Was the EOPS/CHSB working in our interest or just giving the AG trouble?
I think the issue EOPS may have taken with it, is that even though the AGs office has the authority to enforce these regulations, since the regulations are only binding against the dealers, the AG literally has no business in knowing who the buyers actually are.
There might be a lot of built in contempt, too. EG, I'm sure the AG's office ties up other MA agencies with a lot of meaningless crap- for example, are the AG's regs really relevant to public safety? No. EOPS likely views the AG's inquiries about such issues much in the way a police department dislikes the old biddy that keeps calling 911 5 times a day because her neighbors dog barks once in awhile- barely relevant to what they do, and highly
annoying.
To put it another way... if CHSB has a choice of priorities..... for example, tracking a sex offender, or helping a LEO track down a gun used in a crime, etc, vs dirt digging for the AG's nanny crap regs, what do you think they're gonna choose to spend time/manpower on?
For as much contempt as I have for most MA state government orgs in general, some are clearly less obnoxious than others are. Even if EOPS does/enforces things we disagree with, they're still less obnoxious than the AG's
office is.
There might also a sort of built in turf battle WRT handgun compliance- eg, to EOPS, the fact that the AG had to make his/her "own" regs instead of just using or enforcing the ones already existing (eg, EOPS handgun testing requirements) in general reeks of redundancy and obnoxiousness, and it's also a sort of a slap in the face to EOPS. Additionally, the AG's BS regs also draw a lot of fire to EOPS from the public... I bet a lot of people have called up EOPS saying "this handgun is on your damned list why can't I buy it in MA?!?!?!?!?" so they end up being the target of at least some misplaced blame. Given that, I'd wager there's a fair amount of informal resentment between EOPS and the AG.
-Mike