Starting today, Massachusetts residents wanting to keep or carry a handgun have to navigate a whole new training curriculum, and some folks may find it difficult to find an instructor who's been certified by the state to teach them.
Even though Chapter 135 was amended by Gov. Maura Healey to take immediate effect in the fall of 2024, the state almost immediately delayed implementation of many portions of the law, including the new training mandates. Healey's move was designed to prevent the law from being put on hold while it's challenged through a ballot initiative, while the delays were supposed to give state officials time to ensure a smooth roll out.
So how's that going? Not well.
The state did publish a list of approved courses on Wednesday afternoon. However, not every submitted course made the cut.Instructors at Pioneer Valley Arms in East Longmeadow spent the afternoon refreshing their emails, waiting for the state to approve the new classes they are supposed to start teaching in less than twelve hours. The state published that list around 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. Afterwards, we spoke with the owner of the gun shop who still had no answers. The course they submitted wasn’t on it.
For gun owners across Massachusetts, starting on Thursday, the rules change. But the people responsible for teaching those rules? They still don’t know if they’re allowed to. At Pioneer Valley Arms, the doors are open, but the answers are missing.
“With the new regulations, basically every existing class, unless it has been updated and approved, is no longer considered valid,” we spoke with Owner of Pioneer Valley Arms Michael Meunier just before two Wednesday afternoon.
It's bad enough that these instructors were kept waiting until the last minute to learn whether or not they could actually continue training would-be gun owners. Even worse, those instructors who have been approved have no way to give students their certificate showing they've passed their training course. The state's online portal for instructors isn't slated to boot up for another two weeks... and that's without any unexpected issues that could delay implementation even further.
“We have a situation where we have all of these great firearms instructors and people wanting to lawfully exercise their Second Amendment civil rights in Massachusetts that don’t know if they’re going to be able to put forth a course or take a course, ” Jon Green directs education for GOAL — The Gun Owners’ Action League — one of the state’s largest firearms advocacy groups.
We spoke with him two hours before that list came out. He said the state is rolling this out without proper funding or communication to local police. That means more hurdles and higher costs. New rules will eventually require “live fire” training, meaning students must actually shoot a gun to get a permit. Instructors say that will likely double the price of classes.
Green says some police departments are even turning away applicants who've already completed their training under the rules that were in place until today, which sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Other departments, according to Western Mass News, are refusing to accept or process any applications until applicants have their certificates in hand.
In short, the rollout is already a debacle. Not that you'd know it by reading or listening to most Massachusetts media outlets. The Boston Globe's website has stories on the start of the Red Sox season (speaking of debacles), the "best April Fools jokes across New England," and features on several reality TV shows, but I couldn't find a single story about the state screwing up the rollout of these new training requirements and the impact it's going to have on residents trying to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Western Mass News is a notable exception in recognizing this is a big story, and I appreciate their coverage. I do wish they'd been able to get someone from the state government to comment on the botched rollout of the new training requirements, but I'm not surprised that officials are keeping their mouths shut and ducking accountability for the massive issues trainers and their students are now facing.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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