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Massachusetts Considers Denying Constitutional Rights to Innocent Arrestees
National Review Online ^ | February 3, 2014 | Charles C. W. Cooke

Posted on 02/05/2014 8:16:50 PM PST by neverdem

What is it about school shootings that so lobotomizes the political and academic classes? Per Boston.com:

More than a year after the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., a panel of academic experts today released a long-awaited report recommending that Massachusetts tighten its gun laws, which are already considered among the toughest in the country.

The panel made 44 recommendations, including that Massachusetts join a national mental health database for screening potential gun owners, that it beef up firearms training requirements, and that it eliminate Class B gun licenses, which are seldom used.

It recommended that the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association help define a series of factors that could be used to prohibit “unsuitable persons” from acquiring firearms. The panel said the current process allows local law enforcement officials too much discretion to determine whether a person is suitable to be granted a license to carry.

This is your standard reactionary nonsense, guaranteed to have no effect in a state that already boasts some of the strongest gun-control laws in the United States and designed primarily to make people who know nothing about firearms feel better about themselves. But it is what comes next that should horrify one and all — regardless of their politics:

It also said Massachusetts should require anyone wanting to purchase a hunting rifle or a shotgun to pass those standards of suitability. That could allow local police chiefs to deny gun purchases to people who have been arrested, but not convicted, of a crime.

Let’s just repeat that, for clarity’s sake: Massachusetts is considering denying “gun purchases to people who have been arrested, but not convicted, of a crime.” In other words, an American state is thinking about denying a constitutional right to the innocent because they happen to have been picked up by authorities that couldn’t prove that they had done anything wrong. I hope I speak for everybody here when I say, No, no, and no again. No to the abject hysteria that has slowly grown in small parts of the country; no to the ignorance that is burning like acid through reason and through the law; and no to a cabal of politicians whose disdain for the Second Amendment is so pronounced that they are happy not only to undermine that provision in pursuit of their quixotic goals but to dilute the rest of the American settlement into the bargain. Enough is enough. Where art thou, ACLU?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: banglist
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1 posted on 02/05/2014 8:16:51 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

The ACLU is busy going after some Marines who dared to bow their heads in prayer at an official Marine ceremony commemorating the birth of the Core. No joke. They could not care less about 2nd Amendment rights. But free exercise of religion by Marines? Lawsuit time!


2 posted on 02/05/2014 8:22:56 PM PST by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: piytar

Um, Corps. Oops.


3 posted on 02/05/2014 8:23:41 PM PST by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: piytar

Fret Not ! The gay mafia doesn’t even know what THAT means!
Gawd , these people are a frightful embarrassment! I think… no never mind can’t say it. The Gaystapo will be at my door.


4 posted on 02/05/2014 8:32:44 PM PST by acapesket
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To: neverdem

Gun laws apply to law abiding citizens. Criminals not so much. They are gun grabbers and not violence preventers.


5 posted on 02/05/2014 8:38:50 PM PST by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: neverdem
Strait out of the Third Reich. These are the Nazis.

Gun Control in the Third Reich
6 posted on 02/05/2014 8:55:54 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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To: neverdem

No surprise. The left is dropping all pretense that the rule of law matters to them. One would expect MA to be a leader of that trend.


7 posted on 02/05/2014 9:10:54 PM PST by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: Lady Jag; pabianice; johnthebaptistmoore; C210N; HenpeckedCon; Makana; cynwoody; Stepan12; ...
BANG!
8 posted on 02/05/2014 9:20:40 PM PST by neverdem (Register pressure cookers! /s)
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To: neverdem
People cherish children and try to shield their innocence in different ways. Righties tend to want to protect children from sexual corruption and trust their child rearing to prevent senseless violence.
Lefties tend to abhor violence - however fake and imaginary - while seeing sexual corruption as more of a myth given that sexuality is part of the human condition and trust their child rearing to prevent anything bad.

“Will no one think of the children?!” is usually a rallying cry for doing something stupid on any part of the political spectrum.

9 posted on 02/05/2014 9:25:23 PM PST by FluffyTexan
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To: neverdem

*sigh*

Arrest them all, let Obama sort them out.


10 posted on 02/05/2014 9:41:49 PM PST by null and void (<--- unwilling cattle-car passenger on the bullet train to serfdom)
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To: neverdem
What is it about school shootings that so lobotomizes the political and academic classes?

They're liberals. They were lobotomized to begin with. The school shootings just give them cover to try to further implement their totalitarian agenda.

11 posted on 02/05/2014 10:15:44 PM PST by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: neverdem
What we are witnessing is the rebirth of authoritarianism

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

12 posted on 02/05/2014 11:21:32 PM PST by expatguy (Donate to "An American Expat in SE Asia")
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To: neverdem
What is it about school shootings that so lobotomizes the political and academic classes

Nonsensical question. The school shootings are just an excuse for more gun control to these people. If they really cared that much about student safety they would be focusing on much more likely sources of injury or death, like drug abuse.

13 posted on 02/06/2014 12:01:29 AM PST by expat1000
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To: neverdem

Maek my words, if they can do this to gun rights, they can seize hour house too for having been arrested.

There is no limit to that historicist precedent.


14 posted on 02/06/2014 12:46:34 AM PST by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: piytar

I found the ACLU to be a joke real quick when they would not take cases against the State unless it affected a non white non male.


15 posted on 02/06/2014 12:49:57 AM PST by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: neverdem

Massachusetts has always been a petri dish of experiments by the communists and their supporters to undermine the American Constitution and to subvert American society. They are the East Coast equivalent of California, Chicago, and nearby New York City.

Most Soviet spies were Americans from New England and New York. Some even went to Harvard.


16 posted on 02/06/2014 12:55:04 AM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: neverdem

Heck cops can kill with impunity now. They just have to claim feeling threatened and your life is over. Issue a no knock warrant at the wrong house and kill the occupants and their dogs and they walk without so much as a slap on the wrist. I don’t trust the state or their monopoly on violence. The government is not your friend and the cops are their enforcers, not your protectors. Yes the 95% of bad cops give the rest a bad name. When I see cops protesting the militarization of local police forces and abuse of citizens maybe I will change my mind. But I don’t see that ever happening.


17 posted on 02/06/2014 1:06:51 AM PST by Organic Panic
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To: piytar

ACLU: Another Clueless Lawyers Union


18 posted on 02/06/2014 2:10:27 AM PST by maddog55
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
.....a petri dish of experiments..

Yep, the whole Kennedy clan is just one big cornucopia of amalgamated 'growths' - especially Ted Kennedy.

19 posted on 02/06/2014 2:23:11 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: facedown

As a gun owner in MA, I feel bullied. It hurts my self esteem. Can the ACLU help me now?


20 posted on 02/06/2014 4:17:16 AM PST by Vermont Lt (If you want to keep your dignity, you can keep it. Period........ Just kidding, you can't keep it.)
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