Reports indicate that a campaign started by a Cape Cod gun store owner to collect signatures from registered voters to shelve Healey's gun control laws until the 2026 election cycle are moot now that she has taken this executive emergency action.
Toby Leary, the gun store owner in question, has already collected nearly 50,000 signatures, all of which are due to the government by October 9. That effort was for nothing, though, now that Healey has trumped his efforts with her own hardball approach to ensuring that gun confiscation happens in Massachusetts.
"She ... is literally interfering with the democratic process that is unfolding, a constitutional process that is unfolding," Leary said, calling it "pure tyranny at its finest" that Healey's new law threatens to shut down 400 different gun stores.
"She had two months to do this before. If it was such an immediate need and a dire threat to this state, why did they wait until they knew that we were going to be successful in our campaign? This is only an effort to silence the voices of the 85,000 people that will be involved in this campaign."
(Related: We warned our readers about all this a few years back when the government started pushing so-called "red flag" laws on the nation.)
Is it worth challenging?
A spokesperson from Healey's office confirmed that the governor signed the emergency action on October 2, which means it is now in effect immediately and will not have to wait until October 23. This was done to "ensure that law's operation cannot be suspended by the referendum petition."
"This gun safety law bans ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme Risk Protection Order statute to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others, and invests in violence prevention programs," Healey commented about the law.
"It is important that these measures go into effect without delay."
As for why she waited until two months after the fact to approve the emergency language for the bill, Healey wrote off questions and concern by stating that "this is just when we were able to process it and look through it, review the legislation."
Leary, who also chairs the Civil Rights Coalition, says he and his allies have more than enough signatures to clear the threshold. The question now remains as to whether or not challenging Healey's emergency declaration in court makes any sense.
"We might just seek a preliminary injunction because this law is so unconstitutional," Leary said. "It's not going to be hard to show how people will be irreparably harmed, and we might seek a preliminary injunction for those reasons."
Healey's law prohibits people under the age of 21 in Massachusetts from owning semiautomatic rifles or shotguns. It also goes after so-called "ghost guns" by requiring the serialization of all firearms while prohibiting all forms of technology that turn semiautomatic weapons into fully automatic weapons.
Healey's bill further implements a litany of new training and licensing requirements in order to own firearms. The Democrats on Beacon Hill who came up with it on Healey's behalf say it will help to keep Massachusetts safe.
"The systems aren't in place and nobody understands what the hell they're supposed to be doing," fumed Jim Wallace, executive director of the local National Rifle Association (NRA) affiliate known as the Gun Owners Action League.
"It's a mess and it's going to be a mess, and even the police officers have no clue what they're supposed to do or what they're supposed to enforce."
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