On Tuesday May 23, the Massachusetts Gun Law Listening Tour, hosted by Representative Michael Day, had its seventh stop at Framingham State University. The topic of the tour stop that day was about shootings that occur at schools.
The panel consisted of several anti-gun folks, including a superintendent of Framingham, a principal, a school counselor, and a school teacher. The panel seemed completely biased towards an anti-civil liberties viewpoint.
One of the local politicians stood up to talk, which hasn’t happened at many of these. The politician that spoke is one of the most anti-gun politicians in the Boston Metrowest area, Representative David Linsky, D-Mass. He stood up to bloviate about how long he’s been anti-gun. The nonsense gun bills he’s proposed includes banning so-called “high capacity magazines,” so-called “assault weapons,” banning all semi-automatic firearms including handguns, raising the firearm identification card age to 21, and defining new “sensitive places,” similar to what New York and New Jersey have done.
Linsky also stated that he “disagreed with the Supreme Court” on the Bruen decision from June, 2022. While boasting about the bills he’s proposed, Linsky also said Massachusetts is falling behind on defining “assault weapons” and magazine size. Linsky seems like he wants to punish License to Carry holders who own pre-ban magazines – those manufactured prior to September 13, 1994 – stating that those magazines with more than 10 rounds is a “loophole” in the laws.
Massachusetts State Representative Steve Owens, D-Mass., talked about how he was affected by a school shooting in his hometown in Columbia, New York in 2004, several years after he graduated. He stated that the murderer had “a lot of drugs, became institutionalized, and was on various meds.’ Owens said that things haven’t changed “but the guns have gotten better.” Pump action shotguns, like the one this murderer used, have been around since 1893. Speculating, Owens said he thinks everyday, “what would have happened if, instead of a shotgun filled with birdshot, he had an AR15 or something similar?” To me, the bigger issue isn’t that he got access to a pump action shotgun, but that he was on lots of drugs, medication, and had a willingness to take aim at his fellow man.
There were some of the usual suspects in the Moms Demand Action red shirts and the orange shirts – Massachusetts Coalition to End Gun Violence. But there were also some of the DC Project members wearing their teal shirts, a strong and intellectual counter-visual to the pinko reds. There were also more pro-gun supporters, instructors, and friends to civil-liberties that attended.
One of the supporters of the Second Amendment spoke up about how when he was a teenager, he carried a Swiss Army knife to school and even brought a rifle to go hunting after school. Even though he said he was bullied at school, he would have never thought to go on a shooting spree. He said that he believes that something is wrong with our society. Contrary to Owens’ point, he says that guns haven’t changed, other than they have more plastic than wood on them. Owens probably hates modern firearms because they’re black.
The Framingham principal spoke about the school having a “shot spotter” system that detects a firearm discharging in the school. One of the custodial staff was changing a battery on the system, and the alarm went off. The principal said that no one was prepared for the alarm and chaos ensued. He expressed that, in the days following, several students and teachers alike suffered from PTSD from the non-incident incident. One of the attendees is a Framingham high school student and also spoke about how the incident affected her and her friends. That sounds like it was a teachable moment for the principal, and hopefully he’ll be instituting the execution of proper drills. The ounce of prevention they could have used left them dealing with pounds of cure.
One of the attendees was a student from Framingham High School. She brought up a false swatting incident she witnessed. She also stated that a couple days later, being in the same room when they got the announcement about the swatting incident, it brought her right back to feeling that she had when the police arrived.
A mother of a student stood up and talked about her daughter going through some mental anguish, wondering if there’s going to be a shooting in their school and wondering how she would get out if there were. She talked about when her daughter realized there were two rooms in the school where there is only one way in and one way out of the room. Sounds like she’s becoming a student of situational awareness.
Another young woman, a member of The DC Project, who has spoken at a few of these stops, asked again why aren’t schools protected by armed security the same as the politicians. This is always a great question to ask the anti-gun politicians who have police protection where they work. However, there is never an answer from the panel or the public when this question is asked. For the record, there were about five or six officers seated near the front at this stop.
There were more gun supporters than there were at other stops. It’s great to hear them stand up and speak out for the Second Amendment. Many of them get up and talk about how keeping our youth inline begins at home, with the parents. Others observe how society has an effect on the behavior of young people. Many speculate that it could be movies and or video games.
Most of these policies and the coddling of our youth has created a fear-based society. That’s by design. One gentleman pointed out that younger folks who grow up afraid of sounds could very well be thrown off by a car backfiring. The constant fear mongering was pointed out by someone discussing magazine capacity. He noted that even with magazine capacity restrictions, someone who wants to commit a mass shooting can carry and use several magazines, which would be well within the law… other than the killing people part. Or bringing a firearm into a school. But the magazine law, that could easily be followed and carnage will ensue anyhow.
A Moms Demand Action member talked about how they’re concerned about their kids or grandkids going to school and having the school get shot up. One elderly woman said she sits on her email all day, waiting to hear bad news about her grandkids’ school getting shot up.
One of the comparisons brought up by the anti-gunners was between a gun license and a driver’s license. There was a comparison to a driver’s license and how you can’t buy a tank. However, doing some research while this grandma was talking, someone in Massachusetts can get a tank endorsement with only a written test.
Renee Gagne, from The DC Project, pointed out that comparing gun licenses to driver’s licenses and making a licensing scheme for Constitutional Rights, isn’t the same. A driver’s license for driving is a privilege. Continuing on, she informed the audience that you can’t practice shooting until you have a License to Carry, unlike getting a driving permit before you get a license. She goes on to point out that the ALICE program that many schools utilize lacks a medical component. She brings up FASTER Saves Lives, which is a program that gives teachers some firearm knowledge and experience, but also gives them some trauma first aid skills. Teaching someone to help a shooting victim is a life-saving skill to know. Many victims of a mass shooting bleed out while waiting for first aid.
Kerrie Ann Auclair, also from The DC Project, spoke about how important it is that we’re having these discussions and that we need to focus on protecting our kids like we project our politicians. Auclair brought up that the bullying that other generations faced usually ended when school ended. But with social media, bullying keeps happening when school is over.
A gentleman started talking about how a student killed a teacher with a crossbow in Spain. I’m not sure if he was pushing for crossbow free zones or what his point was. He certainly made the argument, knowingly or unknowingly, that where there’s a will to commit murder, there’s a way.
One of the last speakers went off the deep end. He started off by saying that his brother was killed execution style working in a convenience store in New York City. He went on to say the .357 Magnum revolver was stolen from a gun collector in Delaware and made its way up through various criminals’ hands, until it was in NYC. And if that gun collector obeyed the storage laws in Delaware, then his brother wouldn’t have been killed. At that point, it seemed like a stalling technique to run interference, not giving the pro-freedom side more time to let their comments be heard.
The anti-gun crowd really needs an education about firearms. They all get up spewing that they don’t know anything about them, but then postulate as to why should someone own a “semi-automatic” or an “AK whatever?” We need to continue to rally our side at these kinds of events and we need to speak up. We represent the law-abiding, background check-passing, responsible gun owners, and we need to jump through even more hoops every time a politician opens their mouth. In order to make these people “happy”,“satisfied,” or make them “feel safe”- or whatever, it’s always at the expense of the liberties of the law-abiding. The knowledge the anti-gunners, or gun ignorant, has about guns is what they hear from MSNBC, CNN, and whatever they see in the movies. Basically whatever that they’ve been fed to believe is true!
