Its got nothing to do with TOM. Its that I got sick of seeing GOAL bills include anti-2A clauses that punish and restrict firearms ownership.
I am speaking as a citizen in this post, not as my official capacity as Secretary for GOAL. Nothing written should be construed as official statements from GOAL, this is strictly my own opinion and experience.
So long as SJC rulings (i.e. Davis) stand, it is virtually impossible to get ANY true freedom through the state legislature. The best that can be expected (right now) on the legislative side is to remove the worst sections piece by piece. You do know that as far as the law is concerned, NOBODY has a 2nd Amendment right in Massachusetts. Frankly, I'd love to take that one to the federal system. The problem is that the DAs and AG all know the writing is on the wall. That is why there are so few honorable defendants to support. I can't tell you the number of cases I've reviewed over the years when GOAL has been asked to join in. Virtually every defendant is not the kind of person you would want as a neighbor. Regardless of sound constitutional principals involved, you know that the only thing that would ever be publicized would be something like "GOAL threw their support behind the Son of Sam". I'm actually happy that Comm2A has stepped up to help fund some of the defenses.
But the shapers of public opinion are against us to the point of actively HIDING the facts they don't want people to know.
There should have been an outrage when the MassChiefs caused a bill to simply vanish on its way to the Governor's desk after the legislature passed it in both houses. And yet, the Katrina bill did just that and there wasn't a single word in any major media outlet. The organization that represents the collective opinion of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police just told their citizens "We will steal your property when ever we want" and the silence was incredible. This is the kind of underhanded work that goes on every day and is completely tolerated and justified by the so-called watchdogs of the public media.
The massive overhaul of the gun laws back in 1998 went from committee to law in less than three weeks. It was 80 pages that read mostly like "In section X, after word blah, strike gibberish and insert gobbledygook." The final version took a month to really understand what the freak it said. And once the replacements were all done, so many 'errors' were found that it took several more pieces of legislation to fix. What kind of errors? How about the section that added all the dumb drop testing actually saying that the guns had to FAIL the drop tests to be sold. That's correct. In the original version, a gun had to discharge when dropped to be safe enough to be sold in Massachusetts.
Is it any wonder there are still so many problems?
But the leadership was so hot to pass it, they RAILROADED it through. Nobody read it. Nobody could. They were told to vote yes, and most of them did.
I'd love to go strictly 2A, but such bills would NEVER see the light of day. They would die so fast in committee that the effort to file it would be a waste. As it is, the file periods are made exceptionally short every two years that it is a wonder that we get as many filed as we do. Oh, you think you can just file a bill any time? Only if you are Duval's friend. Everyone else gets about 3-5 days every two years to get a senator or rep to sponsor it. Unsponsored bills die. As a result, we are limited to fighting the small battles where we can and have small victories or no victories at all. We are limited to filing things that the sponsoring legislator deems harmless enough to his job security. Find me a respected state legislator that will put his or her name to a bill that abolishes all gun laws that do not pertain to use in an actual criminal act. You can be sure the media will NEVER let them forget it.
Of course, that does not stop us from shedding the light on every underhanded act that is made. The problem is that we don't have enough members to actually scare any of the legislator's employment. If Jim could walk up to the hill with a quarter million members in his back pocket to actually cause them to truly worry about public opinion, then we'd be able to ask for more.
But when just about every media outlet is opposed to freedom, and continues to supply legitimacy to the anti crackpot opinions, it is going to remain a slow and difficult struggle. Its all a numbers game and right now the numbers are not in our favor. When you can have a Governor state clearly that "I want you to DIE rather than protect your family" and he can remain in office, there is still a LOT of education, one-on-one discussions, and other behind the scenes work that is needed.
In so many ways, we are our own worst enemy.
I'll not tell you what to do, but from where I stand, anyone that does not get on board with SOME organization to fight for change, they are just as much the problem as those that actively fight against freedom.
In 1974, GOAL was founded from the merging of a host of smaller groups to battle a ballot question that would have effectively made this state an unarmed victim zone, free for every criminal to plunder at their whim just like Washington DC has become. We beat that one. Daily, Jim is up on Beacon Hill explaining to yet another clueless idiot why punishing the innocent never hurts the criminal. And yet, I still have people proud to tell me that they refuse to support GOAL, or the NRA, or whatever civil rights organization comes up in conversation because "they don't do (fill in your favorite pipe dream here)"
Its kind of like complaining that you never win the lottery, so you don't buy a ticket.