In a state with some of the toughest gun control laws in the US, Gov. Deval Patrick tried to make them even stronger. In 2009, Patrick introduced a menu of gun control reforms aimed at curbing availability and the flow of illegal guns into the state. The centerpiece was a measure that would have limited gun purchases to one gun per month. It failed, as did most of the other provisions after gun rights advocates argued that law-abiding gun owners would suffer disproportionately.
The governor introduced the measure again, but had to give it up earlier this year in a horse trade to get certain sentencing reforms. “It does astonish me how a Democratic Legislature has as much trouble as it does taking modest proposals like these more seriously and giving them more time,” Patrick told the State House News Service in August. “I mean, one gun a month. How radical is that?”
Even in the wake of Newtown, it still may be a radical proposition.
Patrick has asked the Legislature to take up his 2009 gun control reforms yet again, especially the one-gun-per-month purchase provision. Patrick’s proposal is not getting much full-throated support.
The contours of the coming debate are already looking familiar. In a joint television appearance with Rep. David Linsky, Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League questioned the need for stronger background checks and asked why severely disturbed individuals had “access to the general public.”
Linsky, a Natick Democrat who is one of the Legislature’s most outspoken gun control advocates, suggested a round of strategy meetings on gun violence. Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo have also pledged to hold discussions.
Meanwhile, people are taking matters into their own hands. Fearing future gun bans, sales of guns in some central Massachusetts towns have risen more 300 percent in the past four years. Brimfield alone has seen an 892 percent increase in gun permits.
Worcester has the highest number of permits, but the lowest percentage of new permits issued. Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme has taken apparently taken a make-my-day approach as he takes his time issuing new paperwork for people who want to own guns.
“The Chief in Worcester is very strict,” Jim Wallace told GoLocalWorcester.com. “Even when he has been requested by lawsuit to order an individual a license, he has thumbed his nose and said ‘Well, come make me.’”
The new catch phrase is “sensible gun control.” Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno supports stronger background checks that would be designed to keep mentally ill people from legally purchasing guns.
But, in an interview with WGGB/Springfield, he underlined how the issue splits the Bay State and the rest of the country. “There is a great divide between urban and rural individuals on gun control,” Sarno said Tuesday. “We respect the Second Amendment; we’re not going to take your guns away, but you don’t need automatic assault weapons to go deer hunting, pheasant [hunting], or skeet shooting.”
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
BEACON HILL
Sen. Bruce Tarr of Gloucester calls for changes in the way the state oversees and classifies sex offenders, the Associated Press reports (via WBUR).
Gov. Deval Patrick hopes the third time will be a charm, as he lists his Milton manse for sale for $1.5 million.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Quincy has paid $58,000 for legal fees so far to fight the appeals of a police officer fired after being disciplined multiple times for numerous run-ins with some of his neighbors and superiors.
Part 4 today in the Globe series on life in the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood of Dorchester.
A judge has tossed a defamation lawsuit that the Plainridge Racecourse brought against a local gambling foe.
NEWTOWN SHOOTINGS
Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan has ordered a police officer to be posted in every one of the city’s schools in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. In Norwell, the police chief decided against sending police to classrooms to talk to students about safety, fearing their presence could upset children.
State Treasurer Steve Grossman says he’ll review the state’s pension holdings in the firearms industry. The Wall Street Journal looks inside the decision by Cerberus Capital Management to sell the gunmaker Freedom Group.
The White House backs a renewed assault weapons ban and background checks at gun shows, setting up a major fight with the NRA. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoes a bill that would have allowed guns in schools, the Detroit Free Press reports. A former top NRA official tells the Lynn Item the country needs to start “separating the mentally ill from so-called normal people.” In the American Spectator, former Reagan White House political director Jeffrey Lord makes the case abortion is at the core of gun violence, saying mass shootings have been on the rise since Roe v. Wade.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
President Obama is Time’s Person of the Year. Obama’s second term will be shaped by a “Senate mafia.”
House Speaker John Boehner wants to lock in a compromise on tax rates, while punting a fight over spending cuts into next year.
An outside report faults the State Department for “systematic failures” in the deadly attack on a Libyan diplomatic outpost. A Wall Street Journal editorial goes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
University of Pennsylvania professor Adolph Reed Jr. argues that black GOP congressman Tim Scott, tapped to take the Senate seat being vacated by Jim DeMint, preaches politics that “are utterly at odds with the preferences of most black Americans,” adding that “black Republicans have been more tokens than signs of progress.”
ELECTIONS
Republicans are preparing an assault on the Electoral College system, the National Journal reports.
Keller@Large tosses out a name he’s heard as a potential candidate in a possible special election for Sen. John Kerry’s seat: Ben Affleck.
CASINOS
The state gambling commission pulls back from the idea of putting the Southeastern Massachusetts region casino license out to bid to commercial interests and says it will give the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe more time to gain the federal approvals needed to vie for a casino.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Equipment from the missing fishing boat Foxy Lady II washes up in Saugus and Hull, the Gloucester Times reports.
Goodwin Procter is decamping its downtown digs for new waterfront office space on Fan Pier, the Globe reports.
EDUCATION
Leaders of the troubled Gloucester Community Arts Charter School have agreed not to challenge a state education board move to revoke the school’s charter at the end of the current school year. In exchange, the state will direct monthly aid payments to help keep the financially-strapped school going until June.
Three Massachusetts colleges — Williams, Amherst, and Holy Cross — make the U.S. News & World Report’s top 10 schools in percentage of alumni who donate to their alma mater.
The Bridgewater-Raynham school district is struggling with unpaid kindergarten tuition bills by about a third of the parents, forcing officials to go to small claims court to try to collect.
The Atlantic argues that income inequality is rising in Massachusetts because the poor are losing an academic arms race with the rich.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Coal may pass oil as the world’s No. 1 energy source by 2017, NPR reports (via WBUR).
The natural gas industry sues a Colorado city over its fracking ban, the Denver Post reports.
A regional trade agency has filed a complaint against the contractors for a 19-acre solar panel farm in Dartmouth, claiming the project is violating state regulations on staffing for licensed electricians.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
A 21-year-old West Bridgewater man was arrested at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, where he is a student, for making a threat on his Facebook page to go to a movie theater and “shoot it up,”
MEDIA
Dan Kennedy has an interview with Michael Morisy, founder of MuckRock.com, which was just identified as one of four sites to benefit from crowdfunding organized by the newly launched Freedom of the Press Foundation. The foundation’s board includes Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.
The Nielsen rating service has agreed to monitor Twitter to measure tweets that refer to television programming.