Massachusetts Senate Votes for Anti-Gun Legislation In Complete Defiance of Supreme Court
On February 1, 2024, the Massachusetts State Senate voted in favor of a major gun control package that seeks to target homemade guns, implement prohibitions on the carry of firearms in government administrative buildings, grants firearm licensing authorities access to several parts of an applicant’s mental health hospitalization history, and broadens the list of individuals who can petition the court to confiscate an individual’s firearms if they are considered to be dangerous.
The bill was passed on a 37-3 vote.
“Although proud that Massachusetts has one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the nation, the members of this body are concerned by every incident of gun violence, every firearm suicide, and every accidental gun injury that occurs in the commonwealth,” declared Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem, the member of the Senate who sponsored this bill.
On top of that, this bill would codify the Massachusetts state government’s prohibition on so-called “assault weapons”, ban devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic weapons, guarantee gun dealers are inspected on a yearly basis, and let health care professionals petition a court to temporarily confiscate an individual’s firearms if they are considered to be dangerous.
In blue states, abiding by constitutional principles is largely an afterthought in contemporary USA. Massachusetts, as evidenced by its 47th place ranking for Guns & Ammo magazine’s best states for gun owners rankings, is one of the most anti-gun jurisdictions. So, any respect for constitutional norms goes out the window here.
At this point, only litigation can reverse certain gun grabs in Massachusetts. Outside of that, gun owners in the state will have to move to red states in order to fully exercise their gun rights in this increasingly polarized USA.
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