The Honorable Rep. or Sen. Doe,
As a resident of Sometown, I urge you to oppose Gov. Patrick's recently introduced and severely misguided gun control bill, “An Act to Reduce Firearm Violence”. Firstly, limiting lawful gun purchases to one per month will do absolutely nothing to reduce gun crime. Lawful purchases are already registered with the Commonwealth and must have licenses issued at the discretion of the Chief of Police of Sometown. I do not think that Commissioner Police Chief is giving licenses to gun traffickers! Moreover, since all purchases are already registered, the data are available to find/punish MA gun owners who are selling guns illegally. I can guarantee you that the number is zero, otherwise, they would be either prosecuted or the Patrick administration would release the figures. The 20% of guns recovered in crimes that are from Mass are all stolen, not straw purchased. Why does Gov. Patrick refuse to clarify this?
Secondly, the proposal to make commission of a misdemeanor "while in possession of a gun" a maximum 10-year felony is completely misguided. What is a citizen of the Commonwealth, who is licensed to carry, to do if he needs to defend himself? Do we want the law to force them to resort to deadly force first?? Of course not. Instead, this bill would send them to jail for 10 years simply for doing the right thing and getting in an old fashioned fist-fight, instead of drawing their weapon. This makes no sense.
Finally, I would expect Gov. Patrick to be a champion of civil rights, as is the tradition in Mass. politics. Instead, Gov. Patrick has heard what the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled and decided that he doesn't believe in due process or civil rights. He wants to hold innocent, accused citizens in jail for three months for passive and victimless crimes. The City of Sometown cannot stand for this. Beyond that, the reality is that Mass. gun laws are so complex and intricate, that anybody can be potentially ensnared on a technicality either through their own misjudgment or due to an error by the police or DA. It could be somebody's grandfather driving from CT to ME or just a lawfully licensed, elderly gun owner that forgot to renew their license in time. These people shouldn't be held without bail as "dangerous felons" when they are clearly not.
What the Commonwealth needs is gun control legislation that attacks the problem, not feel-good bills that simply harass licensees and infringe citizen's second amendment rights. How about enforcing the already strictest-in-the-nation laws that are on the books? Every decade, we are told that some radical, oppressive change in gun control is finally going to make things better....and every decade it just gets worse. The trend is obvious. Gov. Patrick needs to focus on real solutions, not his personal desire to appear to be "doing something".
Sincerely,
John Doe
Sometown, MA