The Burning Platform – by Yojimbo
Let’s face it. It must be oh-so-hard to write law on the fly to take away the civil rights from the citizens of an entire state, as Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has been attempting to do. One reason it is hard to do is that IT IS NOT HER JOB. Last time I checked, it was the job of the Massachusetts Legislature to write legislation.
But she has been trying very hard to craft legislation that strips citizens of the State from owning semi-automatic weapons with detachable magazines (the dreaded black scary “assault weapons”). That power must be reserved only for the State and its agents.
For those unaware of her tyrannical actions, the AG of Mass decided to “reinterpret” (that is her word) the Assault Weapons Bill to find an entirely new meaning to the law. For the past EIGHTEEN YEARS, there was a mutual understanding that “assault weapons” could not be purchased in Mass (the AR-15, AK-47, FN FAL, etc), but “Mass Compliant” versions could. These versions were lacking certain features that made them scary to Liberals. However, Maura Healey, singlehandedly and without consulting the legislature, decided that even Mass Compliant versions were assault weapons as well, and were illegal.
What she did was issue a Enforcement Notice which was so detailed, lengthy, and such a novel interpretation of the existing law that it was effectively a new law itself. Her office went to great lengths to try to write the new “law” so that the old law encompassed “similar or substantially similar” weapons, i.e. Mass Complaint versions.
The result of her Enforcement Notice? COMPLETE CONFUSION. No one knew what was legal to purchase or sell or transfer. No one knew if they were now felons for possessing the Mass Compliant versions. No one knew if local D.A.’s would go after them, even if AG Maura Healey said that she would not.
The confusion was so great, that she had to issue a Q&A page, which she would update. And for true Kafkaesque lunacy, here was the last line on her initial Enforcement Notice:
The AGO reserves the right to alter or amend this guidance.
Oh, OK, so the new “law” could change at a moment’s notice. AND IT HAS.
Here is her latest gobbledygook update, which is meant to help explain what is NOT an assault weapon, and therefore still legal to buy or sell, because everyone was still confused, and did not want to go to prison for TEN YEARS if they made a mistake and were prosecuted. See if you can spot the glaring idiocy of her pronouncement:
Q: Are there examples or categories of weapons that are not assault weapons?
Yes. Many rifles, shotguns, and pistols are not assault weapons, and therefore are not “copies or duplicates” of enumerated assault weapons. For example, the following are not assault weapons under G.L. c. 140, § 121:
- Any handgun on the current version of the state’s Approved Firearms Roster, available here
. Handguns are still subject to MA 940 CMR 16.00 et seq Consumer Protection Regulation; - Any .22 caliber rifle;
- Any Ruger Mini 14 or substantially-similar model weapon;
- Any of the hundreds of rifles and shotguns listed on this list—Appendix A to 18 U.S.C. § 922, as appearing on September 13, 1994;
- Any weapon that is operated by manual bolt, pump, lever, or slide action;
- Any weapon that is an antique, relic, or theatrical prop;
- Any semiautomatic rifle that cannot accept a detachable magazine that holds more than five rounds of ammunition;
- Any semiautomatic shotgun that cannot hold more than five rounds of ammunition in a fixed or detachable magazine.
This list is not exhaustive; it is meant for illustrative purposes only. Many other weapons are not assault weapons or “copies or duplicates” of assault weapons.
Q: Are any .22 caliber rifles affected by the Enforcement Notice?
No. However, a weapon that is manufactured as an Assault Weapon cannot be made legal by alterations that allow it to discharge .22-caliber ammunition.
Here is why it is so hard to craft LAWS regarding firearms, about which Maura Healey knows NOTHING. And apparently no one in her office knows anything either.
Did you catch it? She says the following are NOT assault weapons: ANY .22 CALIBER RIFLE. And she says it again in different language “Q: Are any .22 caliber rifles affected by the Enforcement Notice? No.”
Note the word “ANY”. In legalese, that is an all-encompassing word in a very short phrase “any .22 caliber rifle”.
As the Gun Owners Action League states in a recent email: The AG’s office declared “Any .22 caliber rifle;” is not an “assault weapon” (by her definition), however, almost all AR style rifles ARE .22 caliber. The two most commoncartridges are 5.56 and .223, both use .22 caliber bullets, by her own decree she disqualified firearms on her own enforcement notice.
So here is her logic:
- Any “assault weapons”, including “Mass compliant versions”, are now illegal.
- Any .22 caliber rifle is not an assault weapon.
How can you reconcile those two statements?
So does this mean that an AR-15 completely outfitted with bayonet lug, collapsible stock, flash suppressor and pistol grip using 5.56 caliber ammunition is now not an assault weapon, since it uses .22 caliber ammunition?
And there is a further complication to this nonsense – Which are we to follow – the Mass General Laws which say that Mass compliant versions are legal? Or AG Healey’s guidance which says that even Mass compliant versions are illegal? Or AG Healey’s latest letter which says that any .22 caliber rifle is legal (even previously illegal assault rifles)?
Do you follow the old law, the first edict, or the latest edict?
This is what happens when there is no longer Rule of Law, but Rule of Man. The rules become changeable at a whim, and do not need to make any sense in relation to each other. Maura Healey, as a true Statist, smiling and self-righteously telling you that she is keeping you safe, is the modern face of tyranny.
I DONT WANT TO HEAR YOUR BITCHING MASS……………THE WHOLE OF THE POPULATION IN YOUR STATE IS ELITIST COMMUNIST ACCEPTING EVERY INFRINGMENT OBVIOSLY BELIEVING THAT SOME PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE FREE……OR YOU WOULD HAVE WELL DISPATCHED OF MISS HEALY BY NOW………SO EITHER LEAVE THAT STATE OR SHUT THE HELL UP======
LOVINGLY==== KOYOTE MARK
Not true. This is reality in spite of your contempt for your countrymen. 80% of the people there said “F#@K YOU” to the that communist government and the banning their weapons. They probably are at some point going to fight. In stead of bashing them why don’t you pay attention to the present evil in your own state and county?
How is the wheather there in Langley, VA today?
I MEANT WHAT I SAID ASSHOLE………….
THAT SHOULD READ” EITHER LEAVE THAT STATE… DISPATCH HEALY OR SHUT THE HELL UP”
And then you have an American hero, former PA AG Kathleen Kane, who exposed the pedophile sex-trafficking going on amongst elected sicko’s, dragged through the BS legal system and ‘rubber-stamped’ with a conviction to shut her mouth, when rational Americans know that Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State coach, was employed by the NAMBLA crowd to supply ‘fresh meat’ for their sick meals.
I think miss Maury should do a little hard time.
Then she’ll really know what a…
“Dreaded Black Scary Assault Weapon” is.
OH…..
I just had a brilliant idea….
The new reality show….
Survivor.
The Prison series.
I see some marketing value here.
Not Constitutional. Not lawful. Ignored.
It’s amazing how a once-ignorant bitch like her can receive so many years of education to devolve into something so rock stupid. We still have the 2nd A and our modern muskets to disagree with useful idiots like her and her handlers.
“Any sufficiently advanced malice is indistinguishable from incompetence.” [With apologies to Asimov and Bonaparte.]
Anyone who complies with these ridiculous, arbitrary “laws” will comply with just about anything.