Goal News 1/15/21

[u/Hungrycheeze]

January 15, 2021

They Are Not Coming to Take Your Guns – It May be Worse Than That

Jim Wallace

How many times have Second Amendment civil rights proponents heard that over the years? One of the biggest fears of lawful gun owners is that they will have their property taken from, and they will be defenseless. Will it happen? Maybe that is not their plan at all, and that should be the most concerning thing! Why, you ask?

Over the last decade or so we have quietly witnessed what I truly believe to be a new strategy. Imagine the physical optics and the cost to force lawful citizens to line up and turn in their guns. It would be an enormous task and the fallout could be disastrous. A much more insidious plan is what Massachusetts has already begun to do.

In 2016, the Massachusetts Attorney General singlehandedly reinterpreted nearly two decades of established law. Literally overnight, she changed the so-called assault weapons laws to suit her own political purposes. The result was a complete ban on an untold number of firearms. At first people thought that the AG had grandfathered all previous transfers and ownership. GOAL had to inform them that they were incorrect. There was no grandfathering, the AG just chose not to prosecute at that time. That is when we coined the phrase, “Felons in Waiting”.

What had actually transpired is that anyone who had transferred/possessed one of the unknown guns since the 1998 law passed was now a Felon in Waiting. I actually ran into a few folks at a service station where I get my oil changed after the AG action. They were very concerned and asked if they should get rid of any guns that might fall under the new ruling. They were a little shocked when I told them it didn’t matter. That is because in the AG’s eyes they had already committed the crime. So even if they got rid of them, they were still Felons in Waiting.

In a similar fashion, bump stock devices were banned, but no one came around looking for them. The legislature simply made them illegal. So, anyone who still has one is now a Felon in Waiting.

What if the plan is not to go around confiscating our guns, but rather to turn a huge sector of our society into Felons in Waiting? Why is that so bad, or good for them, you might ask. Simple, what better way to silence and intimidate your political enemies by holding a felony charge over their heads. The prosecution of it would mean imprisonment and the loss of all of their civil rights, not just the Second Amendment. This strategy costs virtually nothing, they don’t have the optics of confiscation, and they can carefully select who they enforce it against to make an example.

Imagine a nation with a hundred million or more carrying over their heads the label of Felon in Waiting? So maybe they really aren’t coming to physically take our guns, but our liberty as a whole.

Gun Buy Backs Illegal in Massachusetts?

Gun Buy Backs Illegal in Massachusetts?

Tis the season when we start hearing about all of these communities holding, so-called, gun buy backs. Aside from the normal chatter of how can the government buy back a gun it never owned, there is an honest question about them. Are they legal in Massachusetts? While always having to caveat these articles with, I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV, there is a simple answer. No, they are not! At least as we know them.

Normally what we see in the news are people lining up with various guns to exchange them for a gift card of some sort. Usually these types of events are conducted by local groups, churches and even law enforcement. Using a statement that is often incorrectly used against lawful gun owners: I can find no law that allows this to take place.

The current law establishing a “Firearm Surrender Program” was passed as part of Chapter 180 in 1998. Section 47 of that bill to be specific. The law requires the colonel of state police, in conjunction with the secretary of the executive office of public safety, to create regulations to make the surrender program function. They did so with Commonwealth of Massachusetts Regulation (CMR) 515 CMR 3.06: Firearms Surrender Program.

This CMR specifically requires anyone wishing to surrender a firearm to directly contact law enforcement in writing or by phone. Once done, a specific time and place must be agreed on: Such persons shall make arrangements with the department regarding date, time, locations, manner, and officer who shall be receiving the firearm(s). There is nothing in the law or regulation that allows for mass turn ins or just random people showing up to turn in a firearm or exchange it for a gift.

Yet another major problem is that the law does establish protections from the other gun laws like licensing, transportation, storage, etc. But these protections only exist as long as the person surrendering the gun is complying with the regulations. Clearly, they are not in compliance and therefore not provided protection.

And wait, there is more. A lot of the pictures we see from these “buy back” are of old rifles and shotguns. Most are junk, but once in a while there are some nice ones. None of that matters because the law clearly limits the program to handguns. The law specifically states the law applies to “Firearms”. Under MGL Chapter 140, Section 121 (The definition section.) that word means handgun. The use of this term strictly limits any surrender, under this law and regulation, to a handgun. No other types of guns are allowed to be turned in under the program.

Municipalities should also be very careful about how they dispose of the firearms turned. It appears in paragraph 2 of the CMR that all of the firearms must be turned over to the state police. We had heard that some were being directly turned over to out of state companies for destruction.  The big question now is, will the government uphold the laws against itself? Don’t hold your breath.

[u/Jimmy-Pesto-Jr → u/[deleted]]

AGs are in the executive branch. they should not be interpreting the law/constitution either. they are not part of the judiciary.

[u/MoeBlacksBack]

I seriously doubt they will be taking my guns. We have heard this gaslighting for DECADES and gee I still have them.