Behind Enemy Lines, Part II

I had intended Part I to cover the myriad gun laws of Massachusetts, but it quickly became clear that covering all of the MA gun laws in one post was an exercise in raising my blood pressure. I settled for covering four of the largest bones of contention, so to speak, the Four Horsemen of the MA Apocalypse for gun owners. In Part II, I'll cover some of the other extraneous bullshit thrown in the face of the MA gunnie.

HR45 is what got me to thinking about this series of posts. Lots of gunnies in the blogosphere have been posting excerpts of HR 45 and the horrors it entails. As I read the requirements that HR45 would make law, it struck me just how many of them are already in place here in Massachusetts:

TITLE I--LICENSING
Sec. 101. Licensing requirement.
Sec. 102. Application requirements.
Sec. 103. Issuance of license.
Sec. 104. Renewal of license.
Sec. 105. Revocation of license.
TITLE II--RECORD OF SALE OR TRANSFER
Sec. 201. Sale or transfer requirements for qualifying firearms.
Sec. 202. Firearm records.
TITLE III--ADDITIONAL PROHIBITIONS
Sec. 301. Universal background check requirement.
Sec. 302. Failure to maintain or permit inspection of records.
Sec. 303. Failure to report loss or theft of firearm.
Sec. 304. Failure to provide notice of change of address.
Sec. 305. Child access prevention.

As I said in comments at Unc's, with the exception of the "Failure to maintain or permit inspection of records" section, every single one of those requirements is already in place in MA.

Every. Single. One.

Y'all can laugh at us here in MA all you want. Barack Obama and his decidely anti-gun administration (Eric fucking Holder as AG? Are you shitting me?) are going to implement MA-style gun control on the entire country. I figured I'd cover a small handful of other regulations under which the Second Amendment supporter must suffer as a denizen of Massachusetts.

Safe storage. Mass has "safe storage" requirements whereby one's firearms must be kept in a "secure container" when not on one's person. Obviously this should be addressed as part of the Heller decision, but my grandkids might grow old waiting for someone to bring it up in MA. In a nutshell, all guns must be locked in a case or have a trigger or cable lock through the trigger or action. Makes it real convenient when you hear the glass breaking downstairs and you only have a couple of seconds to get the key to the gun safe...

Mail order ammo/parts/magazines - Good luck. The Attorney General's office has made it their own personal jihad to aggressively and maliciously go after any company that offers ammunition for sale via mail order in MA. Basically, the AG's office insists that any company selling ammo in MA have a MA storefront, and levies insane fines against companies that ship in to MA. They have then used these fines to get certain mail order companies (think CTD) to agree to suspend shipment of ALL gun parts and accessories. Check the list of shipping restrictions for any mail-order house and see what won't ship to MA - that's what you won't be able to buy once Obama's Hopenchange sweeps o'er the land.

Transport - Unlike many states, you cannot keep a loaded firearm in your glove box or center locking center console. A loaded gun must be carried on your person (assuming you have the proper permit; otherwise the gun must be transported unloaded, with ammuntion stored separately (IOW, a loaded magazine outside of the gun but locked in the same box is considered the same as having one up the pipe...). (law) MA theoretically will honor the 1986 FOPA (as opposed to, say, NYC), but it's generally a crap shoot as to whether or not someone passing through MA with a firearm and no MA non-res permit ($100 a year, BTW) will get proned or not...

Registration - Here's the actual section of Mass General Laws (MGLs) pertaining to firearms registration:

Section 128B. Any resident of the commonwealth who purchases or obtains a firearm, rifle or shotgun or machine gun from any source within or without the commonwealth, other than from a licensee under section one hundred and twenty-two or a person authorized to sell firearms under section one hundred and twenty-eight A, and any nonresident of the commonwealth who purchases or obtains a firearm, rifle, shotgun or machine gun from any source within or without the commonwealth, other than such a licensee or person, and receives such firearm, rifle, shotgun or machine gun, within the commonwealth shall within seven days after receiving such firearm, rifle, shotgun or machine gun, report, in writing, to the executive director of the criminal history systems board the name and address of the seller or donor and the buyer or donee, together with a complete description of the firearm, rifle, shotgun or machine gun, including the caliber, make and serial number. Whoever violates any provision of this section shall for the first offense be punished by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000 and for any subsequent offense by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years.

Got that? If you buy or sell a gun privately; lose a firearm; destroy a firearm; have a firearm stolen from you; or otherwise cause a firearm's ownership to change hands, you need to send a form into the "Criminal History Systems Board" or face a possible felony. These forms are generally available at the local police department, but good luck getting someone who knows where they are or a PD that keeps them in stock.

Ammo limits - this one isn't a criminal regulation, but I'll refer the reader to Part I's section on the "suitability" clause. Under these regulations, you're limited to 10,000 rounds of rimfire ammunition, 10,000 rounds of centerfire ammunition, and 5,000 rounds of shotgun ammunition. You can apply to your local fire department for a permit to possess more than this number, but good luck finding someone who even knows the regulation you're trying to follow...

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I'm sure one of my MA readers will pop in with a handful of other idiotic regulations we have to deal with, so I'll close with these four five intrusions on our Second Amendment rights.

That is all.

(UPDATE: Added links to relevant laws and edited my poor counting skillz)