Massachusetts House Bill 4102 is still out there, somewhere. The legislation is known as the “gun a month” bill. Less well known: it would require a federally licensed firearms dealer to conduct the private sale/transfer of all firearms. If enacted, the new gun control law would represent the first closure of the “gun show loophole” that has enervated gun control advocates in general, the Mayors Against Illegal Guns in particular. Here’s the crucial bit . . .
SECTION 7. Section 128A of chapter 140 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following 2 sentences:- Any sale or transfer conducted under this section shall comply with section 131E and shall take place at the location of a dealer licensed under section 122, who shall transmit the information required by this section for the purchases and sales by utilizing the electronic verification link established by the executive director of the criminal history systems board. A licensed dealer may charge the seller a fee not to exceed $25 for each sale or transfer electronically submitted on behalf of the seller to the criminal history systems board.
A gun registry by any other name would still smell so sweet. To someone.
Several times I’ve heard and read those in favor of this legislation state that one gun per month is enough for any law abiding citizen and challenge those who oppose it to give a valid reason why this is not so. Obviously, the first point to be made is that its nobody’s business how many guns a law abiding citizens “needs” in any given amount of time; the money and desire is ours alone as is the right to make decisions on how to act accordingly.
However, renting more than one gun in a month is easy to justify: Currently I can’t decide whether my next purchase is going to be a Smith and Wesson M&P 45C or a Glock 30. The standard advice is to try them both head to head and see which feels better in MY hand and shoots most accurately FOR ME. Unless I know a person or people who own each of these weapons my only recourse in making an informed, and ultimately safer, purchase is to rent them both from a range or club that has them available and test them within a single session. If this legislation passes I’ll have to wait at least two months to test them both and won’t have the obviously better option of truly testing them head to head. Moreover, it means that I’ll then have to wait AN ADDITIONAL month to make the purchase after already having waited two months to perform the testing. So what went from a simple rent, test and buy on a single Saturday has now become a complicated, imprecise 3 month trek through a State-mandated labyrinth. Let’s hope I truly don’t need that gun.
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