Compromise Massachusetts gun bill heads to Legislature with tentative agreement on both sides

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/07/compromise_massachusetts_gun_b.html

Compromise Massachusetts gun bill heads to Legislature with tentative agreement on both sides
Shira Schoenberg | [e-mail] By Shira Schoenberg | [e-mail]
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on July 31, 2014 at 12:58 PM, updated July 31, 2014 at 2:18 PM

Update, 1:50 p.m.: The Gun Owners' Action League officially came out in support of the bill on Thursday afternoon.

BOSTON — House and Senate negotiators may have done the near-impossible on a bill reforming Massachusetts' gun laws: reached a compromise that pleases both advocates of gun rights and of gun control.

The main sticking point as the committee of conference was negotiating the bill, H. 4376 (read the full text of the bill at the end of this article), was whether to give local police chiefs discretion on whether to issue firearms identification cards, which are required to buy a shotgun or rifle....

...House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, in the gun bill he proposed, would have given police chiefs the same discretion for a shotgun license as for a handgun license. Pro-gun advocates objected, saying the provision gave too much power to local police chiefs to deny a gun license for no reason. The Senate stripped that provision from their bill, angering gun control advocates.

Late Wednesday night, a committee of conference released its final bill. The bill says that if a person meets the qualifications for a firearms identification card, but a police chief thinks the person is unsuitable for a license, the police chief has 90 days to petition the District Court, and a judge must sign off on the designation. The compromise essentially gives the police chiefs discretion, but shifts the burden of proof by requiring the police chiefs to prove a person is unsuitable.

And that will disappear once the first lawsuit is lost. As one commenter put it:

"The bill says that if a person meets the qualifications for a firearms identification card, but a police chief thinks the person is unsuitable for a license..."

USSC + Heller and Mcdonald = Whats the point? That will come crashing down as soon as the first lawsuit flies. Just a waste of taxpayers money trying to defend it. Do these people even take a millisecond to think about the bigger picture?

Why do you think the Gun Owners' Action League endorsed it? They know the denial
process won't withstand a challenge in Federal court.

Anyway, this bill has a lot of good points, including opening up the background check
system to private sellers and strengthening reporting requirements, and needs to become law.

Thankfully the Democratic Senate leadership told the prohibitionists/authority lovers
to sit down and STFU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172149363

Attempt to broaden "may-issue" gets it in the slats in Massachusetts

[Nuclear Unicorn]

1. Good win on private sales BGC

[Eleanors38]

2. This bill seems like a good one.

[clffrdjk]

3. I can't wait to see the check they will have to write

90 days before the police even has to make a desision. That is unacceptable, how about a 90 day wait time on political protest, voting, or hell just posting a news story to your blog.

[Eleanors38]

4. I don't like that provision either, and I don't think

it will stand scrutiny, hence my positive view of the legislation.