SENATOR DON HUMASON
BOSTON – An organization representing Massachusetts gun owners is criticizing a new report by a task force that examined state gun laws, saying most of the panel’s recommendations would put more burdens on law-abiding citizens.
The Gun Owners Action League, or GOAL, released a critique Tuesday of the report issued by the task force created by House Speaker Robert DeLeo after the school massacre in Newtown, Conn.
State Sen. Donald F. Humason (R-Westfield) said he agreed with the GOAL assessment.
“The task force missed some opportunities,” Humason said. “As GOAL put it, the task force lacks the expertise needed.”
GOAL director Jim Wallace says the report that seeks a more uniform approach to firearms licensing and training fails to recognize that the state’s existing laws have not prevented an increase in gun violence since 1998.
“The impact is on law-abiding citizens,” said Humason, who has criticized the push for stricter gun laws in the past. “In the case of Newtown, anybody who would kill his own mother doesn’t care what the law says.”
DeLeo plans to use the panel’s recommendations as a basis for new gun control legislation.
Wallace’s group has already filed a bill that respects the rights of lawful gun owners.
Humason said the House Safety Committee is likely to draft legislation. He said it could be based on the task force report, but he hopes it also takes into consideration the public hearings held throughout the state last year on the topic.
“I’m hoping they will draft a reasonable bill and focus more on keeping guns out of the hands of the criminally inclined,” he said, adding that there hasn’t been much talk about the report or forthcoming bill in the Senate.
Humason said members of GOAL have a better understanding of gun laws than most legislators and adding more restrictions doesn’t keep the average resident more safe.
“Fewer people in Massachusetts own guns legally right now than any other time in the past,” he said. “More gun laws isn’t making the world a better, safer place for us, it’s making a better, safer world for criminals who know that it’s not likely that the next home they break into will have a gun owner protecting it.”
Humason said there must be a new approach.
“I don’t want people hurting other people with firearms,” Humason said. “I don’t want people hurting other people with crowbars or baseball bats or knives, either. Rather than the tool used, I want to look at the behavior and what leads to that. Making more laws for law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer.”
