Weak on crime? Here’s what cops and criminologists say, courtesy of the Boston Globe:
Some crime specialists and prosecutors say that parts of the league’s agenda would undercut crime fighting.
Paul Birks — vice president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers which has endorsed Democrat Deval Patrick — said his Boston-based, nationwide union respects the right of gun ownership, but said there are “common-sense limits.”
“Sportsmen don’t hunt game with assault rifles that spray-fire armor-piercing bullets,” Birks said. “It’s that simple. I don’t know how any law enforcement officer could support a candidate who, like Kerry Healey, accepts the endorsement of a gun group that doesn’t recognize the need for some common-sense limits.”
A criminologist said the group’s agenda would deny law enforcement the tools to battle crime and put too many dangerous guns on the street.
“She is clearly not supportive of law-and-order measures that would assist law enforcement in its crime-fighting efforts,” Jack Levin, a Northeastern University professor of criminology and director of the school’s Brudnick Center on Conflict and Violence, said after reviewing GOAL’s questionnaire.
The Republican nominee for governor refused a Globe request for her answers to the questions by the Gun Owners Action League. What are you hiding, Kerry Muffy Healey?
The same article, trying to balance Healey’s shortcomings notes:
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Of course, nowhere do they mention that her hand-picked running mate used to be the head of the state police. How many rank-and-file state troopers want to support a candidate who opposes gun licensing and restrictions on armor-piercing bullets?
That’s okay, it lets us say Kerry Healey was endorsed by SPAM đŸ™‚
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(Really, truly, that’s the acronym they use! look at their web site)
OUTRAGE!
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Call your favorite talk radio shows and show your outrage! Tell them you want to know Kerry Muffy Healey’s answers to the Gun Owners Action League survey! Write letters! 700 fewer cops and more assault weapons on the streets? Is that the real Kerry Healey strategy for crime?
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Was Kerry Healey endorsed by the Villains Fiends and Scoundrels Union? Did Kerry Healey study criminology with Boris Badanov and Natasha Fatale?
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Muffy, show us your answers!
This might be my favorite article of the entire campaign. I’m not sure whether the best part is Paul Birks’ comments, or that we get to find out what a real criminologist does, or the caption under Healey’s picture in the hardcopy saying she wouldn’t divulge her answers. Kind of surprisingly, GOAL’s home page has a link to the article.
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Healey’s press aide (does she EVER speak for herself?) “insisted that she supports the state’s current gun-control laws”. Sounds like another flipflop, although I’d be happy to let the gun people decide that.
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With the GOP’s YOYO philosophy.
Healey is beholden to the gun nuts and the NRA.
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She received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association. In fact,they gave her an ‘A-‘, compared to a ‘D’ for Deval.
Not one of Healey’s 50 “ideas” mentions gun control. In fact, the word “gun” doesn’t appear once in her entire platform!
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5 out of every 6 guns recovered from crimes in Massachusetts were sold illegally, and yet she has no plan to combat illegal gun tracking.
GOAL is mainly hunters. They SUPPORT many gun regulations.
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Reps. Guyer, David Sullivan, Rodrigues, Quinn, Strauss, Canessa, Kulik, donelan. Wagner, Kocot, Hall, Walrath, LeDuc, Nangle, Miceli, Greene, Eldridge, Galvin, Vallee, Nyman, Canavan, Flanagan, Naughton, Fresolo, and Binenda ALL have the same ranking as the Lt. Governor – in some cases, over GOP challangers!
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When do your attakcs on THEM as NRA robots begin?
Can you give us a rundown of where NRA and GOAL differ on gun-related (or other) policy issues? Also, since Healey hasn’t released her questionnaire, why doesn’t GOAL just publish it? I don’t see any promise on the blank form that they won’t release the answers, and really, what are they afraid of?
Or so. Here is the questionnaire that all those people got 95% on. Although both Healey and GOAL refused to release Healey’s specific answers, I think we can get a good idea from this what specific positions she takes, irrespective of whether they agree with the NRA’s.
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If one of my elected officials were on PP’s list, I would definitely question them.
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“Gun nuts.” Real nice. The lack of respect you show to your neighbors.
i hope you are on the conservative blogs ‘teaching’ them on how awful it is to be calling people godless elitist feminazis , and all that rubbish.
…and I have no problem with criticizing my own side when it is warranted.
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Or, like Deval, when I ‘feel’ an insult has been offered. :>)
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And you have criticized Bush bashing, drinkng allegations, etc., etc., when?
ahhh, you know me so well, you assume I havent. thanks for pigeon holing me. i guess us liberals are all the same, huh?
Choose to hunt on a thin strip of public land that’s covered with dog walkers and parents out with their kids? I’d much rather have someone call me a name than be holding and shooting a gun a few feet away from me, thanks.
I’m not sure when I said the NRA and GOAL were the same. Oh, that’s right, I didn’t. I was merely pointing to more evidence that she is soft on gun control.
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As for the State Reps you point to, I believe those rankings are based on a sparse legislative record with few gun votes. Healey’s, on the other hand, is based on specific answers to a candidate survey. She should release her NRA survey, too, so we can all see exactly what kind of gun control she supports.
As the NRA website explains, for non-incumbents, they take the voting record into account, in addition to the questionnaire.
at least on Safari — it can’t find MassBackwards or whatever they call it.
I am one of those “gun nuts” and for many years voted for candidates that supported gun rights. In the last 10 years I have really softened my stance and think pulling the licenses of bad dealers and getting control over interstate gun traffic are sane law enforcment approaches. Healeys broad tough on crime dogma is really the same sort of behavior which used to scare me with gun control candidates. Big actions with no real thought behind it. With no actual votes on anything how can she score so well with GOAL? It’s as empty as the no tax pledge.