It is my perception that the ruling elites of MA (like CT and NY before it) don't care what gun owners in the state think, no protest or opposition will matter to them in the slightest, they will do whatever their power allows them and they will not heed any reasonable arguments, and I suspect that we will be looking at some variant of the SAFE Act passed in MA in the near future.

Do you think I am overly pessimistic?

What are your thoughts about potential legislation and timing?

Thank you for your input.

It's almost impossible to predict. There are very dooming bills that are introduced every year. Some of them are known perennial failures- but you never know when they might grow enough legs to go somewhere.

This year it looked like they had an omnibus bill that looked like it was on the fast track to passage- but then slowed - possibly because of the response by gun owners (or supporters).

The reality is, if they really wanted to, they could pass just about anything.

Having observed legislation and gun-control attempts for 40+ years in MA, I predict that they will pass something that contains some of the onerous parts in HD4420. If they declare some guns "illegal", many will turn them in. Some/many years later if it is overturned by the USSC (which they are betting Biden gets re-elected and appoints anti-constitutionalists) perhaps, those that turned them in get nothing. Also MA dealers kiss the boots and even if they think that something will pass (but hasn't yet) they will further restrict what they will sell.

It is a very bad scene in MA and it is only going to get worse.

That's my prediction.

The worst part of all is that the most honest, law-abiding citizens of the Commonwealth seem absolutely convinced that nothing that they do or say will change anything, the State governing elites are deaf and stupid, and so have quietly decided that dialogue is useless and will silently become criminals instead--as if secretly owning what they want (despite it being criminalized) is an acceptable substitute for Just Laws and Liberty.  It certainly is easier--admittedly.

It will be interesting to see how many show up for the rally on Wednesday--but I won't be surprised if most people won't even bother.

The state governing elites aren’t deaf or stupid. They know exactly what they’re doing and know it’s a violation of rights. They don’t care and will continue to get away with it until there is enough time and money spent chasing it up the courts.

If and when they lose they won’t care. They have essentially unlimited funds (your tax dollars) that they don’t care about wasting to fight you in court. If they win they will push even further. If we win they shrug their shoulders and come up with the next scheme that waste tens of thousands to fight and another 10 years of time.

Round and round we go.

You might get a few hundred people at the rally. Most people don’t give a shit and don’t see it matters anyways.

Massachusetts best chance at gaining gun rights back, overturning the AWB, handgun roster and magazine capacity is that another state in another district goes too far and our side wins in court pushing it up to the higher courts and Supreme Court.

I can't predict the rally turnout and I'm too far removed to know what that landscape looks like.

I was at the state house rally in 1999 and we had 5,000 people attending (also on a weekday). The media portrayed it as if it was only a couple of hundred people. It didn't matter to the legistraitors however.

There is a lot more at stake this time, so hopefully at least that many residents show up.

I understand that 3-400 people showed up. Nothing on lamestream media about it.

It was the first day that they were back in session from their summer vacation, so most were in session and not available to talk with.

All this is second hand from folks who were there. I now live in NH, so nobody in the state house would care what I think (not that they did when I lived in MA).

Updated version just passed the house.

I don't follow MA laws too closely. Are they looking to ban all "assault weapons" including prebans?

I haven't seen what's in the bill that just passed but the version from a couple months ago was impossible to comply with even if someone was so inclined.

Interesting times in MA.

The senate version was just published yesterday.

Best to look at the GOAL website for the links to the bill and GOAL's analysis of potential effects.

https://goal.org/gunban

When NY passed the SAFE Act back in 2012, I attended the big rally at the State Capitol where there was a good 5,000-10,000 people protesting the highly unconstitutional law.  The media portrayed it as like a couple hundred people at most.  Literally showed their agenda driven bias.  The rally had zero effect on gun rights freedoms in NY.  You could rally 100,000 people and it would make no difference.  A decade later, the SAFE Act is still in force and more onerous laws have been passed.

I hope you guys in MA are more successful.