View a new video with Mass. gun owners championing the Governor’s one-gun-a-month policy.
See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
It’s a groundbreaking, important step toward moving the debate beyond the extreme, polarizing rhetoric that has dominated it, and kept it stuck, for years. It’s time to pass meaningful anti-crime legislation that represents the reasonable, practical views of mainstream Mass. voters. The Governor’s crime bill is it.
For Immediate Release
July 15, 2010
Gun owners support Governor Patrick’s crime bill
One-gun-a-month policy reasonable, respects 2nd Amendment
(Boston) Massachusetts gun owners threw their support behind Governor Patrick’s crime bill in a new video making the rounds on the Internet. The gun owners say the Governor’s proposal to limit gun sales to one-gun-per-month is reasonable and does not conflict with their 2nd Amendment rights. The video was released today by Citizens for Safety, a statewide public safety coalition, as the State Legislature prepares to take up Governor Patrick’s Act to Reduce Firearm Violence, H. 4102.
See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
“As someone who believes in the 2nd Amendment, one-gun-a-month seems fair and reasonable by me,” says Jim Mathes, an avid hunter who lives in New Bedford. “If it can help save one life, it’s an easy decision.”
“Keeping guns out of the hands of young people and criminals doesn’t violate my rights as a law-abiding citizen to keep and bear arms,” says Springfield resident and licensed gun owner Chelan Brown, who owns handguns and obtained a Class A license for personal protection.
“Reasonable people can come together to support policies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals without sacrificing Constitutional rights,” said Citizens for Safety’s executive director, Nancy Robinson. “It’s time to get beyond the extreme rhetoric and political posturing and pass meaningful anti-crime legislation supported by mainstream Massachusetts residents, gun owners and non-gun owners alike.”
The video includes footage of Chelan Brown practicing with her Smith and Wesson at a firing range. Jim Mathes speaks in front of a trophy buck he had mounted. The video concludes by asking viewers to call state lawmakers to support H. 4102. The bill is currently before the House Ways and Means Committee.
H.4102 seeks to shrink the supply of guns to straw purchasers who buy guns for people with criminal records, which, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), is the most common way guns are diverted to the criminal market. The Governor’s bill would also strengthen law enforcement’s ability to track crime guns by expanding the state’s database of firearm sales, and toughen penalties for those caught with illegal guns.
The ATF National Tracing Center estimates that between 35%-39% of crime guns seized in Massachusetts originate within the state.
###
Citizens for Safety is a community coalition working to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and youth
while supporting the rights of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms.
