House Public Safety Chair Hears Gun Law Concerns In North Adams
|
State Reps. Gailanne Cariddi, Harold Naughton and Paul Mark listen to resident's concerns with gun laws at the American Legion. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Local gun owners don't want any new gun laws until the ones that are already on the books are simplified and enforced.
On Monday, more than a dozen gun advocates voiced those concerns to state Rep. Harold "Hank" Naughton, who is the chairman of the House Joint Committee on Public Safety.
Naughton added North Adams as a late edition to his listening tour across the state as he heads the effort to boil some 65 pieces of proposed gun legislation into one comprehensive bill. Naughton was in North Adams at 4 p.m., following a similar hearing in Greenfield.
"The goal of this tour and these hearings is to boil down the current Legislation that has been filed into a comprehensive piece of Legislation that will provide for school safety and mental health; while at the same time get some uniformity in licensing and background checks without trampling on someone's Second Amendment rights," Naughton said.
Local owners, for the most part, agreed that guns should be kept from criminals and those who suffer from mental health problems. But, they feared any laws would restrict only law biding gun owners.
"We need to simplify our gun laws," said Eastern Mountain Sportsman Club President Wayne McClain. "There has to be room for improvement before we add more."
Advocates say the current licensing is too complicated and Naughton agrees that it isn't easy to lawfully purchase a weapon in Massachusetts.
"For a law-abiding person, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get a gun," Naughton said. "It is the trafficking of weapons that is the problem."
Dennis Tassone, who teaches gun safety, says the laws he tries to teach his students are constantly changing.
Meanwhile, his classes are growing - particularly with more female gun owners looking for protection. Sharon Bergeron is one of those female gun owners.
"It is not the gun who kills somebody, it is the person behind it," she told Naughton, and said she would advocate for mandating that every home be required to have a gun with a properly trained owner. "If there were a teacher in that school in Connecticut or some kind of guard that had the ability to stop that maniac, all of those people wouldn't have died."
Rick Miller told Naughton that his children grew up with guns and he wouldn't feel nervous about having an unsecured one in his home because they have learned proper usage of it. Miller said gun owners understand self responsibility and take their own precautions.
While the majority of those in attendance were concerned with protecting their ownership and calling for a reduction of laws, they also voiced favor of improving on some the state already has on the books. Background checks for mental health and criminal histories should be conducted, but conducted in a fair and accurate way, they said.
"Even one gun of any kind in the wrong hands is one too many," said Peter McBride, who advocates for licensing reform and against any type of legislation require gun owners to pay extra.
McBride said databases of criminals and mentally ill need to be improved and the licenses should be restricted for those with histories with those issues.
Naughton, however, said that those who are
|
Dennis Tassone said he has seen an uptick in females taking his gun safety classes. |
mentally ill shouldn't be "stigmatized" for getting help so the state needs to strike a balance.
McBride urded Naughton to review proposed Legislation put forth by the Gun Owners Action League.
What the Berkshire residents said on Monday echoed a lot of what Naughton has been hearing across the state, though with some regional variation.
"We do hear similar things as we go around the Commonwealth but the most thematic thing we're hearing is about the illegal weapons out there and not the actions of the licensed and law abiding firearm owners," Naughton said. "It's about gun trafficking, guns flowing in from other states that are used in criminal acts and the need to take a deep look at our mental health issues."
Naughton said he has already completed two hearings, both of which have taken more than six hours to hear more than 300 people weigh-in on the issue. Three more hearings are planned with the final one being on August. He hopes to have a bill filed by the fall.
"I don't want any one of the 6 million people in this Commonwealth that they didn't have the ability to have some input or a seat at the table," he said.
