ADAMS, Mass. — One of the Republican candidates for state attorney general was back in the Berkshires on Saturday, stopping in at Pete's Gun Shop. 

 

Jay McMahon, a Bourne attorney and former police officer, heard residents' concerns about crime, public safety and 2nd Amendment rights.

 

"This is the fifth time I have come out here because I know that they are not paying attention up here," he said. "I need Berkshire County ... and I have a heart for Berkshire County."

 

McMahon was recently endorsed at the Republic State Convention last month. He will be facing off in the Republican primary against Dan Shores, an attorney from Sandwich, to see who will take on incumbent and Democrat Maura Healey in November.

 

McMahon said he decided to run after Healey issued an enforcement order in 2016 expanding on the state's 1998 assault weapons ban.

 

"When she finally came out with that thing everybody was up in arms. She just pretty much trampled over people's 2nd Amendment rights," he said. 

 

McMahon said he thought the enforcement order only affected licensed gun owners because those who carry illegally are not going to start following the rules. He said he thought this order has done nothing to stop crime or enhance public safety.

 

"If you don't like guns you don't have to buy them, but Maura Healey's enforcement order was a solution to a nonexistent problem," he said.

 

McMahon said if elected, day one on the job he will rescind the order.

 

"I am a gun guy, but I am not doing it because I am a gun guy because I am a Constitution guy," he said. "The Constitution says it shall not be infringed but she didn't care, she just infringed all over it."

 

McMahon said protecting the 2nd Amendment was only part of his platform and if elected he would also take on the opiate crisis

 

"Since Maura has been with the attorney general's office, deaths by opiate addition in the state have quadrupled and they show no sign of abating," he said. "We can do so something and we can literally give opiate addicts their life back."

 

McMahon dismissed government-sponsored rehabilitation programs, which he said represent a 99 percent failure rate and said private-pay programs were the way to go.

 

He would also forgo prosecution for those charged with possession if they go through a rehabilitation program

 

"That is the main key. If you can do that, you are taking away the market for heroin and fentanyl by getting people out of it and giving them their lives back," he said.

 

McMahon said most of these drugs are coming over the border illegally and added that he thinks the state should take full advantage of federal task forces such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

 

"Maura Healey is running Massachusetts' official policy like it is a sanctuary state so she is not dealing with the feds," he said. "Can you imagine the top law enforcement elected official in the state is not even cooperating with the feds to protect and shield illegal aliens? It is unbelievable."

 

McMahon said he would institute "extreme prosecution" and go for maximum sentences for illegal drug distributors  

 

"I want to either put them in jail or drive them out of the state," he said. "Let them go to another state that is more lenient, so they can peddle their poison, but not here."

 

McMahon then went into public safety and said he disagrees with Healey's stance against President Trump's travel ban.

 

"The No. 1 job of the president of the United States is to keep Americans safe and the No. 1 job of a state attorney general is to keep the citizens in their state safe," he said. "She would throw our public safety to the wind."

 

After visiting Adams, McMahon traveled to Charlemont and to Orange. McMahon said if elected, he would like to have an office in Pittsfield

 

"I will keep coming out here and if have to I will open up an office in Pittsfield," he said. "I will be coming out to check on the people out here."