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"Bartley Fox" applies to 269/10 violations and subsequent convictions.

Most firearms "possession" offenses are not charged under 269/10.
 
About 10 yrs ago (maybe longer)a study was done on the effects of the Bartley-Fox Act. The results were only 3 persons out of approx 900 received the 1 yr mandatory sentence. My best recollection is that judges were reducing the Unlawful carrying charge to Unlawful Possession which gave them wider descretion in sentencing.
 
About 10 yrs ago (maybe longer)a study was done on the effects of the Bartley-Fox Act. The results were only 3 persons out of approx 900 received the 1 yr mandatory sentence. My best recollection is that judges were reducing the Unlawful carrying charge to Unlawful Possession which gave them wider descretion in sentencing.
There was a Boston Globe article on it some years back, but I haven't been able to find the full text. This might be it, but it is in the pay-to-access archive: http://nl.newsbank.com/cgi-bin/ngat...AW CALLED INEFFECTIVE&ext_theme=bg&pubcode=BG

IIRC, they found 8 people who had been jailed under Bartley-Fox.
 
A number of years ago a Judge that I know (and he's now the Chief Justice of a District Court) was our guest speaker at a LE org meeting. I verbally challenged him on this, and based on his response, I chastised him (and our DA) about letting scumbags walk on this charge.

A search here might turn up a lengthy previous post on this. Might be in the RKG thread noted above or try searching for one of my posts with the keyword "judge".
 
My best recollection is that judges were reducing the Unlawful carrying charge to Unlawful Possession which gave them wider descretion in sentencing.

Correct...but judges are not the ones who are doing this. They do not reduce the charges.

The DA's are doing this for plea bargaining purposes. It takes the year mandatory off of the table.

When it gets to the judges it is no longer a 269/10 plea.
 
Simple. You steal a gun and a car, hold up a convenience store. If you get caught, you kick the cop in the shins, plead guilty to the A&B, everything else gets bargained away and you get another 30 days added to your already 5 yrs of suspended sentences. It's the houswife, without the FID who gets caught taking the hunting rifle to the gunsmith who gets the one year. Jack.
 
Mandatory sentences are inherently stupid because it gives elected prosecutors discretion and judges who actually might care about reasonableness absolutely none.

Real reform would entail truth in sentencing with determinate sentences. (No 5-15 years, just straight time) Then enforce 85% of the sentence MUST be served on any violent felony with no parole.

Some states have this and it's worked very well. The feds also have a similar policy though I'm not sure how it works.
 
who here is old enough to remember the nice welcoming billboards on Rt 93 south just over the NH line telling everyone they would go to jail for a year if caught with a gun,

IN THE MEANTIME THE INNER CITY AND OTHER PLACES ARE AWASH IN GUNS, AND in those rare instances where someone actually get a a year in South Bay or Nashua Street, its 3 hots, a cot, and free training on how to commit other crimes. Those 2 places are Vocational schools for criminals. I suppose we could toss Middleton, Plymouth, Billerica , et al to the list too.
 
I spent 13 years in Corrections. I have only known about 5-6 people that were actually convicted under this law.

One case stands out in my mind.

Guy was living in NH, new .44 magnum in his back seat. On his way to pick his wife up from work.
Inadvertently crossed into Mass, stopped for having a tail light out. Cop saw the gun, bang, year in jail.
 
I spent 13 years in Corrections. I have only known about 5-6 people that were actually convicted under this law.

One case stands out in my mind.

Guy was living in NH, new .44 magnum in his back seat. On his way to pick his wife up from work.
Inadvertently crossed into Mass, stopped for having a tail light out. Cop saw the gun, bang, year in jail.
,

Whoa... was this when the law came into effect or more recently?
 
Amen Glockaholic....I am well old enough....That's where I first saw them driving home from North Conway after a weekend of skiing maybe late 60's...Ah the good old days.....
 
I remember those signs at the border.

"Massachusetts Has A Mandatory Year In Jail Gun Law"

It became such a joke that the state took them down after they got shot full of holes.

[rofl]

Don't know if it is still there, but we used to have one sitting behind the GOAL office that was obtained when the state took them down.

Bartley-Fox is one of my favorite laws. Everytime I get some clueless resident arguing with me about how lax the gun laws are, I ask them if they ever saw the signs that warned of the mandated one year in jail. Usually, they do remember them. Then I ask, so, how many people do you think have spent that one year in jail with all the gun crimes? Man, you should hear these people go off. "Oh, I'm sure it's thousands and if they made it 10 years instead, we might not have them back on the streets."

You should see their face when I tell them that to the best of my knowledge the number of people who actually spent that year in jail is still under 10. We then get into the problems of plea bargains and how the justice system is a complete failure.

I challenge ANY of you to take a day and sit in a courtroom. Just watch what happens. I guarantee you'll see nothing that resembles what you learned in school or see on TV.

I lost all respect for the courts when the drunk who totaled my Jeep in 1993 was allowed to walk free. It was his second DUI and occurred while on his license suspension from the first. And yet, he got fines and fees and allowed back out to get behind the wheel again. I was very interested in seeing how justice worked as I had spent part of my High School years trying to get kids to avoid driving if they drink with the formation of the school's SADD group. Heck, I even have nice plaque from the AG's office commending me for the work our group did and I won a scholarship from Reader's Digest as well.

So, here I was the 'victim' and was looking forward to seeing justice work.

I can't begin to tell you how pissed I was at the process. In the end, as part of the "Victim's Statement" I ripped the judge a new one. After leaving the courtroom, the cops and the DA came over to thank me. Seems the judge was pushing for a plea bargain so that he could make his tee time and didn't want to go through a full trial. Not that I made any difference, but I got to say stuff to the judge that they never could. So, if you ever face Judge Healey in the Framingham District Court, hold out for a good deal.

I'm sure there are a few people here who remember one day in the Dedham court supporting Don Schwartz several years back. Not only did we get to see violent criminals walk out on probation, but we got to see a young soldier get jail time for a fairly minor assault charge. I don't think we saw ONE example of 'justice' that entire day. The funniest reaction was from the judge when he realized that some 30% of the people in his courtroom were there to support the guy charged with trespassing when he insisted the police accept his license application. Strangely, the case was given a continuance because the state was not prepared. Right...

Bottom line:

You can study all those chapters of law contained in the books and argue the details of a bill until you are blue in the face. In the end, the court will do an end run and let the real criminals go and punish those who have things to lose.

Not that I'm bitter or anything mind you. (^_^)
 
That's what I recall too. He ordered the signs made and installed at all the major border crossings.

IIRC, when Ed King became Governor, he ordered the signs removed. Does anyone remember anything different?

I think it was after King. I remember driving across the border and laughing at them and I didn't have my own vehicle until the late 80's.
 
I remember the signs. Then one day they were all gone... I had forgotten about them until this thread...
 
That's what I recall too. He ordered the signs made and installed at all the major border crossings.

IIRC, when Ed King became Governor, he ordered the signs removed. Does anyone remember anything different?
The governors son or relative at that time got caught with a gun illegally and after that the signs came down,
 
Hi folks....Thought I would throw something out to you knowledgeable people .......There used to be a mandatory one year in jail law for having a gun in your possession illegally in Massachusetts (unsure if it's still in effect or not)... At the time is was presented as a end all to the illegal gun crime in the state....I think the law was put into effect sometime in the 1970's.....I've seen countless news reports/articles/TV reports of all sorts of arrests for people having guns in their possession illegally while committing a crime (felons/non felons etc.)....Yet I can't recall ever seeing a mandatory one year sentence being enforced or handed down. Now I can only vouch for my part of the State, Cape Cod (And I watch the court reports faithfully every day)....I could be way off base here, but why is this law not enforced....They keep on telling us they want the criminals with the guns off the street, right!!!...

They don't want to arrest, convict or imprison gang bangers. They want to arrest, convict and imprison their political opponents like you and I. You getting this yet? The only thing stopping them right now is the shock value of emptying out whole communities of law abiding citizens would be enormous political back lash.
 
This isn't Enos where you have to rack up posts to be able to sell in the classifieds,.. just turn green and your gtg,...

"Who controls the past (now), controls the future. Who controls the present (now), controls the past."
 
OK we're back!

But as an update while we are here, I think on Rt 38 in Dracut, just south of the NH line there is a new sign telling people gun permits are required in MA

When I get back north I'll get a picture of it.
 
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