I would like to see MA law changed to treat citizens and legal resident aliens equally with respect to firearms laws, as they are in most other ways. This could be done with a few modifications to the current bill, changing the requirement for citizenship and removing the alien permit.
There is currently a case in which the NRA, Second Amendment Foundation and some individuals are challenging Washington State's discriminatory treatment of resident aliens, based on the 14th amendment guarantee of "equal protection". If this complaint goes to the US supreme court and is upheld, it might become grounds for challenging similar discrimination in MA.
Here are some links to that case:
http://saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=281
http://saf.org/legal.action/wa.alien.resident.lawsuit/wa.alien.resident.complaint.pdf
I understand that this is a minor issue compared to the other reforms in H2259, and that it might be politically difficult with the Virginia Tech shooter having been a non-citizen, but it would fit in nicely with the "Civil Rights" slant of the bill. I also appreciate that non-citizens would already be much better off under H2259 than under the current law.
Umm, well, maybe this should be an encouragement to legal resident aliens to become citizens?? Many of us have done it - go from green card to citizen, then LTC A