Community Relations
Dear
Sir/Madam:
The
Board of Directors of the Andover Sportsmen’s Club of Andover, Massachusetts,
representing our 1100 members from all walks of life, a number of whom reside in
your district, wish you to know the Club’s opinion of some of the
onerous bills relating to firearms regulation pending in the Legislature.
Massachusetts
already has more gun laws than most other states combined. All these laws are
aimed at lawful gun owners who do their best to abide by them. Criminals simply
ignore them. However, some of the bills currently under consideration would
create such serious restrictions on legitimate gun owners for little or no
proven worth in preventing crime that we, as a club must oppose them.
Specifically,
these are as follows.
H639.
This bill redefines assault weapons to include any type of firearm whatsoever.
The intent can only be, therefore, to ban the possession of any firearm in the
Commonwealth.
H665.
This bill appears to have only one purpose namely to place a large financial
burden on legitimate gun owners to purchase a $250,000 insurance policy for each
and every handgun he or she owns. This is clearly not to prevent the
non-existent rash of handgun accidents and will surely not be followed by a rush
of criminals to their insurance companies
H1561.
Micro stamping semiautomatic firearms would appear to have some merit except
that it can be erased with a few file strokes by those so inclined and does not
apply to the thousands of guns already in the state. Therefore, it would place a
useless financial burden on firearms manufacturers many more of whom would
decline to do business in Massachusetts.
H2916.
This is apparently addressed at the non-existent rash of assault weapon crimes
committed in the Commonwealth. Despite what you may hear in the media, these
guns are not typically used in crimes. They are too big, too heavy, and can’t
be concealed; thus criminals choose other types of guns.
S1224.
An Act relative to a study commission concerning putting Global Position
Sensors on all firearms. This is truly bizarre. Putting aside the practical
problems of mounting them on handguns one wonders what the various police
departments will do with all the data. Hunting season will be particularly busy
for them as they watch guns coming and going throughout the state. Perhaps they
will rush to gun clubs such as ours on weekends when they notice an accumulation
of firearms in one place. One can only wonder.
On
behalf of our members we urge you to vote against these bills which will have
little or no effect on criminal use of firearms and serve only to further burden
and intimidate law abiding gun owners. We have informed our members of the Bills
and expect they will be watching the votes closely.
Sincerely,
The
Andover Sportsmen’s Club Board of Directors
On
behalf of our members
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Andover Sportsmen's Club Scholarship
Lock, Stock & Barrel
2007
Mar. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBMar2007.pdf
Feb. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBFeb2007.pdf
Jan. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBJan2007.pdf
2006
April edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBApr2006.pdf
May edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBMay2006.pdf
June edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBJune2006.pdf
July edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/July2006LSB.pdf
Aug. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBAug2006.pdf
Sept. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBSep2006.pdf
Oct. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBOct2006.pdf
Nov. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBNov2006.pdf
Dec. edition of Lock, Stock and Barrel www.goal.org/LSB/LSBDec2006.pdf
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