Not for home use---unless the Chief says so (courtesy zimbio.com)

Massachusetts’ post-Newtown gun control legislation—An Act To Strengthen and Enhance Firearms Laws in the Commonwealth—is old news. Governor Duvall Patrick filed the legislation back in January. Think of it as political cover. But don’t get to thinking that Bay State pols’ anti-gun jihad has lost momentum. “Massachusetts lawmakers are planning a series of public hearings across the state on proposed changes to the state’s gun laws,” boston.com reports. “The first hearing by the Public Safety Committee is scheduled for June 19 at Cape Cod Community College. The committee is looking at more than 60 gun bills that touch on everything from mental health and school safety to background checks and hunting issues.” Whatever the Committee ultimately recommends you can be sure that . . .

A) It will have nothing to do with the opinions of highly vocal gun rights supporters sure to crowd Committee meetings and B) the final legislation will not, I repeat not, contain a carve-out for cops. Well, not much of one. Well, one that will require some serious schmoozing with the boss. How do we know this? As Tevye pronounced, tradition! First let’s take a closer look at Duvall’s bill.

In Section 21, Duvall proposes a one-gun-a-month (OGAM) purchase limitation.  The language specifically states that cops have to abide by this rule except for “police officers or other peace officers who are acquiring firearms for the purposes of performing their official duties or when duly authorized by their employer to purchase them.”

According to the wording of this clause, if you’re a cop whose boss signs off on the purchase of more than one firearm a month—regardless of your “official duties”—you’re good to go. You can even buy a gun not on the Attorney General’s approved handgun list or an otherwise illegal AR-15 (a.k.a., “assault rifle”). And then sell it for a profit. Ah, beak wetting bliss!

Nothing new there. Over at masscops.com, Office Unknown bitches and moans about the lack of a police carve-out in the current laws that doesn’t depend on a willing boss. After sharing the section of Boston City ordinance Chapter 596 that prohibits Beantown law enforcement officers from personally owning an “AR-15-style” (note: not “assault”) rifles, OU lays it out for his brother and sister officers.

So basically unless your department will vouch for you if anything should ever arise you are basically in violation of MA laws if you, as a law enforcement officer, want to personally own any of the equipment you may use every day at work. Good luck getting your department to claim any personally owned weapons are for work purposes, unless you’re at a small department and on a first name basis with the chief.

As sworn officers in MA we should be outraged that we a subject to the same overbearing restrictions civilians are. Especially when we use and operate the same “banned” equipment on a daily basis. We can have a 15 round capacity Glock at home because its department issued but cannot have a similar handgun in our homes if it is personally owned. Where is the logic in that?

Yeah! Where’s the logic in that? Why should cops be treated like common civilians? There are bad guys out there! As the blogger himself acknowledge, “Officers should take note that not one of these regulations above applies to criminals. Because since when do criminals obey the law?”

I am, for once, speechless.

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46 COMMENTS

  1. “As sworn officers in MA we should be outraged that we a subject to the same overbearing restrictions civilians are.”

    Now doesn’t that just say it all.

    • That sentence should be emailed to that idiot a thousand times a day so maybe, just maybe, he’ll see the irony.

      • Maybe he understood the irony. I don’t know whether he’s a friend of 2A or not, but you have to admit that if he is, he could not have made his point any better.

        • True.
          Yet, as pointed out later in this thread, hypocrisy is the correct word.
          I stand corrected.
          Just as there are pedophile priests, there will be dirty cops.
          Heck, NY has about 30,000 cops. Try to find a city of 30,000 with zero crime. Not gonna happen.
          I, for one, cringe and feel, I’m not sure what I feel when another bad cop is outed. Shame isn’t right, cause I wasn’t dirty.
          Embarrassed is, I guess, a closer word.
          Or stupid cops. Like the Portland cop who thought he was shooting a mental patient with bean bag rounds and “accidentally” loaded 00buck.
          Really?
          WTF, fire that idiot already.
          I was an instructor at the police academy for many years. We taught better than that.

          Sorry for ranting, but I, and a few others who are still in the field, have a pact. We will never enforce an anti 2A law.
          I had a terrific trainer who always started a critique with, ” is it legal, moral and ethical”
          He forced me to go back to basics. The Constitution.
          He would smile at me when I got it right.
          That was 27 nears ago.

          So please, some cops are from smaller towns. Where we value our God given rights.
          Just as we shouldn’t lump all catholic priests as pedophiles, please don’t lump all cops as gun grabbers..
          P.S.
          Anyone care to guess where “cops” derived from?
          No cheating, no wiki.

        • Tom, the badge materiel in the NYPD’s first issued badges were made of copper, which was the cheapest metal available that could be used in a badge. NYC bought sheets of roofing copper for the badges. It was only natural for people to call the officers coppers or cops.

    • Now I get it. Upon graduating from the academy he and his buddies are super heroes, not mere mortals.
      Funny how it took an army of them to reel in the Boston bombers.

  2. I can’t say I’m surprised to see a lefty enclave like Boston tightening the grip of tyranny. Which is pretty sad, considering Mass is the birthplace of the American Revolution proper.

  5. “Officer,when these laws are passed you might feel a slight sting.That sting is pride ****** with you.You’ll look back on all of this,and you’ll say to yourself ,Marsellus Wallace was right.”

  6. I’m glad I’m gone in 7 days to a free state. I can then fully exercise my rights. MA is a write off as it is. It pretty much has been since FID card came into existence. I have walked on the green in Lexington and shook my head when I know how MA treats their citizens.

  7. The slogan on Mass license plates “Spirit Of America” is absolute bull squeeze. It should read Spirit Of USSR or Spirit Of Statism

  8. That forum is defiantly informative. Think I may start trolling some POPO forums, haha.

  9. “As sworn officers in MA we should be outraged that we a subject to the same overbearing restrictions civilians are.”

    Can someone tell this dingbat that he and his brothers in blue are, in fact, civilians?

    • Oh, he responded later when someone called him out on that. His response: “I am a very vocal 2nd amendment proponent for civilians as much as I am for LEO’s. This topic wasn’t about civilians it was about LEO’s dealing with the BS. I know the stereotype is that all LEO’s dont want civilians to own firearms just the police, but thats not true. I agree MA laws are disgusting for civilians as well. If this state doesn’t even trust LEO’s to own these firearms then hell would freeze over before they even think about changing it for civilians. We have to take it one step at a time and I think a LEO exemption is a good start.”

      Yeah, getting special privileges for the police is really going to lead to people getting their rights back.

      • So he’s not a deliberate dick, just self-centered. Not an ally, but not really an enemy. Could be worse I guess.

        • There was a cop later on in the thread who said that they SHOULD be given special privileges for being college dropouts cops. He really pissed people off with that comment.

        • If he’d execute an unconstitutional order to arrest/rob someone of their rights, then he is an enemy. I just hope he wouldn’t.

  10. Tom: That’s hypocrisy, not irony… But when cops start referring to members of the public as ‘civilians’ that’s a cue that something is badly wrong with their culture.

      • No argument there. I’ve given this country 21 years of my life. I just want my kids and I to enjoy the same rights my father had, and his before him. Instead I have to check the news every morning to find out if I’ve suddenly become a felon.

  12. That slimeball cop should be fired. Who the hell does he think he is. Its cops like him who give police a bad name. And where is he when that civilian calls 911 when some criminal is breaking into their home? Probably out on one of his many long coffee breaks. When’s the last time a 911 call saved a life? Often as we have seen if the cops do get there, they end up taking the wrong life.

    • When’s the last time a 911 call saved a life? Often as we have seen if the cops do get there, they end up taking the wrong life.

      I think police departments should be forced to put (anonymous) records of all calls and if there was a violent crime prevented or if the victim used a weapon to defend themselves, etc. It would be quite interesting to look at the data.

  13. Those guys look like 6′ versions of the plastic army men I played with as a kid. Helmets and rifles are a little different but the poses are spot on.

  14. It angers and disugsts me that such statements would come from a cop. Who and what do you think you are?!?!? I have now been teaching firearms and other use of force issues for over 40 years and was responsible for a specialized team for most of thirty years. I have sent and/or superivsed millions of rounds, and am still training. EVERY bloody cop should recognize that we DO NOT PREVENT crime. We are an after the matter fact. The citizens paid us for the work, paid for all the training, the units, the firearms, the ammunition, the radios, the vests, etc., etc. But regular citizens have NONE of that. So, it seems to me they should have BETTER firearms than we do! They have “assault weapons” BUT we have “patrol rifles”?!?!?!? Ninety-eight percent of the time we use our weapons it is to protect US, not a citizen. The major consideration a criminal has before attacking someone is to determine if the intended victim can fight back, can hurt them. Criminals fear armed citizens. Oh, but they LOVE gun laws. Hmmmm, now why should a politician (polichicken) fear armed citizens? Maybe they are criminals? Maybe they know they have something coming???? And rest assured they will keep using YOUR money to arm and train their personal entourages of guards.

  16. I read some of the thread. It is deffinately an indicator of the direction those individuals concepts of liberty equivalence. I wonder what goes through their mind when they read, “all men are created equal”?

    • They read “All men are created equal, but all government employees are created superior”.

  17. After the NSA and SCOTUS BS this week, this just really ticked me off when I read it. I need to go watch some puppy videos on youtube.

  18. “When Sir Robert Peel proposed to organize the police force of London, Englishmen said openly that half a dozen throats cut in Whitechapel every year would be a cheap price to pay for keeping such an instrument of tyranny out of the State’s hands,” Nock wrote. “We are all beginning to realize now that there is a great deal to be said for that view of the matter.”

  19. I kind of like the logic of “I use it at work, so I should be able to have it at home.” That means myself and all of the active and retired military folks out there should be able to purchase select fire rifles and belt fed machine guns without all that NFA garbage getting in the way.

  21. I think bad cops should be labelled as bad guys aka real criminals but true cops should exploit these bad cops to know there real heros out there love all the real cops who protect us

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