Crime soared with Mass. gun law

[JuergenG]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/02/17/the-nation-toughest-gun-control-law-made-massachusetts-less-safe/3845k7xHzkwTrBWy4KpkEM/story.html?camp=newsletter

Quite refreshing to read this in the Boston Globe, which is known to be a leftist rag by any means.

The 1998 legislation did cut down, quite sharply, on the legal use of guns in Massachusetts. Within four years, the number of active gun licenses in the state had plummeted. “There were nearly 1.5 million active gun licenses in Massachusetts in 1998,” the AP reported. “In June [2002], that number was down to just 200,000.” The author of the law, state Senator Cheryl Jacques, was pleased that the Bay State’s stiff new restrictions had made it possible to “weed out the clutter.”

But the law that was so tough on law-abiding gun owners had quite a different impact on criminals.

Since 1998, gun crime in Massachusetts has gotten worse, not better. In 2011, Massachusetts recorded 122 murders committed with firearms, the Globe reported this month — “a striking increase from the 65 in 1998.” Other crimes rose too. Between 1998 and 2011, robbery with firearms climbed 20.7 percent. Aggravated assaults jumped 26.7 percent.

Doesn't this sound familiar?

[EJER Fuchs]

The law - Chapter 180 of the Acts of 1998 - actually CREATED criminals. It did so by terminating Firearms Identification Cards that had an unspecified termination date ("Expiration: Indefinite"). These were commonly, if incorrectlly, considered "lifetime FIDs."

When the legislature terminated ALL those FID cards, it made criminals out of all those formerly lawful FID Cards who failed to renew those cards. After all, the license may have ended, but the guns did not disappear. Note also that, without a valid license, those FORMER holders could not transfer the guns to family members or sell their guns privately. They would even need someone who was still licensed to take them to a dealer to be sold.

So - who WASN'T affected by all this?

That's right; the CRIMINALS!

This is my shocked face............