DeLeo: Patrick's gun bill will get floor debate
http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x1350926578/DeLeo-Patricks-gun-bill-will-get-floor-debate
Posted Jun 14, 2010 @ 02:53 PM
BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to limit gun purchasers to one firearm per month and toughen penalties for gun offenses will see action on the House floor, Speaker Robert DeLeo said Monday, nearly a week after lawmakers appeared to have sent the bill to a legislative graveyard.
“It will be debated on the floor,” DeLeo told reporters after speaking at a State House event.
The speaker’s commitment is a boost for Patrick, who has blistered lawmakers in recent weeks for allegedly allowing his proposal to languish. The governor has juxtaposed the lack of action on his bill with news reports regarding recent gun violence in Boston.
Last week, the bill’s future dimmed when a botched vote by the Judiciary Committee resulted in a rejection, despite claims that six committee members had voted for it and only four against. The committee vote also showed that nearly half of the 17-member committee had voted to take no immediate position – known in legislative parlance as voting to reserve their rights.
Referring to the committee's disputed rejection of his bill, Gov. Deval Patrick said Monday that he’s working with DeLeo “to see if we can’t fix that.”
“It is an important initiative. It’s important to neighborhoods. You have only to pick up the paper, listen to the news and see the fear that’s in some of the neighborhoods because of the proliferation of guns,” he said.
Patrick added, “It’s very frustrating, but you know it’s going to take more than frustration to get it to move. I have been in touch with the speaker. He has assured me he’s going to do what he can to sort this out. The problem is, we’re getting close to the end of the session, and there’s a lot of business that needs to be finished before the end of the session. But we’ll keep at it.”
Under the governor’s bill, violators who purchase more than one gun per month would face a maximum fine of $1,000 or a 2.5-year jail sentence on a first offense, and a maximum $5,000 fine or five years in state prison on a subsequent offense.
The bill also permits the state agency that manages criminal records, as well as the Trial Court, to transmit to the attorney general any information necessary to conduct a background check on a person purchasing a firearm or gun license. The bill bars the possession of a machine gun except by instructors, collectors or law enforcement officers. Possession of a firearm, rifle or shotgun during the commission of a misdemeanor would be punished by imprisonment in state prison for up to 10 years, in a house of correction for up to 2.5 years or a $5,000 fine.
Judiciary Committee aides have declined to release the votes of individual members, saying it’s been a longstanding committee policy to withhold their names. Such information is commonly made available by other committees.
Through interviews with aides and lawmakers on the 17-member committee, the News Service has confirmed that Reps. Eugene O’Flaherty (D-Chelsea), Christopher Speranzo (D-Pittsfield), and Sens. Cynthia Creem, Jack Hart (D-South Boston) and Thomas McGee (D-Lynn) voted in support of the proposals.
Reps. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut), James Fagan (D-Taunton), Daniel Webster (R-Pembroke) and Lew Evangelidis (R-Holden) voted to reject the governor’s bill. Sens. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), Steven Baddour (D-Methuen) Gale Candaras (D-Wilbraham), and Reps. Danielle Gregoire (D-Marlborough), John Fernandes (D-Milford), James Dwyer (D-Woburn), Katherine Clark (D-Melrose) have indicated that they have no position on the proposal yet.
Marie St. Fleur, who resigned from the House Friday to take a position in administration of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, declined to respond to repeated requests for comment, but based on the process of elimination, likely cast the sixth vote in support of the governor’s measure.
Although six members indicated support for the proposal, the Judiciary Committee last week reported a 4-4 tie, denying the bill majority support. The committee’s House chairman, Rep. O’Flaherty, said two senators who favor the bill failed to cast their votes in time for a 4 p.m. Tuesday deadline, despite having had nearly five full days to weigh in.
The committee’s Senate chair, Sen. Creem, has maintained that the two senators – Hart and McGee – voted on time and should have been counted in the final tally.
Rep. Louis Kafka (D-Stoughton), chairman of the Steering and Policy Committee, which now has the bill, told the News Service he had just returned from a trip to Israel and needed to investigate the bill's history and speak to Rep. O'Flaherty.
DeLeo said the bill could be sent back to the Judiciary Committee and could move from that panel to the House Ways and Means Committee.
"Eventually we'll get it," DeLeo said.
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