license to carry as well as new bans on commonly-owned firearms.
Despite the signs of an impending debacle for the Democrats who rammed H. 4885 through the legislature, the architects of the new gun control bill have a message to the Gun Owners Action League, NRA, and other 2A groups who’ve signaled their intent to overturn the law in court: bring it on.
At a ceremonial bill signing days after the proposal had already become law, one of the measure’s chief authors, Rep. Michael Day, said he was not fazed by a potential lawsuit from the National Rifle Association, which promised “to restore rights guaranteed to Bay Staters by the U.S. Constitution.”
“To those who have already rushed forward to say that they will challenge this law in the courts, I say, bring it on,” the Stoneham Democrat said. “Let me help you in your inevitable search for legislative intent by being clear here today, our legislative intent in modernizing our firearm laws … is to save lives. That’s it.”
I doubt that very much, to be honest. What, exactly is “life saving”, for instance, about prohibiting non-residents from using semi-automatic firearms of any kind during a hunt or a competitive shooting event, while allowing residents to use at least some semi-automatic long guns? H. 4885 is chock-full of oddities like that, in addition to major (and unfunded) changes to the mandated training to receive an LTC and a host of new requirements for gun sellers; like having to report and register new firearm inventory with the state.
Unfortunately for Day, the legislative intent doesn’t matter regarding the constitutionality of H. 4885’s numerous provisions, whether they’re ostensibly mean to save lives or curtail legal gun ownership. What matters is whether the new mandates comport with the text of the Second Amendment and the national tradition of keeping and bearing arms, and much of H. 4885 is going to fail that test.
The long-term effects of H. 4885 will irreparably harm the 2A rights of Massachusetts residents, but the impact of the new law will be felt almost immediately once it’s officially in force this Friday. Firearm instructors are supposed to use a new training curriculum established by the Massachusetts State Police, but that curriculum hasn’t been developed. As Charlie Cook told Bearing Arms on Tuesday, some local licensing authorities have said they’ll keep operating under the old standard until they’ve been told differently, but others have said they won’t be accepting or issuing any new licenses until the new curriculum is in place.
Firearm retailers and their customers are also in the dark about what is and isn’t legal to sell or purchase. As Cook explained, up to now Massachusetts weirdly defined firearms as handguns and pistols, but have now included rifles and shotguns in that definition. That might make sense, but under existing state law all “firearms” offered for sale must be approved by the state, and each make and model must undergo testing before they’re certified for sale. H. 4885 doesn’t have any kind of provision grandfathering in long guns that are currently available for sale, so it appears that the new law may ban the sale of all rifles or shotguns, at least until the state certifies them.
We’ll be talking more about H. 4885 and the chaos it’s causing with GOAL’s Jim Wallace on Thursday’s Cam & Co. I can assure Rep. Day, however, that the lawsuits will be brought, the new law will be litigated, and the damage he and his fellow Democrats are doing to a fundamental civil right will be dealt with in court.
