Under the pending law - once a AR-15 is registered - can it be transferred?
A little problem developed in CT.
Nobody registered back in 2013.
CT law now required registration for amnesty. If you try to register the guns from back in 2013 - you are committing a felony.
What is the best plan of action for Massachusetts gun owners to avoid that mistake?
I think since folks are worried about eventual confiscation after registration that they will hedge their bets and keep some AR's off the books.
Back in 2013 I had recently left CT for MA. I knew a lot about the CT law because I had a very solid grounding in existing law and had read the actual language of the bill.
When the DESPP came out with the process for registering AWs, a lot of people said "No. I'm not going to register". I reminded people that if they bought their rifle from a gun shop, the state already knew they had it.
My recommendation to people was that if you bought your gun at a gun shop, comply with the law since refusing served no purpose. The dealer had filed a DPS-3 and the gun was already in their database with your name attached.
If you bought your gun on the secondary market and the state didn't know you owned it (prior to 2013, secondary transfers of long guns did not require an approval number from the state) then you had a decision to make.
My advice to CT people was to register their dealer purchased guns and to go even further. Drown the F$%kers in paperwork. The law copied the Federal law around machine guns in that it said "any item that can be used to convert a firearm into an assault weapon is an assault weapon".
By that logic, a pistol grip, flash hider, or telescoping stock are all assault weapons. So I registered all of them. Every crappy A2 pistol grip I had kicking around got registered. Every old A1 and A2 fast hider I had removed over 30 years of owning ARs got registered. I think I registered something like 60 "Assault Weapons".
I'm not sure if the MA bill has any language like that, but if it does, I'd strongly suggest that people register their grips, flash hiders and stocks.
I think a reasonable plan of action would be to register the ones that you intend to keep in the state and move some of them to a friends' house in NH and leave them unregistered and out of state. By that plan, you will still LAWFULLY own ARs that are untouchable by the Government of the Commonwealth of MA and you will be able to go to the range using the guns you have registered, without putting yourself in legal jeopardy.
One other thing. When the CT law passed I told my friends who lived in MA to register their guns. At first the DESPP wouldn't register out of state guns until they were reminded that there was nothing in the law limiting who could register their guns with the DESPP.
So if you live in NH and intend to come to MA to shoot ever, register a couple of guns so you can do so without legal jeopardy. Despite the fact that they are in MA, gun clubs like Harvard Sportsmen and Woburn Sportsmen are fantastic clubs that run great matches, where you may want to drive down and participate without risk.
