The Boston Globe is reporting how Bay State gun owners and Second Amendment activists are pushing back against the state’s new gun law and the way Gov. Maura Healey signed an emergency preamble to make the law effective ahead of schedule, thus defeating a petition effort to put it on hold until 2026.
After the law was passed in July, gun rights activists launched a petition effort which garnered nearly 2 ½ times the number of signatures required to place the law on hold until it could be put on the next general ballot, in 2026.
But Healey, a devoted anti-gun Democrat, signed the emergency clause to derail the effort. Some gun rights activists believe she learned about the large number of signatures that had been gathered, so she signed the preemptive strike.
While the petition drive may have been thwarted, the Gun Owners Action League went to federal court, challenging changes in the law regarding licensing and training requirements.
GOAL Executive Director Jim Wallace has kept thousands of gun owners up-to-date on the legal action and on the opposition.
GOAL is an affiliate of both the National Rifle Association and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
According to the Globe report, firearms retailer Toby Leary, who organized the ballot measure, said the campaign has raised more than $100,000 “and mobilized hundreds of volunteers.” The next step will be to mount an information campaign “campaign with the pitch thattheir cause extends beyond the Second Amendment,” the newspaper said.
Massachusetts is one of the most restrictive states in the country where gun ownership is concerned, which is ironic because the Revolutionary War started there in April 1775 with the battles of Lexington and Concord. Those events were ignited by a British effort to confiscate arms and ammunition belonging to the colonial militia. That lesson has not been lost to Massachusetts gun owners.
The newspaper addressed speculation that Healey and anti-gun Democrats might face trouble over this in the next election. It is far too early to tell, but it is certain gun owners in the state will remember how the new gun law was put into action by Healey.
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