Prevent More Anti-Gun Laws in MA

There are several anti-gun bills in the works in Massachusetts. These bills seem to be very misguided attempts at keeping people safe, but rather, are attempts at keeping guns out of the hands of people who can legally purchase them. Massachusetts already has some of the most strict as well as convoluted gun laws in the country, yet they have surprisingly high rates of violent crime occurring. Just this morning in the Boston Herald, and article was published with some alarming statistics:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20101116report_massachusetts_most_violent_state_in_northeast/srvc=home&position=recent

Despite the fact that the assault weapon ban is still in effect in Massachusetts, despite being lifted almost everywhere else in the country, violent crime is still occurring. Despite having numerous regulations concerning what types of firearms Massachusetts residents can buy, violent crime is still occurring. Massachusetts residents cannot purchase new high capacity magazines, but violent crime is still occurring. These laws don't protect people- they only give criminals an advantage. People who are legally purchasing firearms are not the problem. For some reason, these laws only punish lawfully-abiding citizens and do nothing to stop criminals. A criminal with bad intentions could simply purchase any illegal guns or magazines in another state. This makes the current laws even more laughable.

For example, in H.665 (H.665 An Act Relative to Firearms in the Commonwealth), citizens who lawfully posses firearms would have to purchase insurance for them. How does this affect criminals? It simply doesn't. This bill goes on to talk about how devices that would restrict firearms to be used only by their owners should be mandatory. How does this stop a criminal who illegally purchases a firearm? It doesn't. This bill is simply ill-contrived and does nothing other than giving ignorant people a false sense of security. I challenge legislators to start proposing bills that end violence, not ones that simply boost their popularity by exploiting the fear, uncertainty and doubts of citizens. This is tantamount to requiring SUV drivers to purchase addition insurance since their vehicles could be used as weapons to run down mass groups of people.

There are several other bills which propose improbable, expensive and most importantly, ineffective technologies which do nothing but keep guns out of the hands of citizens who can legally own them.

H1561 An Act to improve the ballistic database through microstamping ammunition.
H1562 An Act to Restrict the Issuance of Licenses to Carry Firearms

Laws should be put in place to protect people. The current gun laws in Massachusetts are clearly not doing that today, nor will this proposed legislation. The current laws prevent law-abiding citizens from buying various models of handguns, many of which are for sale in 49 other states. These laws are in place to extort gun manufacturers into paying fees for the right to sell their guns in Massachusetts as well as to keep other manufacturers out of the marketplace altogether. A Springfield XD handgun has more safety features than most models available in Massachusetts but it is not legal for a gun dealer to sell them in this state. The current laws have nothing to do with safety, but they are an underhanded way to keep people from legally purchasing guns.

Please consider signing this petition if you would like to let your legislators know you don't approve of these bills and would like to see -real- reform take place.