For a state that was ready to go to war with the British over gun confiscation, leading to the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts really isn’t a big fan of private gun ownership. They’re just not and they haven’t been for quite some time.
At one time, they were the most anti-gun state in the nation, though they’ve slipped a tad in recent years. That’s not because the loosened any gun laws either, really. No, it’s just because some states became even more restrictive.
And proponents keep trying to claim that the laws work really, really well. They might cherry-pick their data to “prove” that, but they make the claim.
Which is funny because if they worked as well as advertised, why do I see stories like this?
A teen who allegedly brought a fully loaded gun to school in South Boston was arrested on Tuesday, Boston police said.
The 14-year-old boy was pulled out of class at UP Academy Charter School when officials “became aware that a student might be in possession of a firearm,” the police said in a statement.
The teen was then arrested. He now faces charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition and possession of a gun on school grounds and will probably be arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court.
Now, the reason I bring this case up is that a 14-year-old is never going to be old enough to lawfully buy a firearm, particularly in a state like Massachusetts. I also don’t figure Boston somehow has less gun control than the rest of the state, so it’s either the same or there are some local regulations in the mix as well.
None of those kept a 14-year-old kid from getting a gun and bringing it to school. None of them.
Why didn’t they?
Well, there may be all kinds of reasons, but the most likely ones we see are that the kid is either already involved in criminal activity or they want to act like they’re involved in criminal activity. They also likely live in an area where the can get their hands on guns pretty easily regardless of little things like age requirements and background checks.
Either way, this kid got one and took it to school.
Currently, the Massachusetts legislature is looking at more than 50 gun control bills for their consideration. I’ll submit that absolutely none of them would have stopped this child from bringing a gun to school. Absolutely zero.
Why?
Because none of them will close the actual pathway to a kid like this getting a gun. Instead, they’ll keep pushing to make it harder and harder for law-abiding folks to get one and they’ll keep pushing to tell them what kind of guns they can have and how many rounds it can hold and anything else they can think of, all while kids are still getting guns. [Editor’s note – It’s not just kids getting ahold of guns illegally in Massachusetts. Police in Springfield arrested a guy this week on gun charges who was out on bail and wearing a GPS ankle monitor after a previous bust for gun and drug possession back in September. – Cam]
Why is this so hard for gun control advocates to comprehend? It’s not the people who follow the law that are the problem and it never has been, so why make it harder for them?
Unless, of course, that’s the whole point.
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