ALERT TO ALL GUN OWNERS
Chapter 180 Part II? It could be happening!
Recently, Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL) received a draft copy of a report from the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security entitled “Illegal Gun Trafficking and Youth Gun Violence: Creating Smart Strategies to Combat Gun Violence among Youth in the Commonwealth.” This report essentially recommends Chapter 180 Part II! (In the report, “… State Police be assigned the duty of making periodic checks of registered guns.”)
Below is a copy of the letter we are sending to the Committee in response to this report. By no means does the letter address every concern we have with the report as that would take dozens of pages. We urge all lawful gun owners to read what the Committee is putting forth along with GOAL's first response and prepare yourselves for the fight that lies ahead.
GOAL Letter to Committee members
April 2007
Dear Legislator,
Recently, Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL) received a draft copy of a report from the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security entitled “Illegal Gun Trafficking and Youth Gun Violence: Creating Smart Strategies to Combat Gun Violence among Youth in the Commonwealth.” After reviewing the document, GOAL is greatly concerned that the recommendations put forth in this report are a continuance of the tragic mistakes made in 1998.
Chapter 180 of the Acts of 1998 created some of the most confusing and prosecutorial set of gun laws in the country. The vast majority of those new laws attacked lawful gun owners and did little, if anything to address violent crime. In fact, since its passage, the rate of gun related homicides per hundred thousand residents has increased by sixty four percent! (See GOAL’s report at
http://www.goal.org/news/truth.htm )
The bulk of the recommendations in this report ignore the lessons that should have been learned from previous attacks on lawful gun owners. We had hoped to have been presented with some innovative ways to combat the criminal element on our streets. Instead we have been presented with more attacks on lawful citizens. One recommendation actually suggests that, “… State Police be assigned the duty of making periodic checks of registered guns.” We cannot imagine a day when law enforcement would come to our homes to inventory our private property.
We offer this brief summary for your review. To make it easier to understand from GOAL’s perspective, we have separated the report’s recommendations into three categories.