Not that long ago, an LGBT group issued a travel advisory for Florida, saying the state’s anti-LGBT legislation made it dangerous for anyone from that community to visit.
It was a novel attack, even if more than a little silly. Don’t like Florida’s laws all you want, but don’t fabricate risks to people that simply don’t exist.
But it seems two can play at that game.
A gun-rights group has now done the same thing to Massachusetts.
A gun-rights advocacy group issued a “travel advisory” for Massachusetts after a Democrat lawmaker filed a bill that would put more restrictions on firearms.
The National Association for Gun Rights issued the advisory on Tuesday and says that the law would be among the most restrictive in the U.S.
“The National Association for Gun Rights has issued a Travel Advisory for gun owners to and within Massachusetts in response to the State Legislature’s 140-page bill, House Docket 4420. HD 4420 is a comprehensive gun control bill that would ostensibly ban more guns than any current law in the United States,” the organization said in a press release.
…
Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights, said in a statement that “This is probably the biggest and worst package of gun control regulation I have ever seen.”
“A ban on almost all guns, registration of every gun and magazine in the state (old and new) and a de facto ban on firearms carry are in the bill. Massachusetts just secured top position as the most hostile state in the union to gun owners,” Brown said. “Your gun rights and your freedom are at serious risk in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If you live there you might want to pack your bags and if you are thinking of traveling there, you need to reconsider.”
Brown is correct about this bill.
One thing the law does is basically require the barrel of all firearms to be serialized. The problem is that there’s not a single firearm, to my knowledge, in the country with a serialized barrel. Until there is, there are no firearms in the nation that would actually be legal in Massachusetts.
But let’s also note that this travel advisory isn’t really about the bill. That’s just a pretext to poke at the LGBT group issuing a travel advisory for Florida.
It’s kind of the same thing here.
Well, sort of.
With the Massachusetts bill, you definitely don’t want to be taking a gun into the state. Not as things currently stand, anyway. But it’s also Massachusetts. How many people were generally bringing guns into the state anyway?
Either way, though, I have to give NAGR credit. This travel advisory was actually a solid way to draw attention to what an absolute trainwreck this bill actually is.
I get that lawmakers think this will make the law simpler–or, more accurately, I get that they claim they think that–but the barrel thing alone makes this a disaster in the making.
The best-case scenario here is that this was created by someone who knows absolutely nothing about firearms. The worst case is that they knew exactly what they were doing.
I know which I think is more likely.
Anyway, this travel advisory happened. Massachusetts is still considering a horrific law, and we’re going to keep pointing out just how bad this actually is because yeah, it’s really, really bad.
And not all that many people in the state legislature seem to actually care.
However, if this survives somehow to become law and possibly make it through the first hurdle or two in legal challenges, wait and watch how many other states jump on board.
Then we’ll start seeing things get interesting.
