I was talking with a fellow gun instructor in central Massachusetts. He said he had a client take a licensing course and was going to apply for his License To Carry (LTC) in his hometown, Worcester, Mass. Worcester is the second largest city in New England. His client called the Worcester Police Department to set up the initial appointment and was told it would be in July, four months away.
My friend called the WPD to confirm that the waiting period for the interview, not even the time to process the application, was going to be four months. After going through the phone maze and getting a real person to talk with, they did say it was going to be four months for the appointment. Then another 60 days to get the LTC. Then three more weeks for the police to call him and tell him it’s ready to be picked up. He’s looking at nearly six months from when he takes the class to when he gets his LTC. I recently had to renew my LTC and I was given eight weeks. And eight weeks to the day, it came in. The mass.gov website says it will process applications within 60 days. That is within the 60 days. But it used to be 40 days. This is for the resident LTC.
A friend and fellow instructor in Connecticut often calls me with questions about the process for non-residents. Just this week, she forwarded an email to me from one of her clients and it stated that their appointment will be in February 2025. Only eleven months from now. Of course, some other ridiculous things with the Mass. non-resident LTC is that it is valid for only one year. It also costs $100 per year. For the first time applicants, they have to travel to Chelsea, Mass., which is next to Boston, under the Tobin Bridge. I call it “Chelsea, where you need a gun.” The next five renewals can be done though the mail then for number six, it’s back to Chelsea.
When the first instructor called the Worcester PD, he inquired why it was going to take four months and the reason was they are understaffed. The WPD licensing department doesn’t just do LTCs. They do all the other licensing in the city. That includes licensing for taxis, fortune tellers, owning and operating pet stores, owning exotic animals, pawn brokers, second-hand articles, licenses for soliciting and canvassing, and street vendor permits. He asked the officer if he could speak freely and the officer said yes. Then he told him “This is bullshit!”.
Why are the police so understaffed? It usually comes down to money.
Let’s take a look at what the governor of the Commonwealth has been up to recently.
In January 2024, Mass. Governor Maura Healey was slammed for closing the Melnea A. Cass Community Center in Roxbury to house the influx of “immigrants.” Healey moved the “migrant families” from Logan Airport to the community center. This took a center where young and old residents in a predominantly black neighborhood away from them to give to illegals. This takes money.
How much money? CBS News Boston says vendor contracts for services and hotels have no-bid contracts for $10,000,000 for providing meals to the migrants. Hotels are collecting $64 a day per person for meals. (That’s more than I spend on myself!)
In Worcester, there is a local hotel or two that have been converted to housing “immigrants”. These immigrants do not have jobs, do not speak English, and need schools for the children. In my own little New England town of 9,800 residents, there’s a hotel that has been used for housing.
In Sutton, Mass., there is a hotel that is housing 50 immigrant families. Last fall, the immigrants set fire to the hotel and the Commonwealth sent 200 National Guard members to help assist with the disaster that ensued. In the article about the fire, Mass. State Senator Ryan Fattman said “This location is documented as high risk for drug trafficking, prostitution, weapons, and dangerous criminal offenses. In the past year, two level-three sex offenders habituated and/or were arrested at the dwelling where 21 migrant children now reside.” That’s encouraging.
Just last month, the Brockton, Mass. school committee has been dealing with a lot of violence at the high school. There have been a few stabbings and lots of chaos. The school committee asked Governor Healey for the National Guard to be sent in. She refused. Clearly, the governor is more concerned with the immigrants than with the citizens of Massachusetts.
What does this have to do with firearms? Whelp, we’re paying for all of this, either with state taxes or federal taxes. Healey likes to look good for her Democrat higher ups. Just before the Democratic National Convention in 2016, Healey was the then “AGAG” (Anti Gun) Attorney General and she made a decree that anything that looks like an AR is an AR, including copycat style ARs. She then went to schmooze with then soon to be 2016 Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton and show she’s worthy of trying to get into the hopeful Clinton White House.
While Healey kowtows to the leftist, the Mass. gun owners are being left for dead while trying to lawfully obtain a permission slip from the Commonwealth to exercise their Second Amendment Rights. In Massachusetts, you need a Firearm Identification Card or License To Carry to purchase or possess firearms and even ammunition. The gun owners are having to wait longer than the Bay State says they will have to wait to get the FID/LTC while the governor and her ilk are focusing on the migrant vote this November.
The Gun Law Listening Tour was an ongoing event from early 2023, which I’ve covered here on News2A. The bill, originally known as H.4420, from Representative Michael Day, is what resulted from the so-called listening tour. The Mass Senate’s version of the bill. All of it is infringement. All of it is unconstitutional. In the words of one of my favorite New Jersey podcasters, which everyone reading News2A knows who I’m talking about, “once you realize they hate us, it all makes sense.”
