Author: State House, Boston: Dear Mr. DeMacedo; Hello, I will try to be as concise as possible concerning the problem herein. I am a basic firearms instructor registered with the state. As such, I have had the opportunity to hear many varied true stories that concern many an honest citizens quest to gain his or her license to carry concealed in this state. I will relay to you the following examples that highlight a few of the road blocks that are being reported to me from people that have taken my safety class, as well as others.
These examples are not all inclusive. 1. Some are told they need to prove that they have cause to fear for their safety before they will be given an application, and to write a letter to the chief outlining their specific concern. 2. There are those told they must first prove they are members of a gun club before they may apply for any permit for firearms. 3. There are restrictions such as, ‘for target and hunting only’ imposed on people that want a carry permit for personal protection,with no good reason why they can not. 4. There are towns that will not issue carry permits to anyone, including retired police officers. 5. There are towns that tell people they will not issue a class ‘A’ permit to anyone who has not had one before, instead they will issue a class ‘B’ permit for target and hunting only, but, if in six months you have not been in trouble with the law you may come back for reconsideration for the class ‘A’ permit, but this will cost another $100, (never mind that these people have neverbeen in trouble with the law in their lives), this is a scam to fleece people twice by the state. I hope this is not done by design as a ‘back door tax’ to raise additional money for the state? This practice should be investigated and stopped. 7. One town will not give out class ‘A’ permits because the chief claims that two people in the past had firearm related accidents so he no longer gives them out, (how capricious) this is blanket paranoia. Under this police chiefs theory, it should follow that because there have been car accidents in the past no one should be given a drivers license I suppose. 8. There are towns that want an applicant to have a physical exam and a mental evaluation to make sure they are physically and mentally able to handle a gun. Does this mean that someone with a physical handicap need not apply? That sir is discrimination.
Many, but not all of these towns, require any number of letters of reference concerning the applicants character, when in reality the police need only to punch in a persons SS# , as they do at a traffic stop, to know more about a person than anyone writing a letter of reference could possibly know about someones legal background. Hoops? You bet they are. These ‘hoops’ to jump through are simply used as tools of harassment, designed to dissuade people from applying for gun permits. I could cite more examples, but I wanted to point out a few of the obstacles that honest law abiding citizens are made to endure in order to pursue their right to self defense in Massachusetts. There are towns that use multiples of those examples listed, and others not listed.
There is a common thread that runs through all of the afore mentioned examples, that thread being “absurdity”. Then there are towns that only do a background check, and rightly so, that is all that should be required. {Note; to be continued on pages two and three……..} www.mafirearmsafety.com
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