Latest Massachusetts Dustup Over AR-15s Shows Gun Nation Isn't Ready To Talk Sensibly

Let me break the news to my friends in Gun-mob Nation. There's a pretty good chance that a certain person will be president next year and I don't mean Donald Trump.
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Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey speaks about gun violence prevention at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 24, 2016. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey speaks about gun violence prevention at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 24, 2016. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

As we all know, the American Revolution began when a group of colonials exchanged fire with British troops in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1776. You can visit the battlefield today, it's a national monument beautifully kept by the U.S. Park Service, located a half-hour's drive from the office of Maura Healey, who happens to be the current Massachusetts Attorney General, a.k.a., the AG.

Maura started her own little revolution last week by issuing a regulation that basically banned the purchase of AR-15 assault rifles throughout the Bay State. Current AR-15 owners (like me) can keep their guns, they can also transfer them to anyone else who can own firearms in Massachusetts, but in terms of the civilian arsenal being increased through the addition of more AR rifles, to all intents and purposes Massachusetts is now AR-rein.

Two things happened within 24 hours after the ban was announced: (1). Every, single AR in the inventory of every single gun shop in Massachusetts was sold; and, (2). The Gun-mob Nation noise machine started going full blast. The NRA got right into the act by calling the AR order "obviously incorrect;" the National Review said that her action meant that Healey could make the state gun law "mean what she wanted it to mean;" and a Republican state legislator in Massachusetts, who is known for his outspoken reverence for anything having to do with the 2nd Amendment, filed a bill to strip the AG from having any ability to alter rules and regulations over gun sales.

Now the fact that gun sales are legal commerce, the fact that someone who purchases a gun in a gun shop is, ipso facto, a consumer, the fact that the AG's office runs a very active operation known as the Department of Consumer Protection, the fact that this means the AG has the authority to promulgate and enforce rules on items that are sold to consumers in Massachusetts, none of these facts mean anything to State Senator Don Humason or his Gun-mob Nation supporters at all. Because the truth is that Gun-mob Nation doesn't want gun sales or gun ownership to be regulated because any type of gun regulations are, you know the rest of this sentence, a violation of 2nd-Amendment 'rights.' Now it just so happens that such rules are not a violation of anything within the Constitution or without. But just tell that to Senator Humason and his Gun-mob Nation friends.

In particular his Gun-mob Nation friends, who began peppering various media venues like Facebook with some of the worst, most offensive comments about Maura that have ever been seen. Calling her a 'fascist,' a ''bitch,' a 'c**t,' the language made a Donald Trump speech sound like something out of Mary Poppins. According to the Boston Globe newspaper, one big-mouth tweeted that he wanted to hire a homeless person to rape and disembowel the AG.

Now don't get me wrong. Gun issues provoke strong emotions on both sides of the fence. And while I thought that the AG was absolutely correct in calling attention to the fact that removing a few, cosmetic doo-dads from an AR-15 doesn't in any way diminish the lethality of the gun. Nevertheless, gun owners have every right to voice their anger, and even State Senator Humason has the right to do a little grandstanding by filing his stupid bill.

Let me break the news to my friends in Gun-mob Nation. There's a pretty good chance that a certain person will be president next year and I don't mean Donald Trump. And there's a good chance that she will send a gun bill to Congress, but being committed to the usual process, she'll invite input from both sides. So Gun-mob Nation will have a choice -- either get a seat at the table or stand around outside. And I guarantee you that if they use the language that Massachusetts Gun-mob Nation is using against Maura Healey, they'll be standing outside.

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