Police Opinion on New Gun Laws

[Roscoe]

I believe New Yorkers thought the same thing prior to having the rep that said he would never vote on such a law turn against them.

According to nysrpa This is exactly what happened.

 

[Malkin]

Thank you sir, hopefully you can express your helpful thoughts to the mayor and Gov Deval. We need all the support we can get. It is hard enough for fellow residents who obey the law and pay taxes. You have a wonderful post with a very strong message. Your voice is a great start to help us all to fight this attack. We will not go down beaten but fighting. We all know that actions speak louder than words. Thank you for your words because it keeps hope in all our eyes.Also thank you for your service to the community.

 

[438]

I appreciate all the ideas being voiced. I do plan on talking to my union president and see if we can get some support on the issue. Our biggest issue is that although the members of our "local" may be on board, we are part of a national parent union which is a rabid supporter of all things Democrat. I doubt they will have any interest in our side. Trust me, many times we feel that our unions are not speaking for us. I am one of my agency's firearms instructors so I do have a lot of contact with instructors in departments across the state. None of them I have spoken to are in favor of these regulations. Keep in mind most of us own personal guns that would be regulated into history if this passes. I am currently in the process of e mailing all my fellow police firearms instructors I know to get them on board. As an aside, its not just local law enforcement on board. I have several friends who are "gun people" in Federal agencies and they are equally up in arms over all this.

 

[SPG]

Welcome to another cop!

Great post Bro

 

[beaker]

+1 Thank You!

I hope that many LEO's can more formally communicate this to our elected officials somehow.

Best first post ever1.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[deadhead133]

Thank you for your post and your service. You are obviously a very intelligent person.

 

[WBspectrum]

Spent a little time on Masscops.com, just wanted to get a feel for the what the rank and file are thinking about all this. I was very very pleased to see that the vast majority are agreeing with us. I really really wish they could be more vocal...

http://www.masscops.com/threads/david-linsky-gives-details-of-his-ma-gun-control-bill.114163/

 

[mike9mm]

438, thanks for your service and outstanding first and subsequent posts!
Knowing that many LEO's are with us really helps this week and in the future
Thanks for sharing your articulate view.

 

[fugazi781]

438- thank you for your service. You have a voice/opinion that matters, do everything you can to get it out to the public! If your local, fellow LEO's all feel the same way, that's huge! Union or no union make your voices heard! Others will follow.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Horrible]

I appreciate all the ideas being voiced. I do plan on talking to my union president and see if we can get some support on the issue. Our biggest issue is that although the members of our "local" may be on board, we are part of a national parent union which is a rabid supporter of all things Democrat. I doubt they will have any interest in our side. Trust me, many times we feel that our unions are not speaking for us. I am one of my agency's firearms instructors so I do have a lot of contact with instructors in departments across the state. None of them I have spoken to are in favor of these regulations. Keep in mind most of us own personal guns that would be regulated into history if this passes. I am currently in the process of e mailing all my fellow police firearms instructors I know to get them on board. As an aside, its not just local law enforcement on board. I have several friends who are "gun people" in Federal agencies and they are equally up in arms over all this.

Thank you 438! And thank you for your 26 years of service, serving and protecting our families!!

 

[JFR2]

The weight of the words of a LEO calling their reps about this legislation would be a great benefit!

-JR

 

[lateapex31]

Hello all, this is my first post on the forum, although I have been reading it for the past several years. With the recent events happening I felt compelled to give an opinion. I am a career police officer in a mid sized community in the greater Boston area, and have been so for 26 years. I belive my experience gives me some insight into crime and criminal behavior. I am also a gun owner, avid target shooter, trap shooter, and hunter (bow and gun). I lawfully own several of the guns the Commonwealth has deemed "evil".
In recent days I have had numerous conversations with literally dozens of fellow police officers from all over the state, and we all agree on one thing: None of the proposed legislation recently filed will have any effect on crime or criminals. It will only punish and hinder lawful gun owners. Anyone who believes otherwise is detached from reality. I would like to convey to the others on this forum that most police officers are not in favor of burdensome regulations that serve no purpose other than to criminalize otherwise lawful citizens. Really, most street officers and line supervisors get it: the lawful gun owner is not the enemy. I am not concerned that someone who goes through the Commonwealth's licensing process is going to use their gun to commit a crime. It just doesnt happen that way. People who commit crimes with guns do not worry about licenses, magazine capacity, pre ban, post ban whatever. They don't care. That's why they are criminals. We realize that the lawful gun owner is our friend, family member, neighbor etc. They are members of the community we serve, and they should not be demonized for excercising a Constitutional right.
I would echo what others have posted and urge you to call your elected officials and voice your opinion on these recent legistlative proposals which will be disasterous to all lawful gun owners. This is my personal opinion only. Thank you.

Do you currently enforce the 1998 gun control laws? Then how will these new laws be any different? They will be enforced just the same.

I do appreciate your post and welcome any LEO who feels the way you do, but at the end of the day you will do your job and enforce unconstitutional crap and arrest citizens for owning a piece of plastic and metal.

 

[Sterg]

I appreciate all the ideas being voiced. I do plan on talking to my union president and see if we can get some support on the issue. Our biggest issue is that although the members of our "local" may be on board, we are part of a national parent union which is a rabid supporter of all things Democrat. I doubt they will have any interest in our side. Trust me, many times we feel that our unions are not speaking for us. I am one of my agency's firearms instructors so I do have a lot of contact with instructors in departments across the state. None of them I have spoken to are in favor of these regulations. Keep in mind most of us own personal guns that would be regulated into history if this passes. I am currently in the process of e mailing all my fellow police firearms instructors I know to get them on board. As an aside, its not just local law enforcement on board. I have several friends who are "gun people" in Federal agencies and they are equally up in arms over all this.

What about the old saying, "There's safety in numbers".? What if all LEO's formed a rally without the union? Would there be a possibility to bust the union? Or at least, what are they going to do, fire all LEO's in the state?

 

[TLB]

Thanks for your nice posts here. We need law enforcement on our side. And the biggest reason for that is the way anti-gun politicians use the police to further their agenda. In the New York debate (as short as it was), we heard many times that the state police had advised the authors of the legislation -- that the state police liked just about any part of the law that was up for debate. This had the effect of shutting down a lot of potential opposition. In Mass, we see a similar result when discussions of gun rights come up.

Thanks for your efforts to move things in the right direction.

This is a great point. Educating our legislators, even one on one as a LEO, may open someone's eyes.

 

[Gastrok]

Thank you for your service and your statement!

 

[ochmude]

Thank you for posting that.

I think there might be a national organization for law enforcement against gun control. Perhaps you could start or join this in MA.



I'd say do it separate from the union. It would be easier that way.

Law Enforcement Against Gun Control
Not really an organization, but it's better than nothing.

 

[mac67]

Welcome to NES. Well said. Please encourage your fellow officer's to spread this sentiment.

 

[Bolio]

Do you currently enforce the 1998 gun control laws? Then how will these new laws be any different? They will be enforced just the same.

I do appreciate your post and welcome any LEO who feels the way you do, but at the end of the day you will do your job and enforce unconstitutional crap and arrest citizens for owning a piece of plastic and metal.

You can be skeptical, but you don't know him. How can you be so sure?

Discretion

 

[Deleted member 12999]

Discretion

Worth repeating.

 

[SalemCat]

Great First Post !

Makes me feel a little better.

 

[uncle griz]

Thanks for speaking up 438, God bless ya

 

[amscat]

+1 and thanks for your years of service and staying true to who we are as americans(especially with the left leaning unions)

 

[prolene70]

Officer, thank you for your service and thank you for standing up for the 2nd Amendment.

 

[Kinglish]

Thank you!!

 

[Sinitron]

Thank you sir, great opening post.

 

[beach]

To bad you couldn't get a group of like minded officers to stand up and be heard. Your voice would go a LONG way towards helping the cause, especially if you all stood up as a united front and gave that speech to our legislature.

+1

 

[Dmiller27]

I actually would love to be at the State House tomorrow, however I will be working. I hope to attend another one of the public events in the near future. One thing I find so striking is that a licensed gun owner is a person who has been throughly backgrounded, investigated, interviewed and deemed by the state to NOT be a criminal, yet some people are fearful of them. In my experience, whenever I encounter an LTC or FID holder I know that they are a person who wants to comply with the law, and has endured an extensive process to do so. Sounds like a good person to me. Certainly not someone the police need to be overly concerned with.

This is a great statement! +1

 

[expedition03]

Well said. Thank You for your opinion and being on OUR side. If we get the police to understand and it this crap passes anything, we can get the police to not enforce this crap IF it becomes law which it won't if we keep pushing hard.

 

[438]

Again, thank you for all the positive messages. I have been in contact with many officers today, and I expect our representatives will be getting many phone calls next week from them voicing their opposition to both Governor Patrick's bill as well as Senator Linskey's bill. Every officer I have spoken with is against these bills and all have voiced support and sympathy for the plight of lawful gun owners in the Commonwealth. I expect to be contacting many more officers in the coming days. The police are not the enemy of lawful gun owners.

I would like to quote Sir Robert Peel from his principles of law enforcement (1829 England): "The police are the public and the public are the police; the police are the only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the intent of community welfare"

I think that sums it up pretty well, we are a part of the community and any poorly thought out legislation hurts us as well.

 

[Robracer50]

Thanks for your post, let's hope your opinion doesn't fall on deaf ears with all the stuffed shirt polititians.