SPRINGFIELD – Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) took questions yesterday about new gun control legislation proposed this week, while at Springfield Technical Community College to tout new economic development legislation.
The bill, praised by two Democratic Gubernatorial candidates – Attorney General Martha Coakley and Treasurer Steve Grossman – has also drawn considerable heat from legislators on both sides of the aisle, who say some of the provisions in it curb the rights of lawful gun owners.
“It addresses mental health, but does nothing to keep guns off the street,” said Representative Nick Boldyga (R-Southwick) Wednesday. Boldyga also expressed concern over what he perceived as a lack of evidence to warrant further regulation.
Boldyga, the ranking Republican on the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, said that he was concerned with the bill’s tightening of a regulation banning Bay Staters who’ve been convicted of non-violent misdemeanors from seeking a license to purchase firearms.
“It was if you’ve been arrested and convicted of a misdemeanor for up to two years, you could lose your license forever. Now it’s one year,” he said of the proposed bill. “You can get an OUI and still be able to vote, but vandalize a library book and you’ll never be able to buy a gun.”
Westfield Representative John Velis is among a handful of Democrats who also feel the bill would further hinder law-abiding gun owners in Massachusetts, already home to some of the nation’s most stringent gun laws.
“Individual police chiefs have so much authority and discretion whether or not to issue someone a firearm,” he said Wednesday of what are being referred to as ‘suitability standards.’ “There is no consistency, no uniformity, so you have police chiefs just using whatever criteria they want. I have big problems with that.”
DeLeo said yesterday that the new legislation was spurred by violent shootings which have recently been perpetrated nationwide and in the Commonwealth.
“We used to talk of these killings as being annual, every six months or so. Seems to me like they’re occurring every month, whether it’s in Newtown, California, movie theaters or college campuses,” he said before referencing a shooting this week in Springfield. “I have found that that is emblematic of what’s occurring in a lot of large urban areas of the state – I think there were three shooting deaths in Boston in May alone.”
Ironically, in addition to it’s already robust gun control laws, Massachusetts is also home to several large firearm manufacturers, namely Smith & Wesson in Springfield and Westfield’s own Savage Arms, but DeLeo doesn’t see his proposed bill impacting these companies negatively.
“I don’t think the legislation as we’ve provided it will have any affect on the gun industry in this part of the state,” he said. “I know the folks at Smith & Wesson had some people at the State House when we spoke about it. I don’t think there are any problems with Smith & Wesson in terms of problems they see with the legislation.”
DeLeo acknowledged the Bay State’s existing gun legislation and said that the commission he appointed to evaluate those laws believes the Commonwealth can do better.
“With the recommendation that they made and put into writing in our legislation, it will hopefully make things better in terms of trying to keep guns off the street,” DeLeo said, citing the ‘gun show loophole’ referenced by Coakley, which she said allows people to buy a gun without undergoing necessary checks. “Sometimes theres a problem in terms of where that gun is going to end up, in whose hands it is going to end up in.”
DeLeo touched upon provisions in the legislation which will align Massachusetts with federal mental health and criminal registries and will protect schoolchildren in the event of an armed intruder. He agreed with Boldyga that certain aspects of the bill, namely prior misdemeanor convictions, need to be addressed.
“I think we have to take a look at that. I think there may be some misdemeanors that are one year – such as those of a violent nature – that may warrant the loss of guns,” he said. “But I think in reviewing many of the others, I don’t feel like they would warrant the loss of a gun permit.”
