Welcome to the "State of Confusion", Massachusetts gun store owner and 2A advocate Toby Leary tells Bearing Arms' Cam & Co. After Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday attached an "emergency preamble" to a gun control bill she originally signed back in July, the state's sweeping new gun control law is now in effect and enforceable... except where it's not.

O'Leary says almost everyone impacted by the new law is confused about what is and isn't allowed right now, and state officials seem to be making it up as they go along. For instance, one of the provisions of the new law (officially known as Chapter 135 but called "The Devil's Snare" and the "Lawful Citizens Imprisonment Act" by the Gun Owners Action League) changes the definition of "firearm" in state statute, and now requires the state to approve rifles and shotguns by placing them on the state's Firearm Roster before they can be legally sold. 

The current firearms roster doesn't list any long guns, which, under the clear letter of Chapter 135, means that those guns should be prohibited for sale. But Leary says he and other FFLs received a memo on Wednesday afternoon informing them that, for now anyway, they can continue to sell at least some of the long guns already in their inventory.

They said, 'don't worry about it! You can continue to sell any of the rifles and shotguns that you were allowed to sell before. As long as it doesn't violate any other statute, you go ahead can violate this statute. We're gonna let you do that while we get our act together, until we get the roster created, until we get the Firearms Control Advisory Board seated, until we work out what this all looks like, go ahead and sell some guns. Don't worry about it.' 

That proves this wasn't an emergency. This wasn't a crisis. They're telling us we can continue to sell the guns that Healey found, 70 days after signing this law, to suddenly be such a threat that she had to sign an emergency preamble 70 days later. So it doesn't make any sense. 

On the one hand, that's good news for both retailers and customers. At the same time, the selective enforcement of Chapter 135s provisions shows that the law simply wasn't ready to be rolled out. And the state of confusion that Leary talked about is real. He tells Bearing Arms that he had to talk with one local police department that was denying Licence to Carry applications based on the governor's signing of the emergency preamble putting Chapter 135 into immediate effect and remind them that lawmakers quietly pushed back the new training mandates for a license to carry for 18 months. 

In that case, Leary was successful at convincing the police to keep accepting (and approving) LTC applications, but he says there are other provisions in the law that apparently are being enforced that will turn previously lawful gun owners into criminals simply for continuing to posses the firearms they legally purchased.

What about those 18-to-20-year-olds who are in possession of a semi-automatic shotgun that they legally bought with their Firearms ID card? Today they're a felon in the eyes of the state. What about the FID holders that own a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun? They're felons in the eyes of the state. And meanwhile, I don't take great comfort in the fact that the state is giving me one sentence of guidance saying dealers can continue to sell rifles and shotguns so long as they don't violate any other provision of the law. This provision is okay to violate, according to them. They're acting like dictatorial tyrants, Cam. That's really what it comes down to. The rules don't apply to them, the rules apply to us, and they'll tell us what rules we have to follow and which ones we don't. 

Leary says he wishes he could give customers a clear answer on what the new laws mean for them, but he's left shrugging his shoulders and telling them, "who knows?" The state has offered so little guidance that even law enforcement agencies are in the dark, and enforcement is likely to vary wildly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. 

So why did Healey sign the emergency preamble putting Chapter 135 into effect when there are still so many unanswered questions and regulations yet to be written? The governor bizarrely contended on Wednesday that it took her and her staff two months to figure out what was in the law, but once they did they determined it was necessary to put it into immediate effect. Healey's assertion doesn't make any sense, and the fact that at least one portion of Chapter 135 has been suspended until further notice makes it clear that the state wasn't ready to start enforcement. In fact, it probably wouldn't have been ready by October 23rd, when the law was supposed to take effect. 

No, the real reason why Healey moved up the effective date a few weeks is by attaching an emergency preamble to the legislation, even two months after she signed it, she can thwart the grassroots opposition trying to suspend the law until a referendum on Chapter 135 takes place in 2026. Leary says volunteers have already collected more than enough signatures to meet the threshold to suspend the law until voters have weighed in, but Healey was intent on denying the will of the people by belatedly appending the emergency preamble to the bill.

Leary says the signature gathering for the referendum will continue for another week, but he also hinted that additional lawsuits will be coming that will challenge various aspects of Chapter 135 now that they're officially on the books. Be sure to check out the entire conversation with Toby Leary in the video window below, and stay tuned for new developments. There are sure to be more twists and turns in the days ahead as 2A advocates fight to restore the right to keep and bear arms... and as state officials continue to make up (and suspend) the rules as they go along.