HD.4420 An Act Modernizing Gun Laws
In keeping with our mission of being nonpolitical the following is an alert of an attempt to criminalize Massachusetts residents and legal gun owners with no significant impact on those who engage in criminal conduct
The following is taken directly from HD.4420 An Act Modernizing Gun Laws pages 124 and 125
The numbers on the left side are line numbers to make it easier for you the reader to see for yourself what the actual language is
I have bolded that language that in my opinion pay close attention to. The proposed legislation if enacted into law would require you as a lawfully licensed to seek permission before entering the property or business with a lawfully possessed firearm unless you have the express permission of the owner
Ask yourself, how will this requirement make the Commonwealth more safe?
Will the career criminal with an illegal firearm that they purchased on the street first go into the property of the small business owner, gas station, or convenience store and ask permission to bring a firearm for the purposes of a holdup.
The proposed law also includes in its definition of prohibited area not only the building but the grounds and the parking lot/areas.
Consider the situation where you take your spouse or significant other to the drugstore to pick up a prescription. They go into the drugstore to get the prescription while you sit in your car in the parking lot waiting for them to come out. In this situation under the proposed law you could be arrested if you are carrying your legally possessed firearm
(1) Whoever possesses a firearm, loaded or unloaded, as defined in section 121 of
2607 chapter 140, in a prohibited area, and knows or reasonably should know such location is a
2608 prohibited area shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, imprisonment in the house
2609 of correction for not more than 2 ½ years, or both such fine and imprisonment.
2610 (2) For the purposes of this section, “prohibited area” shall mean any of the following,
2611 including in or upon any part of the buildings, grounds, or parking areas of:
2612 (i) a place owned, leased, or under the control of state, county or municipal government
2613 used for the purpose of government administration, judicial or court administrative proceedings,
2614 or correctional services;
2615 (ii) a location in use as a polling place or used for the storage or tabulation of ballots;
2616 (iii) an elementary school, secondary school, college, university or other educational
2617 institution including transport used for students of said institution and places where persons are
2618 assembled for educational purposes;
2619 (iv) any private property, including but not limited to residential, commercial, industrial,
2620 agricultural, institutional or undeveloped property, unless the owner has provided express
2621 consent or has posted a sign indicating that it is permissible to carry on the premises a firearm
2622 with a valid and lawfully issued firearm license or permit under Chapter 140;
PROHIBITED AREA
2610 (2) For the purposes of this section, “prohibited area” shall mean any of the following,
2611 including in or upon any part of the buildings, grounds, or parking areas of:
Exercise your first amendment rights
Sometimes the simplest thing you as a gun owner can do in protection of your Second Amendment rights is to make a simple phone call or send a letter.
Sometimes most difficult thing to do in protection of your rights under the Constitution of the United States is to to make a simple phone call or send a letter.
The choice is yours until you can no longer choose
Consider the quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller
“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me”
Link to proposed law with listing of names of sponsors’/petitioners’
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/HD4420
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