A Letter to Gov Romney of Massachusetts

Great letter, thanks for sharing it.

Good, the guy is a gun hater pure and simple.

FPrice,

Good letter. Much better than the one I sent when he passed the legislation, asking whether he was a liar or ignorant of the laws he passed. I didn't get any response, though

--
atk

I voted for him before I moved. The local ban is a great disappointment.

However, did you really want to hear the phrase "Governor Shannon O'Brien" for four years???

Another PO'ed Mass Resident

I too live in MA and you have said most eloquently is what I want to say.
I too feel that we have been betrayed by our local government and we must now stand up and be heard. The local lobbying group, GOAL, is trying, but we must all stand up and be heard. Only then will our legislature be aware that we want our rights and privileges restored and we want to be treated with the respect reserved for law-abiding citizens.

Dennis

Devonai,

I agree: Romney is much better than Healy would have been. But I'd rather the governor not speak with forked tongue, and know what he's signing, rather than bash the people who get the law passed. And I think it's irritating enough to call him on it.




FPrice,

It's inexpensive to send a letter, and to make a phone call, so I do try to do so whenever I hear something comes up. After all, I'd rather we succeed with the soap box and the ballot box

Thank you

FPrice, Thank you for permission to use your letter.

I am drafting a letter of my own, to be sent tomorrow 9/16/04. I will place the content on this site for everyone to review. I have added a request for a Shall Issue licensing as well as a repeal of the "Consumer Protection" law we have on gun purchases.

Till tomorrow,

Dennis

My version of the Letter to Gov Romney!

Here is my letter to the Governor of Massachusetts. Since I was not asked to contribute to the Republican party, I have removed any references to financial contributions. I have also added my concerns about licensing inequities as well as the "AWB" in Massachusetts.

Dennis

Governor Mitt Romney
Massachusetts State House
Office of the Governor
Room 360
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Governor Romney,

On July 1, 2004 you signed Chapter 150 of the Acts of 2004 which established some badly needed reforms in Commonwealth firearms laws. It also included a “ban†on assault weapons that is in a word, ineffective, since most of the weapons are still available in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in a slightly altered form such as removing the flash hider and the bayonet lug. It appears that you did not actually review the Federal law as written, but took action as a knee-jerk response to the recent shootings in the City of Boston. Then, as an insult to all law-abiding gun owners, you choose not to celebrate giving some relief to the honest firearms-owning citizens of Massachusetts. Instead you repeated the misinformation being spread by the anti-gun crowd about so-called “assault weapons†and celebrated the “banning of guns†facet of this bill.

The gun owners of Massachusetts need your help to stop the needless restriction of our rights. We know our responsibilities as law-abiding gun owners and we want you to help us “stop the madness in Massachusetts†by standing up and backing legislation to fix the inequities in our laws.

The licensing reforms in Chapter 150 of the Acts of 2004 are a good start but must be expanded to acknowledge the responsible gun owners and their contribution to the Commonwealth with “Shall Issue†Licensing and removal of the Attorney General’s consumer protection regulations which restrict selection of some of the finest guns made and artificially inflate gun prices in Massachusetts. The reforms for gun owners contained in this bill are just the beginning of the reforms requested to repair the damage done by your predecessors. The next step should be to allow any law-abiding citizen, that meets the criteria set by the state police for receiving a gun permit in Massachusetts, to get their permit without the unreasonable local stipulations such as a note from their doctor about mental wellness, letters from local businesses as a character reference or a letter from their employer as a character reference. These items are unnecessary and unreasonable to ask from a law-abiding citizen who wants to participate in a sporting activity which requires neither. The state police have set the minimum criteria for applying for a license to carry, but a local police chief can add any demands, reasonable or unreasonable, to the application process and this must stop. What I am asking you to do is lead the charge to make Massachusetts a “shall issue†a license to carry state instead of a “may issue†state. The determining factors will be based upon meeting a single set of criteria as determined and administered by the State Police.

Honestly, do you think that anyone who goes through the gun licensing process is going to go out and perpetrate a crime with a legally owned gun? You do realize that the legal gun owners of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are the only ones being penalized by the gun restrictions and laws, don’t you? The criminal element could care less what laws are enacted to restrict their access to firearms! To catch the criminal element we need better enforcement of existing laws, not more laws!

At this time the National AWB of 1994 has sunset. It is time for the Commonwealth to acknowledge that the national ban was ill-conceived, did not accomplish any of its goals in the way of crime control, and the laws of Massachusetts should reflect a true understanding of the ineffectiveness of the Assault Weapons Ban as it is written. To say that I am disappointed does not come close to explaining how much I am disheartened by this new state “ban†legislation. Since this ban serves no real purpose, other than to make politicians feel good about themselves, why keep it on the books?
Most military-type rifles are owned by people who use them for sporting purposes. Hunting is not a typical sporting event for these rifles, but competitive target shooting is a rich history for these guns. Target shooting at any level is a true sporting purpose with a long and rich history in this country; target shooting is even celebrated in the Olympics. Many of the firearms referred to as “assault weapons†are the semi-automatic Colt rifles and copies thereof, which are the predominant firearms used in National Hi-Power Rifle competitions held all over this country and attended by both military and civilian personnel. They are NOT as you stated, “…instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.†I can assure you Governor Romney that the rifles of many law-abiding firearms owners of Massachusetts do not, have not, and will not fall into this category.

Personally, I am looking for Republican leadership in Massachusetts who understand what the Second Amendment of the Constitution really means to the people. As a resident of Massachusetts, I am looking to YOU to provide this leadership by standing up to the anti-gun crowd and say “I will NOT penalize the honest, law-abiding citizens of this Commonwealth by supporting licensing inequities and a firearms ban which is based on falsehoods, anti-gun hysteria, and distrust in our citizens.â€

In closing, as a fellow Republican I am counting on you, my Governor, to rectify this situation for all of the law-abiding citizens of Massachusetts. I will do my part at the polls in November.

Punish those that commit the crimes; not those that abide by the law!!!!!!

Sincerely,

These items are unnecessary and unreasonable to ask from a law-abiding citizen who wants to participate in a sporting activity which requires neither.

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This is a great letter, but this passage and the paragraph that follows it are flawed, in my opinion.

If I were still a resident of Massachusetts, I would abandon this line of reasoning entirely and keep the subject focused on self defense. AR-15s with 30-round magazines are useful self defense weapons, and are not meant for "hunting people down."

Just my two cents. Thank you for taking the time to write to Romney.

FPrice & alsipd,

I'm just now catching this thread and want to compliment you both on those letters and thank you as a fellow gunowner in the Commonwealth.

You have inspired me to write my own letter soon. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I assume it wil be OK to draw from some of your thoughts.

My letter is free for anyone to use

I used FPrice's letter to model mine. Anyone can feel free to use mine as a guide to draft a letter to our Governor or create your own.

Just write a letter!

Dennis

Never—ever!—trust a R.I.N.O.

My letter is free for anyone to use

I used FPrice's letter to model mine. Anyone can feel free to use mine as a guide to draft a letter to our Governor or create your own.

Just write a letter!

Dennis