rogersmithiii
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I read about this when I was 5. Henny Penny, Foxie loxie, and the rest.Littleton official tells angry residents 80-plus gun dealers in mill have complied with laws - The Boston Globe
The meeting followed a Globe report on Sept. 10 that the Mill houses the largest cluster of federally licensed firearms dealers in the nation and that many were openly defying Attorney General Maura Healey’s directives on the assault weapons ban.www.bostonglobe.com
LITTLETON - The top town elected official, Matthew Nordhaus, insisted at a Wednesday meeting that a cluster of 80-plus gun dealers operating out of an industrial mill that were the subject of a Globe story have not been found to have committed any illegal activity — but he would not say if they had violated the attorney general’s controversial directives on the assault weapons ban.
Nordhaus, the Select Board chair, said the dealers “have met all requirements stipulated by the town,” and that the Littleton Police Department “has received no complaints of illegal, in-state sales by these dealers, nor has illegal activity been found during required inspections.”
The Globe reported on Sept. 10 that the Mill houses the largest cluster of federally licensed firearms dealers in the nation and that many were openly defying Attorney General Maura Healey’s directives on the assault weapons ban.
In 2016, Healey issued a controversial enforcement notice outlining how she would enforce the ban, threatening to bring charges against dealers who sold semiautomatic weapons with modifications meant to ensure that they didn’t meet the legal definition of a banned “assault weapon.” Such modifications had been an accepted practice in the trade for nearly two decades.
Healey has also said she would consider the sale of upper and lower receivers for these weapons — the parts of the gun that house the main operating mechanisms — the same as selling a complete assault weapon, even though the state does not regulate the sale of gun parts.
But many in the gun community have insisted that her directives are not backed by state law, and are therefore unenforceable.
The Select Board of the 10,000-person town scheduled the Wednesday night meeting after an outpouring of concern from residents over the Globe’s story.
Roughly 70 people attended the meeting at the public library. . Nearly everyone who spoke was adamantly against the businesses — with one woman saying she stopped sending her sons to the music school inside the building, and another suggesting that the police chief be fired for issuing permits to so many gun stores.
But several residents expressed frustration that they hadn’t received any clarity on whether the vendors had actually violated the state’s assault weapons ban.
“I don’t know what Maura Healy’s interpretation of the law is, versus what the actual interpretation of the law is,” resident Julie Seitter said. “Is this breaking the law, or is Maura Healey incorrect from her assumption about the loopholes?”
Nordhaus declined to answer the question. When asked by the Globe after the meeting, he said, “I’m not going to say they haven’t done anything illegal. It’s a gray area.”
Numerous gun store owners from the Mill attended, but most stood quietly near the back. Only one spoke, William Parker of Battle Road Firearms. He defended the town officials and the police chief, saying “the businesses are permitted by right … There’s nothing that the town can do to stop it unless you change the law.”
He ended his statement by addressing pleas from the many parents at the meeting who said they didn’t want so many gun dealers near where they send their children to day care and school. “For anybody that’s very worried about the safety of their children in that building, everybody in there is permitted, licensed, background-checked a hundred ways from Sunday. So there are really a lot of very good people there,” Parker said.
Immediately prior to the meeting, the Select Board held a closed executive session to discuss purchasing the 100,000-square-foot mill building, which was put on the market after the longtime owner died in April.
Nordhaus declined to go into details of the discussion during the open meeting, but told residents the purchase “is something we could do if the town wills it.”
Healey, now the Democratic nominee and front-runner in the governor’s race, has continued to decline to comment on the Globe’s findings.
On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker was asked about the Globe’s findings on WGBH. Baker responded, “It certainly seems to me like somebody should be talking to” to the dealers, but made clear that it was Healey’s responsibility to pursue the matter.
“Her rules, her regs,” Baker said. “The enforcement authority will belong to her. We would be in a position, certainly, to support the attorney general on this.”
The mainstream press has absolutely no credibility. They are Pravda to the socialist Democrats.