pastera
NES Member
Gun legislation 'Listening Tour' makes stop in Fall River - Fall River, MA - The Herald News
In attendance:
Rep Naughton
Rep Silvia
Rep Markey
Bristol DA Sutter
FR Police Chief Rancine
Also in attendance was a state Senator but I can't remember his name and failed to bring a notebook thinking that this would be a Q&A session with mostly anti questions picked. (feel free to neg for that oversight)
It is now clear that we will see "sweeping" gun legislation in September. This is a direct quote from Rep Naughton.
What follows is not a quote but just my feel of the 'mood' of the conversation for the new legislation:
The ban on standard capacity magazines and modern sporting rifles stays in place - no retraction of grandfathering but no betterment either
Discretion will stay in place - I don't think we will see it expanded to FIDs but it is a possibility
A waiver of all medical records access will added to licensing
No more private transfers
Licensing will be streamlined to reduce police involvement and time line, possibly taken over by the sheriff's office.
The general tenor of conversation was that further restrictions on lawful gun owners would do little to stem gun violence. However a lot of time was spent on trafficking from New Hampshire. A Massachusetts task force that will operate in NH to identify and apprehend traffickers was pushed several times. I was adamant in pressing that interstate trafficking was a federal issue and reiterated this for every "new" way the situation was addressed. I was finally informed by Rep Markey that the feds simply don't have the funding to address Mass trafficking and it is a very low federal priority if funding were available.
My attempts to place the mental heath issue into perspective by comparing the average number of deaths in mass killings (~35/yr) with the number of infants who die when left in cars (~33/yr) fell short. However, both Rep Markey and DA Sutter took this up stating that the limited funds were better spent on the large number of urban shootings. I never thought either would be an ally in this fight. Both would like to see the licensing process streamlined in order to free up resources to target the people the police already know are the issue at hand.
Now that Rep Naughton recognizes my face and calls me by name, I will still be attending the hearings but believe my impact will be negligible (if not already). We need more people to step up and speak out. I was one of three people from the 'general public' there today, an embarrassing showing of support. Here is a overview of my take on the 'public'
Sportsman 1: Middle aged gentleman in his fifties
Well spoken and concerned with his rights even though he doesn't own any firearms. He would be a pretty good ally if we got him to the range to shoot and he was hooked.
Sportsman 2: Middle aged gentleman in his fifties
Started out well but fell into a tirade of how he knows many people with LTCs who shouldn't be allowed to have guns and how if we start issuing more licenses there will be blood in the streets like the wild west .
Myself: Passionate but poor public speaker, stutters, looks the part of weird gun guy.
Did my best to limit the damage from Sportsman 2. Tried to speak out enough to control the conversation without being rude or interrupting.
In attendance:
Rep Naughton
Rep Silvia
Rep Markey
Bristol DA Sutter
FR Police Chief Rancine
Also in attendance was a state Senator but I can't remember his name and failed to bring a notebook thinking that this would be a Q&A session with mostly anti questions picked. (feel free to neg for that oversight)
It is now clear that we will see "sweeping" gun legislation in September. This is a direct quote from Rep Naughton.
What follows is not a quote but just my feel of the 'mood' of the conversation for the new legislation:
The ban on standard capacity magazines and modern sporting rifles stays in place - no retraction of grandfathering but no betterment either
Discretion will stay in place - I don't think we will see it expanded to FIDs but it is a possibility
A waiver of all medical records access will added to licensing
No more private transfers
Licensing will be streamlined to reduce police involvement and time line, possibly taken over by the sheriff's office.
The general tenor of conversation was that further restrictions on lawful gun owners would do little to stem gun violence. However a lot of time was spent on trafficking from New Hampshire. A Massachusetts task force that will operate in NH to identify and apprehend traffickers was pushed several times. I was adamant in pressing that interstate trafficking was a federal issue and reiterated this for every "new" way the situation was addressed. I was finally informed by Rep Markey that the feds simply don't have the funding to address Mass trafficking and it is a very low federal priority if funding were available.
My attempts to place the mental heath issue into perspective by comparing the average number of deaths in mass killings (~35/yr) with the number of infants who die when left in cars (~33/yr) fell short. However, both Rep Markey and DA Sutter took this up stating that the limited funds were better spent on the large number of urban shootings. I never thought either would be an ally in this fight. Both would like to see the licensing process streamlined in order to free up resources to target the people the police already know are the issue at hand.
Now that Rep Naughton recognizes my face and calls me by name, I will still be attending the hearings but believe my impact will be negligible (if not already). We need more people to step up and speak out. I was one of three people from the 'general public' there today, an embarrassing showing of support. Here is a overview of my take on the 'public'
Sportsman 1: Middle aged gentleman in his fifties
Well spoken and concerned with his rights even though he doesn't own any firearms. He would be a pretty good ally if we got him to the range to shoot and he was hooked.
Sportsman 2: Middle aged gentleman in his fifties
Started out well but fell into a tirade of how he knows many people with LTCs who shouldn't be allowed to have guns and how if we start issuing more licenses there will be blood in the streets like the wild west .
Myself: Passionate but poor public speaker, stutters, looks the part of weird gun guy.
Did my best to limit the damage from Sportsman 2. Tried to speak out enough to control the conversation without being rude or interrupting.