And there you were, thinking that micro-stamping was the be-all, end-all of the government’s attempts to keep track of personal firearms. Nope. It’s micro-tracking. The latest affront to gun rights and privacy is on the table, again, courtesy of the Big Brothers in the Bay State. State Senator Andrew Petruccelli has re-introduced a bill calling for a commission to study GPS tracking for firearms. I’ve belled the Senator’s office. No joy. He might call back. He might not. The text of the bill reads as follows . . .
The Global Positioning System Locators in Firearms Study Commission shall consist of 7 members; the House of Representatives Chair on Public Safety and Homeland Security, the Senate Chair on Public Safety and Homeland Security, one member of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, appointed by the Secretary of the Executive Office and Public Safety and Security, one designee from the Gun Owners’ Action League (“GOAL”), one Chief of Police from a city or town, appointed by the Governor, one designee from the City of Boston Mayor’s Office, appointed by the Mayor of Boston, one designee appointed by the Boston City Council.
The commission shall report to the general court the results of its investigation and study, together with drafts of legislation necessary to carry such recommendations into effect by filing the same with the clerk of the senate before the bill filing deadline for the 2013-2014 general court session.
I called the aforementioned Gun Owners’ Action League and spoke to Executive Director Jim Wallace about their participation on the commission. “That’s news to me,” Wallace told TTAG. “Petruccelli never talked to us about it.” So what of the idea itself? “It’s ridiculous. Why does the government need to know where I am or a piece of my property?”
I guess that means he won’t be participating? “That’s up to our Executive Board,” Wallace said. “But I don’t want to go on that commission. . . It’s just another example of Massachusetts out of control gun laws. Twelve years ago we had 1.5 million guns owners. Today that’s down to about 230 thousand. Gun crime has risen 200 percent.”
Eh, why not? They’re already trying to (or have they succeeded yet?) mandate a “micro-stamping” process on ammunition that doesn’t actually exist yet. While they’re at it, why don’t they mandate that all firearms in MA be modified to fire high intensity laser beams so that lead won’t contaminate the environment?
These guys have been watching too much TV.
Why don’t they just implant the GPS in every resident and then they will be able to track everyone in MA at all times. This is what you get when you attempt to live in the “PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF MA”.
They already have, and they got the unwitting public to not only volunteer for it, but to pay for it. It’s commonly called a “cell phone” and even includes a bonus bug at no additional charge.
Mehbee vee could just tattoo zeh numbahs on zeh people.
Not sure what the big deal with this is. In case none of you noticed, the terrorists this week were located by the very same misinformation you guys seem to spread. GPS chips have been used to locate people for the last several years. AT&T proved that with the family tracking program in 2008. Most new cars come with GPS chips as well…. if it has onstar or an internal gps system…it has a gps chip in it broadcasting your location. All that needs to be done is for someone to turn on the computer and look it up. If you guys were hoping to not be tracked…. you missed that boat in the early 2000’s. These days, people are all too easy to give up their location just through social media sites. You’re worried about a gun having a gps chip in it??? Only if you’re planning on murdering someone with it. It’s either that or many more years of this battle raging until the government gets what it wants.
Oh Fey State, my adopted land, how you constantly embarrass me. Before I finally bid Massachusetts a fondless farewell, I’ll make sure I microstamp all my ammuntion, GPS-enable all my guns, and write a personal note to every politician advising them oh-so-politely to eat sh!t and die.
I got a good chuckle out of the headline because I thought it was satire. I should have known better.
And how will these GPS units be powered? Microfusion?
Dilithium Crystals probably.
Gas operated? Maybe a little turbine that spins a generator that recharges a battery. You’ll have to fire off a round or two every day to keep the GPS powered up and let ’em know where you are.
This is hilarious. A this moment the champagne corks are popping in Wayne LaPierre’s office. They’re raising a glass to the state of MA and preparing to party naked tonight. The NRA’s funding is now assured for the next 10 years.
This could come in very handy actually…. As in, Where in the heck did I stick that back-up gun? Some people might like to be able to set it up so an alarm goes off if you get more than 3 paces from your gun, sort of like those seat belt alarms in cars. Afterall, not wearing your gun is a safety-issue.
How would I turn the GPS off when I place the pistol in my safe?
And then of course there is the issue of wearing it in the shower, these would need to be water proof.
You need to use a lead casing Ralph.
Ralph, use a putty knife.
So, let’s see, if I’m a law-abiding citizen, my guns would be GPS’d when they’re not used unlawfully anyway. But if I’m a criminal, I’d probably figure out a way to break or remove the GPS tracking unit, whatever it may be, anyway.
Just leave it to the Brady Wingnuts and you will be a criminal, whether or not you do something bad.
‘Ol lady Brady will never stop trying to make sure EVERYONE feels her pain.
While this is of course a terrible idea, the same idea implemented on a voluntary basis would be fantastic, i.e. the LoJack of firearms.
Would be a great idea for police weapons.
Yeah, along with a camera that captures the 10 seconds before and after Officer Peabody pulled the trigger.
Except as with most gun control bills that will save us all from ourselves, the police will be exempt.
After consuming mass quanities of alcohol I have had some great ideas.
Even if I remembered to write them down I usually couldn’t figure out exactly what the idea was.
Obviously this guy is way ahead of me.
What about visitors to the People’s Republic? I worked in Boston for several weeks years ago, and carried everywhere I went. No problems; even talked with cops who didn’t know I was carrying.
Dude! Massachusetts has reciprocity with no one. If you want to carry there, you need a non-resident LTC. Firearms course, visit to Adams Mass., $100 a year.
How’s the unit able to get a GPS fix when it’s locked up in the Masshole mandatory gun safe? Perhaps the freakin’ idiots don’t know that radio waves are “line-of-sight”. Maybe the idiots don’t even know they operate by radio waves! I recently ran into a teenager that thought that kids invented texting because the first time she had seen it, it was a kid doing it, and she had never seen an adult use it until recently. I told her to Google “wireless telegraphy” , she looked at me like I was from outer space when I asked “haven’t you heard of Morse code? This is typical of the kids produced by our schools these days. It’s hard to believe that Mass. was once the the leading state for technology!
Once again, when dealing with any question of gun control, the first question should be: will this effect criminals in any way? If the answer is “no,” as it is here, that should be the end of it, before questions of rights are even raised.
The science of ballistics cannot be stopped from functioning in a device that isn’t fitted with a GPS. (Notwithstanding the liberal belief that “science” is some kind of totemic spirit that’s on their side.) The only thing this would accomplish would be to create a new class of citizen criminals: otherwise law-abiding folks who strip the GPS out of their guns. I suppose for a certain type, that end would be desirable in itself.
Damn! I’m glad I live in Texas!! Off now to the local gun show in Irving, TX this weekend, I’ve got my eye on a new Springfield 9mm
Why not implant the chips into the legislators so the people will know what THEY are up to. You folks have a lot of issues that are more important than that. I left Ma. in 1963 and only go back for Reunions, would I live there, never. I retired to SC where people’s rights are not infringed upon. I buy guns and ammunition without looking over my shoulder. Nobody knows how many guns I have because it’s no ones business. We have public shooting ranges managed by the Forest Rangers in the Sumter National Forest. I live outside the city limits so legally I could shoot in my back yard. Hunting and shooting is a way of life down here, with a high level of skill and consideration for others. Only in Mass. could you get away with that kind of crap where the second ammendment means nothing. Hey up there never give in, remember you own the balet box.
Unless there’s been some astounding broadcast development, GPS chips tell the gun where it is, not anybody else.
They’re receivers, not transmitters.
Hey, Massachusetts legislators are politicians, not engineers. Most of them are lawyers, and yet are such poor lawyers that the laws they write not only don’t work, but often don’t make sense, are self-contradictory, and sometimes even say the exact opposite of what the writer meant. Now you expect them to understand technology? Jeepers, the Massachusetts statehouse has what is probably the last human-operated elevator in the free world, and the reason is a tossup between “it gives somebody’s useless brother-in-law a government paycheck to sit on his ass and pull a lever” and “the legislators are too stupid to run a self-serve unit by themselves.”
This could have been handy for all those guns that the BATF sold to the Mexican drug cartels.
Oh come on people. How would the GPS be powered????
Do you really need to ask this question? This is Massachusetts after all.
The guns would be fitted with small solar panels and also a windmill attachment for night time use.
Maybe Deval could toss some of the work to that “green jobs” solar company who took all the tax breaks and then moved to China.
These stories make my blood boil and make me more determined than ever to escape over the border to New Hampshire as soon as I can.
Except for the guns sold in Hyannis, on which the windmills would be replaced by a fuel cell that runs off bootleg whiskey.
@rhhardin
That won’t stop the government! Besides, even if it did work, how long would it take to figure out that the average criminal could send police on a wild goose chase. Think about it, the police would be chasing the gun instead of the bad guy. I almost hope this works out. I could start a new career!
Gun makers would love it if every crime produced a discarded gun. These people are too stupid to be running our lives.
Completely pointless.
GPS needs a sizable battery to communicate with satellites, and there is no battery that you could possible fit into a gun (and still be able to use it as a gun) that will run a GPS unit for very long. I guess their next step would be to require you to charge the battery before the gun would work.
Effing morons.
If you really want to have fun, suggest RFID, which they they probably think can be read from space. It’s real advantages are that it is completely unpowered, works at no more than 20 feet, and does nothing but say “this is a gun here.”
How about embedding a chip in all politicians, SEIU employees and cops.
That way we’ll know whom they are screwing and where to deliver the donuts.
As a former MA LTC-A holder, I’d like to know the number of LICENSED guns used annually to commit crimes in the Commonwealth of MA. Note that, in the manner of the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, EVERY legally purchased or transferred handgun in the State of MA is already registered with the State. While the State hasn’t the foggiest idea which gangbangers or criminals are carrying what, they DO know about every legal gun.
My guess is that the number approximates ZERO. As in NONE of the small (and dwindling) number of individuals in MA who have the rare privilege of legally owning handguns there actually use them to rob or shoot anyone in a given year.
Even if that number does exceed zero, I’d bet any amount of money that more individuals are stabbed to death every year in MA than shot with legally owned guns. Maybe we need GPS devices installed into knives!
As to the merits of this idea, since NO handgun manufacturer is going to comply with this asinine theory of inserting (expensive and easily disabled) tracking chips into their product, the net effect of any regulation requiring them would be a de-facto ban on all new guns into MA.
Which is probably the REAL point of this pilot study.
And the chance to have nice lunches on my dime.
Here’s my answer to all of this: vote with your feet, and let the state implode on its own.
Texas is hiring.
^^^
seems like a good idea, but then you’ll have what is going on in southern NH right now. all the liberal idiots from MA moved to nashua b/c they didn’t want to pay sales or income taxes but they bring their foolish ideas with them, hence why it’s been leaning liberal in the last few elections.
are you sure you want that in texas? you have enough problems with the mexicans who are still butthurt over having their asses handed to them back in the 1830’s and think that texas, along with CA, NM, AZ, CO, and UT belong to them…
The implant will be in those who insist on confounding their government by owning the means to irritate them. The user grabs the gun and the signal is sent. Batteries will be in the device that goes into the user. Don’t want to comply? Well, then, don’t defy. OR GO GET ACTIVE AND AT LEAST VOTE…
Vibration and shock coupled with gun oil would break those chips rather quickly I would think, or they may just fall out. Power management is another big problem and metal gun cases or being in the glove box would block the signal. This sounds like just another government money pit. It would be funny seeing how they try and enforce this when it can not be implemented in any workable way.
I predict that as soon a smart criminal swaps GPS units or GPS ID’s between his gun and a gun belonging
to some lead anti-gunner, and then goes and commits one heckofa crime spree,
they’ll overturn this stoopid rule in a heartbeat.
Whaddya think ?
Why can’t they just leave justice alone ?
“…Twelve years ago we had 1.5 million guns owners. Today that’s down to about 230 thousand. Gun crime has risen 200 percent.”
And what does that say about gun owners?
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