It’s been almost two weeks since H. 4885 went into effect in Massachusetts, and for the most part the local media has been content to amplify the messaging from Democratic lawmakers who claim the new law offers untold public safety benefits. I haven’t seen any coverage of the run on guns that left many FFLs almost wiped out of their stock, nor have I run across any outlets reporting on the fact that the state is now requiring firearms instructors to teach a curriculum that hasn’t yet been developed… at least until now.
New England Public Media didn’t mention the surge in gun sales in their recent report, but they at least paid passing attention to the chaos that the new law is having when it comes to the training the state mandates before residents can legally purchase and possess a handgun.
Under Massachusetts’ new gun safety law, some students who take current basic firearms courses may not qualify for a license to carry.
The law changed the requirements taught in those courses, and the guidance is still being written by the state police and others. The law requires classes to now teach disengagement and harm-reduction and include live-fire training.
Lee Laster, a retired police officer who has taught firearms safety in Montague for more than two decades.
“I don’t want just something thrown together to cover their butt. I want something that’s going to reach people. To let them know that, ‘Hey! Suicide is a real thing and if you know someone or you [are] feeling that way, guess what? You’re not alone, there’s help for you, here’re some numbers, here’s some people you can talk to.’ That’s what we need. We need resources … We need a list of people who are trained when a person is in crisis,” Laster said.
The state’s firearms records bureau sent a letter last month to instructors, saying not all classes offered after August 1 will comply with the new license requirements. Officials are working toward an October deadline to update the guidance for firearms instruction.
What NEPM doesn’t say is what happens to those would-be gun owners who take a firearms class between now and the self-imposed October deadline established by the state police. I’ve spoken to several instructors who say the state police waited until July 31st to inform them that any classes taught after August 1st wouldn’t be considered valid, but soon reversed course after the Gun Owners Action League filed its first lawsuit against H. 4885, telling them they can continue to stick with the status quo until October 23rd.
Even if the state police are backing off that August 1st deadline, in Massachusetts local police departments are the agencies in charge of issuing licenses, and some jurisdictions may not be accepting or processing applications until the new curriculum is written and in place. In those towns and cities, it’s now virtually impossible for folks to obtain a license to carry, which is also required to simply possess a handgun in the home.
It’s also unclear whether the Massachusetts State Police even has the authority to decide not to enforce the new training mandates until October, given the text of H. 4885. Right now, it seems like the agency is simply making up the rules as it goes along, and gun owners, firearms instructors, and FFLs are left to the whims of anti-gun bureaucrats. We’ll be talking in-depth about the chaos caused by H. 4885 (billed as “The Devil’s Snare” by the Gun Owners Action League) on tomorrow’s Bearing Arms Cam & Co with guest Toby Leary from Cape Gun Works, and I suspect that he’ll have a lot to say about the botched roll-out of this patently unconstitutional gun control law and the impact its having on the right to keep and bear arms in what was once the cradle of liberty.
