Below is a letter I came up with that I intend to send to my reps and the Governor. What do you guys think?
I am writing this letter to express my utter outrage at the obvious overreach of the Attorney General, Maura Healey, regarding the re-interpretation of the Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban. This re-interpretation has unilaterally banned firearms that have been legally sold and possessed by law-abiding citizens for over 20 years.
The Attorney General’s reasoning is flawed on its face. She is relying on the words “copy” & “duplicate” as they appear in the definition of an “Assault Weapon” under MGL Chapter 140 Section 121. This definition, in part, states “and shall include, but not be limited to, any of the weapons, or copies or duplicates of the weapons [emphasis added], of any caliber, known as”, and goes on to list a series of specific firearms manufactured by specific companies. The Attorney General has unilaterally taken it upon herself to redefine the words “copy” & duplicate”. She has invented a so-called “Similarity Test” as quoted below:
“Similarity Test: A weapon is a Copy or Duplicate if its internal functional components are substantially similar in construction and configuration to those of an Enumerated Weapon. Under this test, a weapon is a Copy or Duplicate, for example, if the operating system and firing mechanism of the weapon are based on or otherwise substantially similar to one of the Enumerated Weapons.”
First, this so-called “Similarity Test” appears nowhere in the General Laws. It is purely an invented idea by the Attorney General. If the Legislature wanted a “Similarity Test” included in the law, the Legislature would have included it.
Second, by inventing this “Similarity Test”, the Attorney General has re-defined the words “copy” & “duplicate”. Based on numerous sources, the definition of “copy” is “an exact duplicate”. And the definition of the word “duplicate” is “an exact copy”. These words do not mean “substantially similar”, as used in the above “Similarity Test”. The words used in the statute are basic, plain, simple words. There is no reason to think these words mean anything other than their Plain English definition. Since when does the Attorney General have the authority to change the definitions of the most basic of words in the English language?
As a result of this, the Attorney General is threatening criminal enforcement based on this re-interpretation. She is threatening to charge otherwise law-abiding citizens and/or business owners with felonies.
This move by the Attorney General is clearly an over-reach of her authority. The Attorney General is attempting to re-write a statute. I urge you to oppose this illegal action by Maura Healey and remind her that the law-making authority falls to the Massachusetts Legislature, not to the Attorney General.