DONALD HUMASON JR.
BOSTON – The Senate Republican caucus and several Senate Democrats met with Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts, to discuss amendments to a gun safety bill which will be up for debate today.
While the House’s version of the bill passed last week on a 112-38 vote, and both bills require schools to have access to two-way communication devices with police and fire departments and mandate that Massachusetts joins the National Instant Background Check System, Sen. Don Humason, Jr. (R-Westfield) said that the sticking point between the House and Senate is the power given to the local authorities in granting licenses to carry firearm identification cards.
“It was always the situation in Massachusetts where the police chief – the licensing authority – had to issue FIDs but didn’t have to issue licenses to carry,” he said. “The House bill extended the discretion of the chiefs to not offer an FID card.”
Humason referred to the bill as a “poison pill” for law-abiding gun owners.
“The chiefs who are the issuing authorities already have so much control and it isn’t good for us, the law-abiding gun owner,” he said. “Nobody who’s going to commit a crime with a gun is going to go sit down in front of their chief, get fingerprinted, get a background check and sit through a class. They’re to go buy a gun in Springfield and go commit a crime. It is further intrusion into the lives of people who aren’t criminal.”
Humason and his colleagues believe that changing the language of the bill Thursday could lead to the creation of legislation that the Senate’s pro-gun wing can live with.
“Jim said to our caucus that GOAL has a problem right now with a perception that they rolled over in the House and agreed to bill that wasn’t good for law-abiding gun owners, and that’s not the case,” Humason said. “The four of us in the Republican caucus said that we’re not going to vote for a bill Thursday if it’s just a better bill then what came out of the House. We’re only going to vote for it if it’s a good bill for the law-abiding, if it doesn’t intrude upon the second amendment rights of our constituents.”
“We’re not going to vote for something that’s just a little bit better than what the House passed. We don’t think it’s good enough and our constituents are telling us it isn’t good enough,” he said. “Jim understood that and said ‘if you can make this a good bill, we want you to make it a good bill for all of us.'”
The four Senate Republicans have been joined by several senators on the other side of the aisle, including Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) and James Timilty (D-Walpole).
“We are not alone. It’s not a Republican/Democrat issue,” said Humason.
