MA: Lawmakers Push Back Against Lawless Gun Ban by AG Healy

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy's unconstitutional gun ban last  week may have played well to the gun ban crowd in the Democrat party.  She took a moment of national anger over the assassinations of police officers to push her personal anti-Second Amendment policies, while the legislature was not in session.  Dozens of legislators were not amused.  From wbur.org:

Angered by her announcement last week that her office will step up its enforcement of the state's assault weapons ban, a bipartisan group of 58 lawmakers sent Attorney General Maura Healey a letter over the weekend opposing "in the strongest possible terms" her decision and the way she announced it.

Healey last week announced that she will crack down on enforcement of the state's 1998 assault weapons ban, specifically focusing on what she called "copycat" versions or duplicates of firearms banned under that law.

This is partly how checks and balances are supposed to work.  The legislators are jealous of their power.  They openly say so.  They say that if Healy had come to them, acknowledged their power, and asked, they might well have accommodated her.

But, that is not the way she wanted to work it.

Healy's diktat is a completely new "interpretation" of settled law that has been in place for 18 years, 22 years if you include the Clinton "assault weapon" law the Massachusetts law mirrored, before the Clinton national ban sun set.

AG Healy created a whole new set of gun bans.  She set off a frenzy of buying of the very rifles she claims are so dangerous.  Massachusetts dealers reported record levels of rifle buying. From commonwealthmagazine.org:

According to data from the state Firearms Records Bureau, gun enthusiasts bought 2,549 rifles on Wednesday, the same day Healey announced that her office would rigidly enforce a 1998 law that prohibits the sale of specific semi-automatic guns such as AK-47s and AR-15s, as well as “copies or duplicates of the weapons.” By contrast, 132 of the guns were sold on Tuesday and just 51 on Monday. About 10,000 of the guns were sold in 2015.

The purchases were in defiance of an order issued by Healey that none of the guns could be sold in Massachusetts after Tuesday. Now Healey, whose intent was to get rid of the weapons, finds herself in the awkward position of trying to undo a run on what she has called “weapons of war” after they’ve already been sold.

It appears that Second Amendment supporters did some voting with their pocket books.  Hundreds also appeared at the state capitol, protesting the dictatorial conduct by Healy.  That might have added a bit to the legislative zeal.

Legislators do not like to be treated as if they are irrelevant.  It will be interesting to see if the legislators find a creative way to let their displeasure be known.

They could always cut her budget.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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