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You wrote you were willing to accept restrictions? Not in a million years.
I was told flat out, in no uncertain terms, if you are not willing to accept restrictions, you will not get your license.
"No problem, let me just notify my lawyer."
So, from my limited understanding of the law, it's a "may issue" license, so they can do whatever they want and they don't have to give me anything. I looked up the relevant court cases from comm2a et al and it appears that if I get denied (from what I was told a certainty) I'd be screwed for the future as well, unless I actually went to court. So, since I want to own a pistol and don't want the possibility of being ineligible for life, I will accept restrictions and live my life.
Can't say as I blame you unless you had a plan and legal counsel lined up ready to fight it. If we all support Comm2A maybe the day will come when this abuse of the 2nd Amendment will go away.
"No problem, let me just notify my lawyer."
Which is why they made him make that statement. They mistakenly believe they can't get sued. In reality, they can't get sued for the restrictions because he made that declaration but they would then just get sued for the denial if he hadn't decided to make the denial.
- Sign a copy of the "Acknowledgment of the limits on the use of deadly force" (Walpole, Watertown, Bolton, Easton, Arlington)
I am also sourcing things from this thread
Chelsea requires anyone not living alone to have everyone in their household complete and sign an "Affidavit of Co-Habitation"
WTF??
Had to do it in Weymouth.
Live fire? When did they start that? My first license was from weymouth and the only nonsense they had was reference letters and a dickbag as licensing officer.
I can't answer your question directly but can tell you that LE is well aware that some instructors are cutting corners and aren't happy with that, so they are throwing these other requirements into their mix as "chief's discretion" and proof of "suitability".
I think I may have misunderstood. Does he mean a live fire class as your BFS class? I was thinking like the moon island nonsense as live fire. If its a live fire class it may have been a requirement before as mine had live fire and I wouldn't have noticed that if they didn't mention it.
He meant a live fire class.
An example of why some chiefs require this:
- My Hunter Ed class was poorly taught. NOBODY touched a gun in that class. An instructor held up each of the different types of guns in the darkest corner of that room and all 42 attendees could do was take a long distance look at it from their seats. ~50% of that class was going to use the Hunter Ed certificate to get their LTCs. MA gun law was very sparse in that class as well and the EPO spewed lots of wrong info (one item in particular could result in a felony conviction) to those present.
I know that some chiefs won't accept a Hunter Ed certificate as proof of a BFS course, even though it is specifically called out in the statutes.
I witnessed another Hunter Ed course given at BR&P a few years ago, their chief instructor is a member on NES (but not a member of BR&P) and did an awesome job, had students handling all the different gun types, etc. Quality matters!!
While I don't agree with adding any extra stuff as requirements especially if its right in the law that it covers you, I can at least understand why they would want that. It seemed strange that all of a sudden weymouth would start requiring a moon island style test when they have never had that before.
No, the only 2 places in MA that require Moon Island testing are Boston and Brookline.
Others that go beyond the law merely require proof that you did live fire in your class.
I think I may have misunderstood. Does he mean a live fire class as your BFS class? I was thinking like the moon island nonsense as live fire. If its a live fire class it may have been a requirement before as mine had live fire and I wouldn't have noticed that if they didn't mention it.