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GOAL HOPEFUL AFTER POSITIVE MEETING WITH SPEAKER AND NEW CHANGES TO PROPOSED GUN BILL; STILL WARY OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL LICENSING PROVISION; PROPOSES ENHANCED GUN TRAFFICKING MEASURES

The Gun Owners’ Action League of Massachusetts (GOAL) remains hopeful that the rights of over 300,000 lawful gun owners will remain intact after a positive meeting with House Speaker Robert DeLeo. GOAL’s further discussions with numerous House members also have established a desire among many to amend the bill to further protect the rights of lawful gun owners.

 

“GOAL is seeing positive results from our meetings at the State House and that is a direct result from the thousands of emails and phone calls our members and supporters are making to their legislators,” said Jim Wallace, Executive Director of GOAL. “There is a misconception the people in Massachusetts – and especially legislators - don’t care about our 2nd Amendment civil rights.  GOAL, and its members, are proving that theory wrong.”

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GOAL is still extremely concerned about wording giving the Commonwealth’s Police Chiefs unfettered discretion to determine who obtains a gun license in the state. “Some Police Chiefs already abuse the discretionary licensing law,” said Wallace, “To expand that policy, and grant greater unconstrained authority to the very people that are already bad actors, is simply unconscionable and unconstitutional.”

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GOAL is hopeful that the legislature will rewrite the bill to include some crime fighting measures that stop gun violence including GOAL’s proposal to create a new State Police division specializing in criminal firearms and trafficking.  GOAL has also proposed language that would enhance the gun trafficking and burglary laws. GOAL pushed for aggressive crime fighting measures in this bill and will continue that push until the end of the legislative session.

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