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I have what will be an unpopular suggestion regarding all this speculation on when the Shield will be available to MA gun owners . . . I suggest stop all the speculation and here is why I say this:
You need to understand the process of approval to understand that dates are unpredictable, even if you personally ask the president of the company making the gun.
- Mfr has to submit the gun to one of five state-approved test labs (there may now be one more or less labs in use).
- Test lab has to do their thing on their production schedule and submit the data back to mfr, who then submits to GCAB.
- GCAB has to put it on their agenda for their next meeting, discuss and RECOMMEND approval (or not) to the Secretary of Public Safety.
- Secretary of Public Safety has to accept/reject the recommendation of GCAB. There is NO schedule for this. I remember being told (a few years ago) by a member of GCAB that a "pile" of recommendations were just sitting on the Secretary of Public Safety's desk with no action taken for as much as 6 months!!
- Once approved, everyone has to wait until EOPS publishes a new list in the Boston Globe (they pay full rate for it) which is done 4x/year. [So if a gun is approved by Sec. of Pub Safety one day after a new list is published, the gun can't be sold for ~3 months until the next list comes out!]
- Then the mfr has to self-certify to the distributors/dealers that the gun also meets the AG Regs (the AG will NOT approve and nothing must be submitted to them). [I do understand (3rd hand info) that some mfrs send a copy of the letter to the AG, but that is not a requirement and the AG never responds unless she DISAPPROVES (which is usually after guns are in the channel, with threats of heavy fines)!]
So given the above scenario, you need a fortune tellers license and a Ouija board to figure out when a particular gun will be available to the MA residents and nothing else will be a good substitute. I suggest consulting One-Eyed Jack for further advice!
ETA: Especially for the new folks here that don't know how these things work, I hope the above provided them with some useful info so that they better understand the idiocy of how things really work in MA!
You need to understand the process of approval to understand that dates are unpredictable, even if you personally ask the president of the company making the gun.
- Mfr has to submit the gun to one of five state-approved test labs (there may now be one more or less labs in use).
- Test lab has to do their thing on their production schedule and submit the data back to mfr, who then submits to GCAB.
- GCAB has to put it on their agenda for their next meeting, discuss and RECOMMEND approval (or not) to the Secretary of Public Safety.
- Secretary of Public Safety has to accept/reject the recommendation of GCAB. There is NO schedule for this. I remember being told (a few years ago) by a member of GCAB that a "pile" of recommendations were just sitting on the Secretary of Public Safety's desk with no action taken for as much as 6 months!!
- Once approved, everyone has to wait until EOPS publishes a new list in the Boston Globe (they pay full rate for it) which is done 4x/year. [So if a gun is approved by Sec. of Pub Safety one day after a new list is published, the gun can't be sold for ~3 months until the next list comes out!]
- Then the mfr has to self-certify to the distributors/dealers that the gun also meets the AG Regs (the AG will NOT approve and nothing must be submitted to them). [I do understand (3rd hand info) that some mfrs send a copy of the letter to the AG, but that is not a requirement and the AG never responds unless she DISAPPROVES (which is usually after guns are in the channel, with threats of heavy fines)!]
So given the above scenario, you need a fortune tellers license and a Ouija board to figure out when a particular gun will be available to the MA residents and nothing else will be a good substitute. I suggest consulting One-Eyed Jack for further advice!
![Wink [wink] [wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif)
![Laugh [laugh] [laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif)
ETA: Especially for the new folks here that don't know how these things work, I hope the above provided them with some useful info so that they better understand the idiocy of how things really work in MA!
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