SPRINGFIELD – A large crowd filled American International College’s Griswold Auditorium Friday, many disembarking from two Peter Pan buses donning white t-shirts bearing the logo of their employer, Smith & Wesson, the firearms manufacturer who has called Springfield home since 1852.
The purpose for the gun company’s sizeable presence, filling over half of the auditorium’s 500 seats, was to make a statement on the latest in a series of statewide hearings on proposed changes to the Commonwealth’s gun laws.
Seated on the Griswold stage were members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, including western Mass. Representatives Brian Ashe (D-Longmeadow) and Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick).
The hearing functioned similar to a town hall meeting, with speakers being given three minutes to voice their thoughts and opinions on both sides of the gun control debate.
Following remarks from Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, and Joint Committee Chairman Harold Naughton (D-Clinton), Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni spoke to the assembled crowd.
“It is a social issue. We are seeing a total lack of respect for life,” said Mastroianni of the city’s continuing struggle with violent crime.
He also sought to give the audience a reality check.
“People need to realize that, as they walk Springfield’s streets, they are being passed by people armed with illegal guns,” he said. “There is a sense of despair in some high crime neighborhoods. It is almost unusual to not have a gun in your car.”
Mastroianni, who has served as the DA for Hampden County since 2010, stated that he believes the solution lies not behind prison bars, but in the shops and stores where weapons are bought and sold, and that there should be more control over guns purchased in other states.
According to a recent study by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group co-founded by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Massachusetts has the third highest percentage in the United States of out-of-state guns found at crime scenes, which the Commonwealth claims is mostly due to the comparatively lenient gun laws in the bordering states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
The crowd also got to hear from James Debney, president and chief executive officer of Smith & Wesson, who called for increased focus on mental health, school safety, and gun licensing, as well as increased submissions to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Massachusetts currently ranks 49th in the country, according to Debney.
“(Smith & Wesson) was ranked as the number one company in Massachusetts in the Boston Globe’s Top 100 this year,” Debney stated proudly, before going on to say that his company has been located in Springfield for 161 years, has created over 225 new jobs during the past two years, and spent $63 million in the Commonwealth last year, reinforcing Sarno’s compliment earlier that morning, when he referred to the gun manufacturer as a “responsible employer” and a “good corporate citizen.”
“Massachusetts is already one of the most restrictive states (for gun ownership) in the country,” said Debney, asking the committee not to further infringe on the second ammendment rights of citizens.
Debney’s critique is supported by not only Massachusetts’ low ranking in NICS submissions but the Commonwealth also ranks as the fourth worst place in the country to own firearms according to a March list composed by Guns & Ammo Magazine.
According to the list, which placed only New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia behind Massachusetts, only 12.6 percent of Bay Staters legally own firearms, the third lowest percentage in all 50 states.
Despite the relatively low ownership of guns in the Bay State, the Centers for Disease Control recorded 122 firearms-related murders in Massachusetts in 2011, a 53 percent increase from 1998.
Putting that in perspective, firearms-related murders increased only three percent nationally during that same timeframe.
The push to update the state’s already strict gun control laws was sparked by the shooting rampage at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School. This call for tougher gun laws is troubling to Boldyga, who spoke briefly with Debney from the stage following his comments.
“The state needs to to enforce it’s laws,” said Boldyga to a cheering auditorium. “I have a license to carry. I go down to the Police Department and pay my $100 every year. Criminals aren’t spending that money.”
Boldyga went on to criticize the state’s judicial system, saying that criminals who are charged with gun-related crimes shouldn’t be treated so kindly.
“We need mandatory sentencing,” he said. “We need judges to enforce the laws we have.”
Boldyga also touched upon one of the biggest factors in why gun violence occurs to begin with – poverty.
“I grew up poor, working class,” the Lenox native said. “I decided I wanted to go to college to get out of that. People have to want to help themselves.”
He went on to summarize that, if children cannot be convinced to avoid crime, gun violence will remain a problem in Massachusetts.
Representative Don Humason (R-Westfield) echoed Boldyga’s sentiments, making an appearance almost on cue after a member of the audience, Ray Frappier of Westfield, spoke to the committee and held up a copy of The Westfield News with Humason’s picture on it as validity of Frappier’s Whip City credentials.
Humason joined the committee on stage and spoke briefly of his relationship with guns, how he received his first rifle as a teen, and how the state needs to refrain from continuing to regulate it’s weapon manufacturers.
“Don’t harm law-abiding hobbyists. Don’t harm Smith and Wesson or Savage Arms (in Westfield),” he said.
“I’ve been a gun owner for 30 years, in a city (Westfield) that has more gun owners than almost any other in the state,” Humason said after he hearing.
When asked of the mood in the auditorium Friday, both were pleased.
“It was respectful. People are tired of violence,” Humason said. “Nobody wants crime, nobody wants to fear for their lives.”
“It was a good crowd, but there was some confusion,” said Boldyga. “People are asking about something like pepper spray and why you need an FID card for that. Well, look at your elected officials. Judges are letting criminals with multiple gun charges go on $5,000 bail. Meanwhile, an everyday citizen needs an FID card for a can of pepper spray. You elect these people, and they make the laws.”
Boldyga also touched on the tragic death of Amy Lord, the 24-year old Wilbraham woman who was found stabbed to death in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood last week, as evidence that the Commonwealth’s judicial system is simply not doing it’s job.
“The man who is charged with her murder has been arrested over 40 times,” Boldyga said. “We heard from a former policeman today who said that, while he has taken twelve illegal guns off the street, none of the criminals who used those guns are behind bars today. Enough is enough.”
Regarding measures the state can take rather than imposing more laws on gun owners, Humason shifted from his usual jovial self to an all-business tone, echoing a statement he made during the afternoon’s session at AIC.
“No one mourns more when someone is killed with a gun than the law-abiding gun owner,” he said. “We need to punish the criminal, not the victim.”
