Proposed legislation in Massachusetts would treat gun ownership like a disease. A joint state House and Senate hearing on a gun bill that would treat gun ownership like a disease was scheduled Dec. 10, and the Massachusetts Gun Owners Action League—an affiliate of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA)—has been sounding the alarm.
Rightly so, considering the language of this legislation, whose prime sponsor is Democrat State Rep. Jon Santiago of Suffolk. CCRKBA was tipped off by GOAL Executive Director Jim Wallace, who has spoken at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference several times. The conference is jointly sponsored by CCRKBA and its sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation.
“Mandating that people are screened for gun ownership as if we have a communicable disease is outrageous,” Wallace said in an alert to GOAL members.
This is hardly the first time that gun ownership has been approached in this manner. For years, anti-gunners have contended that gun-related violence is a public health issue, and they have received support from many in the medical community. Rights activists have countered that gun-related violence is a crime problem, and should be handled as such.
Here’s the original language of Rep. Santiago’s legislation:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 236 the following section:
Section 237. The director shall establish a program for firearm screening and counseling. Such program shall systematically screen all patients for the presence of firearms in the home. The director shall, after consultation with recognized professional medical groups and such other sources as the director deems appropriate, promulgate regulations establishing (1) the means by which and the intervals at which patients shall be screened for the presence of firearms in the home and (2) guidelines for safety counseling for individuals that screen positive for the presence of firearms in the home.
SECTION 2. This section shall take effect 6 months after its passage.
In the GOAL bulletin, Wallace observed, “For many years the anti-civil rights crowd has tried to make gun violence a public health crisis. Now it appears that they want to treat simple gun ownership as a disease!”
He said Santiago’s legislation “shows the disdain for simply exercising our civil rights in the Commonwealth.”
Do you consider the proposed Massachusetts gun bill an infringement on Second Amendment rights? What do you think would be the result of such a law being passed? Share your answers in the comment section.
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Seems like the best course if this should pass is to tell the doctor it’s none of his d**m business when asked about gun ownership. Maybe find a more gun friendly doctor, if one should exist in Mass. Country is getting scarier and scarier by the day.
I feel strange as I offer this advice. To everyone. I would strongly suggest anyone living in a state with this ridiculous type of law to decline to answer that question. More specifically I would suggest you lie. Since there’s no criminal provision In this law for Lying to a medical professional. Taking a standing or expressing you have a second amendment right to have a gun will probably result in them checking a yes box. I’m sure at some point this law will not be subjected to the Hippa laws. They’ll then advise the state Government you have a gun. They’ll cross check their data bases to see if you violated some registration law. Spouses and especially your children will also need to be coached how to answer such questions. In my home state I’ve been asked this question by medical staff. I usually laugh at it . Which is usually greeted with a weird stare, until I answer them. Yes of course I have a gun in my home . I’m a police officer.
Seems as if the Mass. state legislature should be treated like a disease, an incurable disease at that, one that should be treated with the most potent antibiotics available.
If it is a disease, is it listed in the SSID book? I could claim that I am ravaged by this disease and need to be listed with a disability.
Sounds like a backdoor to gun registration to me!