What we pay as gun owners in Mass. is twice as high as any state in the region. With all the talk about Massachusetts leading the nation, they collect millions of dollars from us and don’t spend a single penny on firearms education. The system is designed to register and watch the good guys, but not designed to watch the bad guys.
Jim Wallace
March 18, 2016
Executive director of the Gun Owners Action League in Massachusetts
Gun Owners Weigh In: The debate over gun control
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
“The system is designed to register and watch the good guys, but not designed to watch the bad guys.”
Someone is beginning to understand. The correct answer is; the [authoritarian] system is designed to demoralize, devour and destroy the good guys and to uphold, honor and protect the bad guys.
The formation of the United States was one of those rare and fleeting moments when someone was, officially, in plain view of the entire world, able to poke a finger in the eye of the Authoritarian System. The Authoritarian System was not amused. It’s been getting it’s revenge ever since.
That was my first thought, too. watch is the wrong word. Intimidate, harass, control, denigrate, marginalize, and “other” a person is what it’s designed to do.
You have it right. You read your history; Jim apparently hasn’t, and I doubt the Mass school system encourages it.
I fear that is not a bug, but a feature, to tax MA firearms owners for exercising their RIGHT. Then they put them on a watch list to facilitate further permits and taxes or even confiscation when the next legislative session gets around to banning stuff.
Yes, the “Authoritarian System” is working at peak efficiency and we have people who want to vote for Bernie Sanders to seal the deal.
Not only are the costs high, they also maintain a list of permitted firearms. (In MA, guns must pass stringent tests to make the list… and it’s rumored that some are flunked due to irrelevancies, such as scary names.)
So I can’t buy a Kimber for any price… nor a new Colt. There’s nothing on the list by IMI, meaning I can’t get a Jericho… either because somebody has it in for Israeli hardware, or because it was once mis-named Baby Eagle (or was it Baby Uzi). Glocks are available, but only for police. (We can sometimes buy used Glocks, when MA police sell their old ones to gun stores.)
Yes, I have strong (family) reasons for staying in MA. But I do hate that aspect of it.
Daniel,
you’d feel right at home in CA. Sounds about the same. Some years ago, it was calculated that CA only had 1/3 of the US acceptable models available. The maker has to pay to have them tested, and that test has to be repeated every few years, and requires 3 of each model for destructive testing. BTW, each sku # is considered a different model. Some part is a different color? That requires separate testing as a completely different gun.
The testing lab? Not even in CA.
I ran into some of this when I read that Boberg wasn’t going to offer its products in MA or CA. In one of those places, even if he wanted to he could not because the slide doesn’t lock open when empty (for the Boberg action that would be hard to do and nonsensical). That’s a good example of irrelevant requirements added to make it hard on gun makers.
In the end, I think they ended up being legal in CA via a loophole, selling the gun as a single shot weapon (which doesn’t require approval) through the use of a sleeve that goes into the barrel. Apparently, it is (was?) legal to offer a single shot gun that the customer can change into a semi-auto. Amazing.
Fortunately I live in NH so I don’t currently have to deal with this nonsense. I empathize with those like Daniel who live in fascist states but don’t find it feasible to move.
IIRC, the legislature fixed that single shot conversion for individual use here in CA. They were horrified that a workaround had been found. So, that is gone.
Bummer.