Gun Owners’ Action LeaguePO Box 567Northboro, MA. 01532Change Service Requested

State Our Case! Public Hearings OngoingJoint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security Holds Statewide Hearings.

33 Steps. In Order to Legally Purchase a firearm in MA these are the 33 steps you must follow!

Hearing Schedule - Please Attend Your Local Hearing!

Contd. page 13

7/10/13

By Mike Sweeney

Report from the July 9th hearing at Assumption College.

1. There is a philosophical divide between those who are for more control and those who are against. Those that are for more control, for the most part abhor firearms and truly believe they are “weapons of mass destruction”. One of the pro control speakers received huge ap-plause from his crowd yesterday when he spoke about Watertown; chastising Wayne LaPierre for his comments about the lockdown (Wayne wrote an editorial stat-ing that there were many citizens wishing they had a gun during the lockdown). He followed his anti NRA comment (spoken with a very snarky tone) by stating “I do not wish to own a gun, I do not want a gun in my home, nor does anyone else I know”. The speaker was com-pletely comfortable with what was literally Martial Law for the day, in-dividual rights thrown out the win-dow. From citizen to subject in one fell swoop.

We also heard numerous mentions of the oft used and well worn “blood

in the streets” cliché where the anti-freedom crowd tried to assert that an armed - law abiding populace would go “Mogadishu” opening fire on anything that moved. This rhet-oric has been proven wrong time and again, it was the same line used by the Brady campaign and others when they were fighting the many states which deregulated firearms ownership a decade or more ago. As we all know, the cliché is just that and every area of our country that has deregulated firearms possession and ownership has seen a reduc-tion in violent crime. We have to

ask, why has Massachusetts fallen so far behind the national trend of deregulation? Has our legislature become “old school”? We’re start-ing to think so.

2. There are many moms and grandmothers who are now ener-gized by the Newtown murders; they are working very hard with our legislators to pass more restrictions and control. They truly believe that prohibition, bans and more laws will stop the next Newtown from happening, very few of them will acknowledge the many laws that

were broken by Adam Lanza, or the underlying mental health issues which were at the root of that ob-scene crime.

3. For the most part every speaker from the inner city that gave testi-mony about violence in their neigh-borhood blamed the object instead of the action. They all blamed the gun, the illegal sale of the gun, and the illegal use of the gun. This was followed up by calling for more laws to curb crime. (they often used the term “cycle, or circle of violence”) What they didn’t say, or didn’t rec-ognize was that these actions often being committed, by repeat violent criminals, are already illegal, the violent criminals have no regard for the law, or for life, no amount of laws will stop their action. If our government is truly interested in curbing this crime they will fix our very broken criminal justice system. One of the pro 2A speakers yester-day read a very long list of names of violent criminals who were ar-rested since Newtown in MA alone, all had a combination of violent/drug/firearms charges (all arrested with a firearm) and all had charges dismissed and were released back

The Assumption College hearing was filled to capacity with standing room in the back, this photo shows the members of the committee seated and many members in attendance as the hearing was about to begin.

7/9/13 Update: The first two hear-ings are in the books. There are 3 remaining hearings on schedule, the next, scheduled for August 2nd at American International College in Springfield, the following in is TBD for the N. Shore and the last, scheduled for September will be at the State House in Boston.

GOAL would like to urge all who care about our Bill of Rights to at-tend one of the 3 remaining hear-ings and submit written testimony which discusses the bills up for vote also, if you are comfortable please consider giving public testimony to

the committee at a hearing.

• Middleton MA, August - Date/Location/Time TBA

• American International College, Springfield MA, time TBA, Fri-day August 2, 2013

• Gardner Auditorium (State House), Boston MA. Date/Time TBA, (September)

We look forward to seeing many of you there, in defense or our Right to Keep and Bear Arms. See pg. 8 for talking points to help you prepare your testimony!

For the record, the following is the procedure for a resident to lawfully purchase a handgun through a li-censed firearm dealer in Massachu-setts.

1)A citizen must first take firearm safety course that has been ap-proved by the state police – Chapter 140, Section 131P.

2)The citizen must file an applica-tion with their local licensing au-thority together with a course cer-tificate. The application includes the applicants personal information and asks the following questions under penalty of law:

a)Are you a citizen of the United States?

b)Have you ever used or been known by another name?

c)What is your age?

d)Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

e)Have you ever been convicted of the unlawful use, possession, or sale of a narcotic or harmful drugs as defined in M.G.L. c. 94C sec.1?

f)Have you ever been convicted of

a crime punishable by incarceration by more than 1 year?

g)In any state or federal jurisdiction have you ever been convicted as an adult or adjudicated a youthful of-fender or delinquent child for the commission of a felony, a misde-meanor punishable for more than 2 years, a violent crime as defined in MGL C140.s121, a violation of any law regulating the use, possession, ownership, sale, transfer, rental, re-ceipt or transportation of weapons or ammunition for which a term of imprisonment may be imposed or a violation of any law regulations the use, possession or sale of controlled substances as defined in section 1 of MGL 94C?

h)Have you ever been confined to any hospital or institution for men-tal illness?

i)Are you or have you ever been under treatment for or confine-ment for drug addiction or habitual drunkenness?

j)Have you ever appeared in any court as a defendant for any crimi-nal offense (excluding non-criminal traffic offense)? Cont’d page 14

GOAL Newse PrintEdition

The Official Monthly Publication of Gun Owners’ Action League - Protecting Your Freedom Since 1975July 2013 Dedicated to Education, Safety, Training, and Support of Massachusetts Firearms Owners

GOAL News Print Edition July 20132

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July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 3

In This Issue:From the Executive Director - Jim Wallace Page 4From The Editor - Mike Sweeney Page 5Patriot Games - V.P. Steve Moysey Page 6Legislation Talking Points Page 7-8GOAL News Bits Page 9Dog Days of Summer Fundraiser Page 11GOAL Training Schedule Page 12Worcester Pistol & Rifle Club News Page 16Reloading Bench - Jim Finnerty Page 18

• GOAL News

GOAL News Print Edition

GOAL News - Print Edition is the Official Journal of Gun Owners’ Action League. GOAL is the official state association of the National Rifle Asso-ciation.

GOAL is dedicated to education, safety, training and support of Massachusetts Firearms Owners.

Since 1975, GOAL has represented the interests of the law abiding citizens of Massacusetts.

Gun Owners’ Action League Officials

GOAL Board of DirectorsPresident: Jay Beard

1st Vice President: Steve Moysey2nd Vice President: Pete McBride

Treasurer: Robert PepiSecretary: Ellie Horwitz

Executive Director: Jim Wallace

Gun Owners’ Action League - GOAL News “Print Edition” is published monthly and provided as a membership benefit to all classes of member-ship who wish to receive it.

Submissions of original works are welcomed. However the editor reserves the right to reject or appropriately edit any submitted material.

Reprint permission is granted provided that appropriate credit is given in the form of the statement: “Reprinted from GOAL News Print Edition”.

Advertisers should contact Justin Stasiowski at 508-393-5333 or justin@goal.org for rates and information.

GOAL News - Print EditionChief Executive Officer: James Wallace

Editor: Michael SweeneyContributing Editors:

Angela Fisher, Jon Green, Steve Moysey, Jay Beard

Gun Owners’ Action LeaguePO Box 567/361 W. Main St.

Northboro, MA. 01532Phone: 508-393-5333 Fax: 508-393-5222

http://www.goal.orgGeneral e-mail staff@goal.org

News/Communications/Web e-mail: mike@goal.orgTraining/Education e-mail: jongreen@goal.org

Membership/Club e-mail: tara@goal.orgGun Owners’ Action League is the official Massachusetts state association

of the National Rifle Association.

Join GOAL Protecting Your Freedom Begins Here!Gun Owners’ Action League is the official state firearms association in Massachusetts. We are an association of law-abiding citizens who believe in the basic right of firearms ownership for competition, recreation and self-protection.

GOAL works hard to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights against those in Massachusetts who wish to infringe upon the freedoms guaran-teed by our forefathers. The programs sponsored and developed by Gun Owners’ Action League are supported by competitors, sportsmen, recre-ational shooters and law enforcement throughout the state.

We were formed in 1974 to protect the right to keep and bear arms for law-ful purposes in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We are recognized as the state’s premier gun rights association.

Why You Should Join GOAL

Every intrusion on our gun rights is an intrusion on all rights. The Con-stitutional rights and freedoms that you enjoy - and may take for granted - are becoming more fragile each day. Secure your rights for yourself, your family and future generations. Join GOAL and become part of the solution today.

Gun Owners’ Action League is a grassroots organization whose members actively participate in the many facets of protecting our Second Amend-ment rights and passing on the shooting sports traditions.

No one has any reason to fear the possession of firearms by law-abiding citizens. GOAL publishes materials to bring the truth about gun owner-ship to the public, the legislature and our members.

We also provide courses to new shooters, as well as certification training for those wishing to become firearms instructors. We also provide referrals to instructors around the state.

Join online, at http://goal.org/joingoal.html

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GOAL B.O.D. Meeting Schedule - 2013GOAL members in good standing are always welcome at GOAL Board of Directors Meetings. All meetings are held at GOAL HQ - Northboro, MA. 6:30 pm.

2013 Schedule: June 13, August 15, September 12, October 17, November 14.

Six hours later, after a long day of testimony featuring many anti Second Amendment panels which spoke for long periods of time, our members hung tough to give their testimony. Great job to all who did!

GOAL News Print Edition July 20134

We should all agree that any loss of life in this manner is regrettable, but what is obvious is that once again a thing rather than the root cause is being singled out. Massachusetts and the rest of the nation need to start taking mental illness and the treatment thereof much more seri-ously, but once again blaming gun ownership is not the answer.

As for actually addressing the men-tal health issue, there are a few piec-es of legislation that attempt to ad-dress it. One such bill was filed by State Representative David Linsky. H.3253 “An Act to Reduce Gun Vio-

lence and to Protect the Citizens of the Commonwealth” proposes to force firearm license applicants to sign a waiver allowing law enforce-ment to access your health records “including protected health care information.” This medical infor-mation would be included in the licensing authority’s “suitability” determination.

(t) An applicant for a license shall sign a waiver at the time of applica-tion allowing the licensing author-ity access to any records that have a bearing on the mental health of the applicant. The permit applica-tion form and the waiver form shall be prescribed by the Secretary of Public Safety and shall be uniform throughout the Commonwealth. Said form shall require an applicant to disclose all providers of mental health treatment or services for 20 years prior to the date of applica-tion.

(u) A health care provider or public health authority shall disclose health information, including protected health care information, relating to any individual’s mental health his-tory, to the licensing authority in a timely manner in response to a re-quest for the information from the authority; provided that:

(i) the information shall be used only for the purpose of evaluating the individual’s suitability for a li-cense under this section;

From the Executive DirectorMental Health in the Firearms Debate - By Jim WallaceWith the recent discussion about more laws regarding access to fire-arms in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook murders there has been a growing discussion regarding sui-cide prevention. A great deal of this conversation has come from the medical and academic community. It would seem that there are a grow-ing number of people in these fields that believe so-called “easy access” to firearms is a great cause for the number of suicides. Wanting more information regarding the matter GOAL referenced the Common-wealth’s data on suicides in the De-partment of Public Health Injury Surveillance Program (ISP).

Since the Massachusetts Gun Con-trol Act of 1998 is continually tout-ed as being a national success story, we compare numbers from its pas-sage to the most current data.

According to the historical ISP re-ports in 1998 there were a total of 503 suicides in Massachusetts. Of those tragic endings 140 were com-mitted with a firearm as compared to 134 in 2010 (2010 is the latest re-port available form ISP). Between those years firearm related suicides did drop slightly.

The next cause that is thought of most is the use of drugs and poison. In 1998 there were 103 suicides in this manner and 109 in 2010. These numbers reflect a fairly consistent number of suicides through these means.

The real shock came when we re-viewed the number one means of suicide, hanging/suffocation. In 1998 this type of suicide resulted in 173 deaths. In 2010 this manner of suicide increased drastically to 278. Of all categories of suicide means, hanging/suffocation accounted for 47% of them in 2010. Why this drastic increase in suicides and why hanging has become the over-whelming method of choice?

In further investigation we looked at suicide rates (per 100,000) for the remainder of New England and found a similar trend. For every state in New England there has been a substantial increase in suicides over the last decade. Maine was the only exception for this trend as that state remained fairly consistent with previous years. Methods of suicides for these other states were not read-ily attainable.

So what does all this data mean? As has been the case for several decades people and groups who are simply out to rid us of our Second Amend-ment civil rights will use any means to do so. The most recent drum they are beating is access to firearms by potentially suicidal people.

(ii) the individual has executed a waiver permitting release of the health information for the purpose; And,

A second part of that legislation would place the burden for funding mental health care on the lawful gun owners of Massachusetts. It does this by placing a 25% sales tax guns and ammo, in other words taxing our civil rights to cover the lack of action by the government in mental health for many decades. Neither of these proposals are acceptable.

Section 34. An excise is hereby im-posed upon sales at retail in the commonwealth, by any vendor, of ammunition, rifles, shotguns, fire-arms or parts thereof at the rate of 25 percent of the gross receipts of the vendor from all such sales of such property. The excise shall be paid by the vendor to the commis-sioner at the time provided for fil-ing the return required by section sixteen of chapter sixty-two C. Said receipts shall be deposited in a trust account called “Firearm Sales Tax Trust Fund” which shall be set up on the books of the Commonwealth for the purposes of firearms licens-ing, mental health services and vic-tim’s services, subject to appropria-tion.

Another bill that makes an effort at the issues was filed by State Repre-sentative Linda Campbell. H. 3430 “An Act Relative to Mental Health and Firearms” This bill would es-tablish a reporting system for in-dividuals who are believed to have mental health issues that would lead “mental professionals” to believe they should not have access to fire-arms.

Section 1C. (a) Any physician, phy-sicians’ assistant, nurse, psycholo-gist or mental health professional licensed by the commonwealth who, in his or her professional ca-pacity, has reasonable cause to be-lieve that an individual should not be allowed possess a firearm, either permanently or temporarily, shall

file a report with the department of criminal justice information ser-vices. The department of criminal justice information services shall maintain the report in the firearms and mental health fitness informa-tion registry in accordance with sec-tion 168B½ of chapter 6. All reports made under this subsection shall be updated at least once per year.

(b) A report made under sub-section (a) may include supporting medical records in accordance with the standards adopted under the federal Health Insurance Portabil-ity and Accountability Act of 1996, 42 U.S.C. section 1320d et seq.; pro-vided, however, that the report shall be considered confidential and used only for the purposes allowed under section 168B½ of chapter 6. No re-port made under this section shall be considered a public record.

This bill at least sets up a system of reporting and appealing through a review board, but the reporting al-lowances are very broad and very open to prejudices “… physician, physicians’ assistant, nurse, psychol-ogist or mental health professional licensed by the commonwealth…” Lawful gun owners are already aware that the law gives great latitude to li-censing authorities to deny/restrict firearm licenses based on their own beliefs. This legislation would grant the authority to make reports to a broad range of people and nowhere does it state that these are limited to professionals that are actually treat-ing you as a patient. Such language could allow a tangle of reports com-ing from “professionals” that believe no citizen should be allowed to own firearms. It is GOAL’s stance that any such disqualifiers must be done through a judicial process where people have rights to call witnesses and/or face their accusers.

This brings us to a piece of the dis-cussion regarding National Instant Check System (NICs) requirements. A NICs check is required of all fire-arm purchases from a federally li-censed retailer. This system was cre-ate as a result of the 1993 Brady Bill and is administered by the FBI.

In 2007 Congress passed the NICs Improvement Amendment Act (NIAA) after the murders at Vir-

Continued on page 15

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 5

It’s About Rights, Not Wrongs

From the EditorBy Mike Sweeney

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It’s no secret that when it comes to our Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms (RKBA), the citizens of the Commonwealth have no representation in Congress. Our representatives to the house, our senators, and many of our state level legislators are blatantly anti Second Amendment to the point that they advertise their belief that we do not have a Right to Keep and Bear Arms as a means of getting elected. When publicly discussing Second Amend-ment issues and firearms related subjects they objectify firearms, and they almost always purposely mis-state firearms related terms, throw-ing out terms like “high capac-ity clips”, “assault weapons”, ‘high powered ammo” and others, they also frequently refer to horrendous crimes like Newtown as “tragedies”, the usage of those terms is no mis-take.

Have you ever wondered how it is that they can and will constantly talk about the importance of the issue yet they can’t even get their terms correct?

What other issues can a congress-man or other politicians discuss us-ing completely wrong and inflam-matory terms? Simple answer, none, they’d get destroyed by the media and others for being idiots, when it comes to firearms however, all bets are off and the “blame-slang” con-tinues flowing unchecked.

I am frequently sent correspon-dence from gun owners who have received a letter in reply from their congressional representatives and or their state legislators. The cor-respondence is usually sent to me with a “can you believe this reply?” note and includes the reply sent by the likes of Kennedy, Warren, Tson-gas, etc…

The letters and emails are, 99.9% of the time a form letter, copied and pasted by an aide and signed with an auto pen. Occasionally we’ll see

an actual response; these usually come from a state level legislator, from a congressional representative they are very rare.

The replies all have one thing in common; they all mention a hor-rendous crime as the cornerstone for said legislators reasoning behind their desire to restrict our Second Amendment freedom.

Some examples:

From Representative McGovern:

“Thank you for contacting me to ex-press your views on gun safety legisla-tion. This is an issue that continues to gain national attention in light of recent devastating tragedies and will continue to provoke strong sen-timents on all sides of the issue... I believe we should also continue work-ing to strengthen laws to prevent gun violence.”

From Senator Warren:

“Like millions of people across the country, I was heartbroken by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December. I do not know how to explain the deaths of twenty innocent children or why six heroic teachers had to make the ultimate sacrifice for their students… I sup-port a comprehensive set of reforms to reduce gun violence. I strongly support reauthorizing the expired ban on federal assault weapons and high capacity magazines. I also sup-port closing the loopholes in federal background checks for gun shows and private sales. The President has put forward a slate of proposals to help address gun violence and gun safety, and I support those efforts as well.”

From Representative Tsongas:

“Thank you for contacting my office regarding gun control legislation. I appreciate your views and having the benefit of your opinion.

Every corner of America has been deeply affected by the tragic loss of so

many lives in Newtown, Connecti-cut. We mourn for the enormity of grief and the inconsolable loss visited upon Newtown’s families. The sense-less attacks at Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School, at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and against Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 18 others in Tucson raise compelling questions about the ac-cessibility of violent weapons in our society. Members from both sides of the aisle have acknowledged that it is time to have a conversation about the accessibility of high capacity weapons in our country. I believe this conversation is long overdue and I am committed to moving forward on meaningful reform in the weeks and months ahead. That is why I recently spoke out on the Floor of the House of Representatives about the New-town tragedy and the need for tighter gun control laws… We know that our response to Newtown must not and cannot go the way of the many other senseless acts of violence we al-most routinely witness. The tragedy in Newtown must be a call to action. President Obama said he would sub-mit broad new gun control proposals no later than January, and I will be part of the growing coalition call-ing for real changes that will protect America’s families.”

Finally, from Representative Ken-nedy:

“In the wake of tragic gun violence

in Tucson, Aurora, and Newtown, I believe it is more important than ever for us to engage in a serious con-versation about how our nation can honor the rights provided by the Sec-ond Amendment while protecting our children and communities from the horrors of gun violence. I hope that we can work together, on both sides of the aisle and across all states, back-grounds, and beliefs, to put an end to the epidemic gun violence that has plagued our country for too long.”

Notice the trend? Every single one of them cites horrific violent crimes as a reason to further restrict our freedom, they actually believe that prohibitions and more laws will stop violent criminals.

To each of the legislators who write this type of response I have but one reply.

It’s about Rights not wrongs.

Can you imagine our representa-tives responding in the same fash-ion to any other civil rights issue? Would they refer to crime in re-sponse to letters about our right to vote? How about free speech, or our right to assemble? Not a single one of them would make such egregious statements.

When it comes to our Right to Keep and Bear Arms though, all bets are off, the replies are rife with sen-sationalism, misstatements, and

Continued page 15

GOAL News Print Edition July 20136

for sporting and self-defense pur-poses. As the gun control debate rapidly unfolded after Sandy Hook, the AR15 style rifle became the tar-get of a renewed call for this type of firearm to be banned from civilian use.

Strictly speaking, there is no such animal as an “Assault Weapon” as it exists in the form of a semi-au-tomatic rifle like an AR15. This is an adulteration of the term Assault Rifle first used by the German army in WWII to describe their new fully automatic rifle - the Sturmgewehr 44. The thinking behind this firearm was to use a smaller, less powerful cartridge designed for closer range urban combat than the traditional bolt action battle rifle. Before we go any further, some clarification on the function of firearms is warrant-ed, as there is some misunderstand-ing within the general public as to what the following terms mean.

A semi-automatic firearm, either a handgun or rifle such as those com-monly available to civilians, will fire one round (bullet) per pull of the trigger. This single-shot-per-trigger pull is the limit to the rate of fire of the gun. In a true military weapon, like an assault rifle, it can be selectively put into a single fire, three round burst fire mode, or fully automatic mode, where it will con-tinue to fire rounds, at a very high rate, as long as the trigger is pressed and there is ammunition in the magazine. In a fully automatic rifle, it is the mechanics of the gun that dictate the rate of fire, not how fast you can repeatedly pull the trigger.

This is the case for the military versions of the AR15 – the M4 carbine and M16 rifle – currently in use with the American armed forces and prohibited from civilian ownership, as are most automatic firearms. Politicians and pro-gun control groups against civilian pos-session of a semi-automatic AR style rifle argue that they are mili-tary style weapons not suited for anywhere but the battlefield. This is based entirely on cosmetic features on the rifle, such as pistol grips, ad-justable shoulder stocks and maybe a bayonet mount. Banning a gun simply because it looks like a mili-tary weapon is, frankly, illogical. The semi-automatic AR15 is not a military rifle based on its lack of a fully automatic or burst fire ca-pacity. It just looks like something scary, an evil black rifle, and so we are told we should ban it because of its looks, not its performance or functionality.

Take a look at the two rifles in figure 1. They are both semi-automatic, fire the same 5.56mm round and

Patriot Games By GOAL Vice President Steve Moysey

Gun ControlI have been around firearms, in one capacity or another, most of my adult life. I’m an active sport shoot-er, hunter, collector, firearm instruc-tor and former tactical trainer. I have introduced many people down the years to the shooting sports and trained a lot of people in the tacti-cal use of firearms for personal and home protection. In other words, I am a law abiding citizen who treats guns and gun ownership as a seri-ous matter.

Because I am considered knowl-edgeable on firearms, I get invited to speak to groups on the subject of gun control, the Second Amend-ment and the individual right to keep and bear arms. This has given me the opportunity to hear many views on guns in our society, some based on fear, others on poor infor-mation and some on political posi-tions.

The gun control debate issue is polarizing: on one extreme there are calls for only allowing the po-lice and military to have firearms. One the other end of the spectrum are Doomsday “preppers” that see guns as a means of countering big government tyranny and restoring American freedoms. The random mass shootings at places such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora and Sandy Hook further drive the polarized camps to entrench their respective positions that effectively shuts down any meaningful discus-sion.

What are the facts that should con-cern us as we have this round and round debate on gun control and the Second Amendment? One thing I have found in speaking with groups that are not at all familiar with the issues is that a little education goes a long way in helping to demystify firearms, the people that own them and their reasons for ownership. As such, I thought I would examine some of the issues that have fea-tured in the debates since Sandy Hook: Assault weapons and maga-zine capacity – two key cornerstones of the pro / anti conversation that have received too little facts and way too much rhetoric in the public and political arenas. I’ll briefly touch on background checks too. Hopefully, by the end of this article, some clar-ity may prevail and enable the read-ers to better understand the issues and have a better informed opinion.

The main focus of controversy over the Sandy Hook case was the fire-arm used by the killer Adam Lanza – an AR15 semi-automatic rifle. La-beled incorrectly by the media as an “assault weapon” , the AR platform is among the most popular style of rifle owned by law abiding citizens

Figure 1: Semi-automatic rifles

use removable magazines of the same capacity. The difference is that the lower rifle has a pistol grip, an adjustable stock and a fore end grip, all intended to make the gun more ergonomic. However, these features would render the lower rifle illegal under some of the recently debated gun control legislation, while leav-ing the upper rifle untouched. The functionality of these two rifles is identical, the differences are purely cosmetic.

Let us put these types of rifles into perspective in relation to their avail-ability and use in crimes. The civil-ian population of the USA is esti-mated to own 270 million firearms. Americans also buy a lot of guns. In fact in 2012, Americans purchased over 17 million firearms accord-ing to the FBI . Amazing as it may sound, when totaled up, according to the ATF America has more retail gun shops (51,438) than supermar-kets (36,569) and the gun store total is more than all the Starbucks, Mc-Donalds and Subways combined !

However, at 4.5 million or so in use, the AR style rifle is only 1.5% of that total collection. The USA leads the world in private gun ownership, with the statistics working out to 89 guns for every 100 people. Be-fore you go running for cover, that number hides a very telling statis-tic. While we lead the world in gun ownership, we do not even make it into the top 25 nations in terms of the murder rate by firearms – in fact we come in at number 28 behind counties such as Honduras, El Sal-vador, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

The sad fact is that Americans do kill other Americans, and in doing so they use all manner of methods. The statistics for 2011 from the FBI show a total homicide rate for that year of 12,654, with a total of 324 being murdered by a rifle of any type. So, based on the numbers, 0.026% of murders in the USA were committed by a rifle – not just an AR style weapon but all types of

rifle, including target, hunting and sporting guns. Inverted, it means that 99.974% of all US murders in 2011 were NOT committed by a rifle. Delving deeper into the FBI statistics, we can see that you are one-and-a-half times more like-ly to be killed with a blunt object, twice as likely to be beaten to death by someone’s hands or feet and five and a half times more likely to be stabbed to death than shot and killed by a rifle.

Yet we are not debating banning baseball bats, licensing martial art-ists or outlawing carving knives – the rush to judgment in the media and political arena has demonized the semi-automatic sporting rifle as the weapon of choice for all evil mass killers. The only way to stop random mass shootings, we are told by the pro-gun control argument, is to stop law abiding citizens from owning these military style look-ing rifles by banning them, despite the fact they do not perform like a military weapon. This view ignores the fact that the USA’s most deadly school shooting occurred at Vir-ginia Tech and was perpetrated by a mentally derange shooter, armed with a pair of .22 and 9mm semi-automatic handguns.

Continued page 10

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 7

GOAL News - Print EditionGrassroots Talking Points - 2013 MA Legislation Affecting Second Amendment Civil RightsLegislation to Support:

H.3264 An Act Relative to Civil Rights and Public Safety - Here’s how H.3264 would strengthen our criminal laws:

• It creates a special unit of the State Police, known as the Criminal Firearms and Trafficking Division, that will be attached to the Department of the Attorney General and will assist that office with the investigation and prosecution of all crimes of violence involving the criminal use of a firearm and intrastate firearms trafficking.

• It will create tough laws to punish prohibited persons who are in possession of firearms.• Creating laws regarding breaking and entering with the intent to steal a firearm.• Creating clear to understand unlawful transfer laws.• Creating laws to punish those engaged in unlawful intrastate commerce of firearms.• Creating laws preventing the unlawful confiscation of firearms.• Creating laws regarding the use of a “Deceptive Weapon.”• Creating a separate definition section for the criminal enforcement chapter.• Creating a “State Firearm Crime”.

Here’s how H.3264 would enhance individual rights:

• Make it very clear that there is an individual civil right to keep and bear arms and that the government must operate under that presumption.• Reduce the number and types of firearm licenses (currently four) to one.• Create understandable and commonsense terminology that is currently used and understood by the firearms owning community. • Create a new definition of a “Prohibited Person” and using that term throughout the laws as the means of legitimately denying a citizen a firearm

license.• Make the rights inherent for the license based on the age of the holder rather than having to acquire a new license at a particular age. • Remove the authority of local licensing agents to deny a person’s civil rights without due process.• Create clearer language for the judicial review process of a denied license.• Remove jail sentences for lawful possession infractions and moving any jailable offenses to the criminal enforcement chapter.• Making laws easier to understand and find by separating into concise short sections those that are unnecessarily long and complicated.

H.3266: An Act Relative to Constitutional Rights• This legislation creates a new section of law that provides a presumption that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual civil right. For many

years the courts and law enforcement entities have been confused due to the state’s poorly written laws. With a clearly defined presumption of rights, lawful citizens will be saved unnecessary harassment. Likewise the courts and law enforcement will no longer waste time and resources on lawful citi-zens simply exercising their civil rights.

• It also provides protections against other government entities in the state from passing laws and regulations restricting that right. This will avoid a potential patchwork of laws across the Commonwealth that causes confusion.

H.2182: An Act Relative to the Lawful Sale of HandgunsCurrently in Massachusetts we have two separate schemes that control the manufacture and sale of handguns in Massachusetts.

The first is the Attorney General’s regulations 940 CMR 16.00 that was originally initiated by Scott Harshbarger in an attempt to ban handguns with-out the consent of the legislature. The so-called authority to do so was predicated on the use of Chapter 93A “Consumer Protection Laws”. The At-torney General’s office could not find a single case of a consumer being harmed by a poorly manufactured handgun. Nonetheless the regulations were enacted.

The second scheme was passed into law with the 1998 Gun Control Act. The law is currently laid out in Section 123 of Chapter 140. This section provides testing and performance standards, how they were drafted no one seems to know. However, with these standards a manufacturer can submit their product for independent testing. Should the product meet the requirements they are then added to a roster of approved firearms.The conflict now arises due to the fact that the Attorney General’s office does not formally recognize the official roster of approved firearms and warns licensed retailers of possible conflicts. Essentially what we have is a situation where two government entities from the same government are using different schemes to enforce their authority over lawful products. This bill simply removes the Attorney General’s authority to regulate weapons and repeals the previous regulations.

H.3274: An Act Repealing the Ban on Modern Sporting Rifles In the 1990s there was a campaign conducted by anti-civil rights organizations to rename the modern sporting arms. This campaign was successful in convincing the public that these firearms were “Assault Weapons” and that only the military should have such weapons. Thankfully after a decade the public saw the ruse behind this effort and allowed the federal prohibition on modern sporting arms to sunset. Unfortunately, Massachusetts passed its own version in 1998 that did not include a sunset provision.

The laws in Massachusetts (Chapter 140, Section 131) provide very harsh penalties for mere possession of a modern sporting arm or large capacity magazine. These penalties include up to ten years in prison for merely possessing a product that is legal in the vast majority of the Untied States. This bill simply repeals the law banning these products and thereby restoring some common sense back to Massachusetts gun laws.

H.2181: An Act Relative to the Lawful Sale of AmmunitionSeveral years ago Attorney General Tom Reilly ruled that companies outside of Massachusetts could no longer sell ammunition or ammunition com-ponents through the mail to lawfully licensed citizens unless. Since the residents of the Commonwealth go through an extensive licensing process there is no reason why such transactions should not take place. This bill would make it clear that such transactions are lawful and all shipments require the signature of the licensee or adult agent.

H.3269: An Act Relative to Fair LicensingFor many years the laws regarding a License to Carry have been abused by certain local licensing authorities. The poorly written statutes grant those authorities the power to deny or restrict one’s license for little or no reason and without due process. Some local municipalities have blanket policies and will only issue restricted licenses. Citizens who are not prohibited persons should not have their civil rights arbitrarily denied or restricted. This bill creates a “shall issue” LTC and removes restriction language. See next page for list of legislation to oppose -->

GOAL News Print Edition July 20138

GOAL News - Print Edition

Firearms, ammunition sales, transFers and lots oF other Fun products

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Comm2A has multiple pending cases in federal court in an effort to ensure state Þrearms law treats all lawful residents equally and fairly.

Anti - Civil Rights Legislation to Oppose:H.47 An Act to Strengthen and Enhance Firearms Laws in the Common-wealth (Filed by Governor Patrick)

• Creates the One Gun a Month (Lawful Citizens Imprisonment Act)• Reduces magazine capacity to an arbitrary seven rounds thus reducing

a lawful citizen’s defensive capability.• Wrongfully adds citizens who have been “confined” rather than adjudi-

cated for mental reasons to the National Instant Checks database.• Rewrites the large capacity law forcing licensed citizens to dispose of

property lawfully owned or be imprisoned.• Creates a new crime of “assault by means of a firearm” with no clear

definition

H.3253 An Act to Reduce Gun Violence and to Protect the Citizens of the Commonwealth (Filed by Representative David Linsky)

• Would establish a punitive 25% sales tax on guns and ammunition.• Force gun owners to store certain firearms outside of their home.• Mandate insurance for gun ownership.• Eliminates licenses for large capacity items that have been lawfully

owned for years.• Allow for arbitrary denials of FID cards.• Would mandate private sales be done through a licensed retailer.

S.1126 An Act Relative to Firearms and Firearms Violence (Filed by Senator Cynthia Stone-Creem)

• Would establish a punitive 4.75% tax for the consumption or storage of firearms and ammunition.

• Would ban .50 BMG rifles and ammunition for no logical reason. These items are simply not used in crime.

• Would create a licensing scheme for gun shows when Massachusetts can’t handle the licensing scheme it currently has.

• Would ban so-called assault weapons that have been lawfully owned for years.

Public Hearing Etiquette:A Few Helpful Tips for Understanding What Goes on at a Public Hearing

• The first thing to keep in mind is that public hearings are not a “debate” forum. Do not expect the committee members to respond to questions or take part in debating an issue.

• As you are testifying the committee members may ask you questions regarding your testimony. If you don’t know the answer, don’t be afraid of saying so and that you will gladly try to get an answer for them at a later date.

• Normally you must sign in in order to testify. Generally there is a sign in sheet with a committee staff person nearby to answer questions.

• They will likely ask whether you are pro/con on certain bills.• You might have to wait a while before you are called to testify. Your wait time

could vary from a few minutes to several hours. Please be prepared to wait. • Traditionally, elected and appointed officials will be taken out of turn to testify.

Do not get upset if they are called before you.• Address legislators by their title and sir name (Representative X, Senator Y)• Be polite. You are asking the committee to listen to your story. Rudeness does

effect positive change. • Do not expect a decision to be made at the hearing. They are only listening and

will decide on a bill or bills later. There are several hearings on the gun laws that run into September 2013.

• Signs, banners, flags, and other signage is not allowed to be shown during the committee hearing. Please do not bring any to distribute inside the hearing room.

• Please do not “boo”, hiss, or applaud during testimony. It is considered rude and disruptive and does not help our cause. Whoever is considered disrup-tive during a hearing could be asked to leave or be removed by the committee.

How To Give Effective Public Testimony:Tips for Speaking Before the Committee

• Address the committee when you begin your testimony. Say “thank you” for coming to your area and allowing us to provide you with testimony, Mr. Chairman and the committee.

• Make your testimony personal. The committee is interested in hearing how the laws affect the lives of their constituents. Use your time before the committee to tell your story. It is a powerful tool in getting your message across.

• Oral testimony; 2-3 minutes in length is standard for public testimony. Please limit your personal story to this timeframe. If you go over, usually the Chairman will guide you to finish or continue. Make your comments brief and leave time for the Committee to ask you questions.

• Make sure you include accurate facts in your testimony. • At the end of your testimony, thank the committee for its interest in your

testimony and ask the committee if they have any questions for you. This can help start a dialogue about your personal story and experiences.

For more information includ-ing GOAL’s downloadable forms and worksheets please visit: http://goal.org/public-hearing-prep.html

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 9

The new 20 gauge slug gun from Savage is engineered around our proven 110 rifle action for rifle-like performance. If your slug gun is built on any other platform, it’s for the birds.

THIS SLUG GUN IS NO SCATTER GUN.

savagearms.com

GOAL News - Print EditionGOAL Newsbits - Another busy month for GOAL

We had a great time at North Leominster Rod & Gun’s “Ladies Day”! Thanks to N. Leominster Rod & Gun for the great day, photos by Jon Green

Group Photo - The ladies had a great time, what a great group!

Shooters of all ages had a great time!

As always the rifle range and the AR15 were very popular The ladies did great on the trap range, lots of clays were broken!

GOAL News Print Edition July 201310

GOAL News - Print Edition

TM

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Another misleading theme of the gun control debate revolves around magazine capacity. While the pro-control groups insist on incorrectly calling a magazine a “clip”, there is even less understanding as to the logic behind magazine capacity in the groups calling for their restric-tion. A magazine is a box-like de-vice with a spring loaded floor plate that stores and feeds ammunition to the loading mechanism of a firearm, which can be a pistol or rifle. In the simplest terms, it is a removable, re-fillable reservoir of ammunition for the firearm.

The standard magazine for an AR15 holds thirty rounds of 5.56mm ammunition. The Becker campus police standard duty handgun is a Glock 22 semi-automatic pistol, chambered for the .40 caliber Smith and Wesson round in a magazine with a 17 round capacity. Many on the gun control debate argue that 30 and 17 rounds are too many for a law abiding civilian to own but logically, what constitutes too many rounds in a firearm and who gets to decide?

Some on the pro-gun control argu-ment like to cite the limitations that duck hunters have in the shotguns they use – with some states allow-ing them only three cartridges at a time in the gun for conservation reasons. I wonder how many car-tridges the duck hunters would want if the ducks were armed and shooting back? That is not as absurd as it may first sound as the old ad-age in the tactical use of firearms is that it’s the bad guys in a firefight that determine how many rounds you need! Limiting civilians to an arbitrary number of rounds, such as seven or ten, limits their ability in a self-defensive situation, as the bad guys (aka criminals) do not abide by the law and so are going to use the higher capacity magazines no

matter what the law says.

In a lethal force critical encounter, psychological and physiological forces come into play that impact even highly trained shooters in a negative fashion. The body be-comes flooded with adrenaline in the fight-or-flight response, heart rate goes through the roof, tunnel vision kicks in, time perception is stretched out and auditory exclu-sion shuts out a lot of sound. Un-der such conditions, marksmanship takes a nosedive and the sad truth is that, nationally, law enforcement officers will miss with 60 – 80% of their shots in such an encounter. Tactically, more rounds in a maga-zine are safer in a defensive critical encounter than a lower number . The same can happen to law abid-ing civilians who may be forced to use a lower capacity magazine due to an arbitrary limitation placed by law. This only makes them more vulnerable in a threat situation and does absolutely nothing to increase public safety.

So what? Well, real life is not the Hollywood depiction of how guns and ammunition work. Bad guys don’t always drop immediately when shot, unless the round strikes the central nervous system, com-promises the skeletal frame or hap-pened to be fired by Bruce Willis in a Die Hard movie. Violent crimi-nals can and do keep fighting, even when shot multiple times, and may overpower and kill a victim that could be holding an empty firearm. Reloading is not always an option in a lethal force encounter, so reducing available round count only increas-es tactical and personal vulnerabil-ity. Officer Peter Soulis’ encounter with murder suspect Tim Palmer paints a graphic example. Am-bushed and attacked by Palmer on a routine traffic stop, officer Soulis shot the 27-year old man 22 times

- 17 of these to vital areas - with his .40 caliber Glock 22 before fi-nally ending the violent assault by a very determined attacker, being hit four times himself by rounds from Palmer’s handgun . Remember, real life is not reflected in the output of Hollywood.

By way of another graphic example, a mother of nine-year old twins in Georgia this past January was faced with a determined home invader. Despite hiding herself and her twins in an upstairs closet, the intruder, armed with a crowbar and ransack-ing the house, found them. The mother, armed with a six-shot .38 caliber revolver, shot at the attacker from a close range, hitting him with five of the six rounds; four in the face and one in the neck. He was still able to flee the scene and drive a short distance before passing out. Now imagine for a moment if the perpetrator had been that bit more determined, angry, high or he had an accomplice? The story may have ended tragically for the three family members . In a defensive situation, more rounds are better than fewer, as avoiding manipulating the gun and magazine to reload, during the immense stress of such a situation, is a preferable scenario.

Gun control advocates cite the flawed notion that by limiting the capacity of a magazine, an active shooter engaged in a mass shooting in a gun free zone, such as a school, would be forced to reload more of-ten. This, they argue, would slow down the carnage and may allow an unarmed potential victim to over-power the shooter while they are changing magazines. This is based on the example where mass killer Jared Loughner dropped his fresh magazine on the ground from his pants pocket and was then tackled by bystanders before he could reload his handgun. Believing this would always be the case is a recipe for get-ting innocent people in harm’s way, and is also a fundamentally flawed argument for reducing magazine capacity.

Recent tests conducted by the Boone County, Illinois, Sherriff ’s department revealed some interest-ing results on both reduced capac-ity magazines and time to disrupt an active shooter during a reload . It must be remembered that in an active shooter situation, where the killer has picked a gun free zone, this is psychologically and physi-ologically different from a law en-forcement or civilian facing a lethal force encounter. The perpetrator may have rehearsed his actions, such as reloading, over and over again to the point of near expert levels.

The tests used a 20 round magazine in an AR15 first, with the shooter making aimed shots at multiple tar-gets until the magazine was deplet-ed. Over several runs, the shooters average time was 12.16 seconds. The test was repeated with two 10 round magazines, requiring the shooter to reload once during the course of fire. The time taken to complete the 20 aimed shots averaged to 10.73 seconds – less than the 20 round magazines. The time to reload was so short a runner placed 25 feet from the shooter was unable to cov-er even half the distance before the gun was back in action.

In a recent survey of 15,00 active law enforcement officers, virtually all respondents (95 percent) said that a federal ban on manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds would not reduce violent crime and would, in fact, increase the vulnerability of law abiding gun owners in a lethal force encounter . Besides, even if there were a law that reduced maga-zine capacity, it would do nothing to prevent mass shootings. Crimi-nals would ignore the restriction anyway, while law abiding citizens would be at a tactical disadvantage in a self-defense situation.

So how do we balance the needs of the constitutional rights of people to keep and bear arms, while do-ing the most we can to prevent those in our society that should not

Continued page 17

Steve Moysey - Gun Control - Continued from page 5

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 11

GOAL News - Print Edition

Dog D

ays of Summer Fundraiser

Support GOAL& You Might Win GUNS

GOAL Dog Days of Summer FundraiserPlease consider helping GOAL maintain its Second Amendment Civil Rights voice in the Common-wealth with a financial donation in 2013.

For every $25.00 you donate, you will receive one (1) entry into our 3 Gun Package that includes a Smith & Wesson M&P15 Rifle, a Kahr Arms 9mm Pistol and a Mossberg 12 Gauge Shotgun.

For every premium Level Donation of $250 or more we will also send you a free Laser Engraved GOAL Spitfire Buck Knife as a special thank you!

General Donations in the following amount receive one (1) entry into the 3 gun drawing for every $25.00 donated:

• $25.00 - 1 entry• $50.00 - 2 entries• $100.00 - 4 entries• $200.00 - 8 entries

Premium Level Donations Receive a Free Bonus - GOAL Buck Knife!

Premium level donations will re-ceive one (1) entry into the 3 gun drawing for every $25.00 donated + 1 GOAL Laser Engraved Spitfire Buck Knife.

• $250.00 - 10 entries & 1 knife• $300.00 - 12 entries & 1 knife• $500.00 - 20 entries & 1 knife

• $1000.00 - 40 entries & 1 knife

Drawing will be held August 30, 2013 at 12:00 PM. You need not be present to win. Odds determined by number of tickets sold. All federal and state gun laws apply. All prizes are to be claimed within 30 days from the drawing.

Please note! Choose the quantity of $25.00 donations to reflect the total donation you would like to make. (example, for a $1000.00 donation choose a quanity of 40 to make total at checkout $1000.00)

You do not need to do anything else, we will automatically send all quali-

fying donations the GOAL Buck Knife and enter the correct qty of chances for the 3 gun drawing. To donate, visit goal.org or stop by GOAL HQ, 361 W. Main St. North-boro, MA. 01532

Thank you for your continued sup-port!

Southborough Rod & Gun Club/Fin Fur Feather inter club challenge. (this years event was held at Southbor-ough) 50 birds per shooter, top 5 scores per team are added up for the teams total score.

SRG Jr’s took the team overall with a score 219. Fin Fur and Feather’s score was 210.

Russell Pearson and Ben Martell from Southborough Jr’s tied for high gun overall (48) and Russell won in a shoot off.

It was a great event with pizza, soda and friendly competition. We love when we get together with FFF. They have a bunch great kids, coaches and parents. We are looking forward to next year!!

GOAL was honored to administer the Utah CCW course held at the Worthington Public Safety Building. Many thanks to GOAL Club Rep Ron McBride and Worthington Police Chief Jeffrey Johnson. Pictured here: a student does a dry fire exercise under the watchful eye of an instructor.

GUN OWNERS ACTION LEAGUE’S LARGO GROUP PARTICIPATES IN THE 15TH ANNUAL HAMPSHIRE COUNTY’S RELAY FOR LIFE EVENT

On June 14, a LARGO team participated in the 15th annual Hampshire County American Cancer Society Relay for Life event. LARGO, or “Lawful And Responsible Gun Owners”, is a project of the Gun Owners’ Action League of Massachusetts, which seeks to enhance the public’s understanding of all gun owners.

Over 100 teams walked the track at Look Memorial Park in Florence, MA for 24 hours to raise money for cancer research and awareness. LARGO had over a dozen team members participate this year. Many of the Relay for Life teams had never met a gun owner and were pleasantly surprised and welcoming to the friendly LARGO team who raised over $1000.00 dollars.

This year, in addition to representing our team in the “hula hoop” lap, long time participant Leah Vandoloski donated her hair at the event to the “Wigs For Kids” program that was set up at the event. Her donated ponytail was over a foot in length and willbe used for two to three wigs for children with cancer.

“The LARGO project began because many people have been conditioned to think of all gun owners as potential criminals,” said Jim Wallace, GOAL’s Executive Director. “The LARGO banner and all our t-shirts say ‘Lawful And Responsible Gun Owners / Good People Doing Good Things’. Impressions of gun owners vastly improve when people get to meet us face-to-face. Participating in charitable and volunteer activities goes a long way to-ward educating the general public that gun owners are regular, law abiding people that want to help their friends, neighbors and communities.”

GOAL News Print Edition July 201312

GOAL Training

Course Date Tuition Time

The Art of Concealed Carry in Massachusetts

August 22, October 24, December 5

Members $75.00 / Non-Members $125.00

5:30 - 10:00 PM

Basic Metallic Cartridge Reload-ing with Jim Finnerty (2 Night Classes)

October 12 Members $110.00 /Non-Members $140.00

8:30 AM - 5:30 PM

Basic Pistol Course (NRA LTC-002)

September 5, October 10, October 22, November 19, December 3, December 17

Members $95.00 / Non-Members $145.00

9:30 AM - 6:30 PM

BFS Primer Course for State Certified Instructors

September 24, November 26 Members $35.00 / Non-Members $65.00

12:00 - 4:00 PM (Sunday Class)

6:00 - 9:00 PM (Weeknights)

Combat Focus Shooting with Rob Pincus

September 14-15 SOLD OUT Members Only $350.00 (Sign Ups begin 1/2/12)

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Combat Focus Shooting Ad-vanced Pistol Handling with Rob Pincus

September 16-17 Members Only $350.00 (Sign Ups begin 1/2/12)

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Combat Focus Shooting (Car-bine) with Rob Pincus

September 18 Members Only $200.00 (This is an advanced class open only to graduates of a Combat Focus Shooting Program.)

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Everyday Carry (EDC) Skills & Knowledge - New Class!

August 20, October 1 Members $125.00 / Non-Mem-bers $155.00

9:30 AM - 5:30 PM

Instructor Course: NRA Basic Pistol and Home Firearm Safety

November 15 - 17 Members $295.00 / Non-Mem-bers $450.00

TBA

Intro to IDPA September 11, September 28, October 15

Members $65.00 / Non-Members $95.00

9:30 Am - 5:30 PM

Intro to the Modern Sporting Rifle - AR15

September 3, November 5 Members $75.00 / Non-Members $105.00

9:30 AM - 5:30 PM

MA Gun Law for Citizens Sept. 19, Oct. 29 (6:00 - 9:00 pm) Members $20.00 / Non-Members $50.00

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Weeknights)

Rifle Cartridge Reloading with Jim Finnerty

September 10 Members $80.00 / Non-Members $110.00

5:30 PM - 10:00 PM

Utah Non-Resident CCW September 26, November 21 Members $80.00/ Non-Members $110.00

12:00 - 4:30 (Sunday Class)

5:30 PM - 10:00 PM (Weeknights)

GOAL Training Schedule: 2013

Below is the schedule for courses held at GOAL Headquarters in Northboro, Massachusetts (unless otherwise noted).

All NRA Basic Pistol courses offered through GOAL exceed standards established in accordance with Massachusetts General Law Chapter . 140, § 131P and 515 CMR 3.00 Please note: All courses run 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm unless otherwise noted.

All courses require pre-regisration paid in full. This can be done in person at The GOAL office, via phone 508-393-5333 x20, or via email by contacting Angela Fisher.

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 13

GOAL News - Print EditionPublic Hearing Update - continued from page 1

Thank You Members! WILLARD THORN, MICHAEL ZYRA, JR., PAUL SCAGEL, FRED BELSON, JOSEPH BOOKER, JOHN MONAHAN, GEOFFREY NEILEY, JR., ALLAN DR-OUIN, DAVID GIANNOTTI, JAMES HOUSMAN, CHARLES LAPIENE, RICHARD RUSSO, JOHN SOJ-KA, HAROLD COLBY III, JAMES DELUCA, JOSEPH SARAO, JANET GAMBALE, JAMES SARRASIN, PIERRE RICHARD, HAROLD JACKLIN, JR., GRANT FITZGERALD, WALTER GODINO, KEVIN SIMON, JAMIE CHAPMAN, THOMAS AHO, WAYNE HOLT, NORMAN REYNOLDS, JOHN BOARDMAN, DON-ALD O’CONNOR, LEO PFIEFFER, LEON WILKINS, NANCY SANTORO, RONALD ZETTLEMOYER, DAVID SILVERI, HOWARD JOHNSON, BRUCE RAMEY, JOSEPH WEGRZYN, BRUCE SIHPOL, THOMAS BROWN, GERALD MILLER, MICHAEL COLONNA, ALTAMONT STOKES, ROSS NICOL, KEN DALY, JOHN VARIO, ALAN RIDER, LEONARD HOFFMANN, PHILLIP DALRYMPLE, ALEXANDER BIELUNIS, DAVID PROULX, DARRELL BORGER, SALAZAR DOS SANTOS, ANTHONY LENGOWS-KI, JAMES LEE, NELSON NORTHERN, RONALD SURETTE, ALBERT SPRINGER, LEONARD PRE-SUTTI, SERGUEI ALIEV, RONALD THIBEAULT, DONALD FREER, PAUL KAITZ, DAVID THOMP-SON, ANTHONY WILLETTE, DAVID SHEA, ROY JOHNSON, ERNEST KOUMPIS, FRANK CHAL-LANT, TIMOTHY O’BRIEN, EDWARD GOSSELIN, JOEL TAFT, ALEX THOMAS, DENNIS LABOUNTY, JEFFREY MORRISSEY, DAVID HAMBLIN.

Sustaining

G. Reynolds, A. Swift, J. DeDominicis, D. Brown, D. MacEachern, J. Debergalis Jr., S. Goselin, William McLaughlin, Edwin Foley

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Edward George &Associates

We concentrate in civil litigation representing closely held businesses including negotiation and court appearances in matters involving real estate, business, contracts and environmental disputes.

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www.edgeorgelaw.com

onto the streets to repeat the cycle. (Here’s where the circle/cycle of vi-olence is truly perpetuated).

4. It is frustrating and infuriating that we, the law abiding have to go before our legislature and ask to have our rights restored. For years they have voted on and enacted one failed social program after another. These failed programs are now bear-ing fruit in high unemployment, a constant battle to keep drugs off the streets and an ever increasing cycle of violence. How do they react? For the most part by going in front of a microphone and calling for more gun control laws, (then passing these laws) and blaming the actions of people who do not live in the in-ner cities for the actions of those that do. This more than any other action is abhorrent and inexcusable.

5. We also found it very interest-ing that the speakers from the inner city, who were calling for more con-trol to solve their violence problem made numerous mentions of New-town, yet failed to mention the 72 people shot in inner city Chicago over this past July 4th weekend. We wonder if they know that Chicago truly has the toughest gun laws in the country?

6. The anti-freedom crowd has once again shifted tactics. They have found that they can monopolize valuable testimony time by organiz-ing panels of 4-6 people who each get a full 3+ minutes to speak. This gives them a solid block of time to speak, sometimes up to 25 minutes in which they get their message across. We need to emulate this and will work on making that happen.

7. There were numerous GOAL members in attendance, many of whom took the time to speak pub-licly, testifying before the commit-tee, among the highlights were…

“Our laws are so difficult to un-derstand that a retired chief makes a living teaching LEOs how to in-terpret them, and you want to pass more laws.”

(This one from an 89 year young WW 2 Vet) “I find it interesting that crime and criminals are seldom mentioned in gun control hearings, despite the fact that many of them are known to their local police de-partments... 80% of crime is com-mitted by 5% of our population... I suggest if your efforts were directed at that 5% the gun (crime) control that you seek would be accom-

plished, take the criminal off of the street... the revolving door criminal justice system must stop... I advo-cate criminal control, not citizen control.”

“Straw purchases are already ille-gal.... more restrictive laws are not the answer, more law abiding gun owners is.”

“The guy in Colorado skipped 3 dif-ferent theaters because they didn’t have a ban on the possession of fire-arms.”

“Lawful firearm owners have been vilified for exercising their Second Amendment Rights, I urge you to put emotion aside when consider-ing this legislation.”

“Many of the bills being discussed today pose an existential threat to me and my family’s freedom; please don’t pass laws which will only make me a criminal.”

And then there were the numerous comments from the other side, we heard some doozies, including:

“I don’t see any reason to have large magazines.”

“If the people of Watertown were all armed how many would have been shot?” (The well worn and proven wrong “blood in the streets” argu-ment.)

“At Newtown 26 people were killed using an assault weapon designed for mass murder... if you could pass a bill that saved just one life, passing that bill would be worth it.”

And finally this gem from Rep. Da-vid Linsky: “Americans should be ashamed, we are the world leader in gun violence and gun homicides” (He then proceeded to cite a bunch of MAIG stats.) Note, Rep. Linky’s

Continued on page 15

GOAL News Print Edition July 201314

GOAL News - Print Edition33 Steps - Continued from page 1

k)Are you now or have you ever been the subject of MGL C209A re-straining order or involved in a do-mestic violence charge?

l)Has any License to Carry Fire-arms, Permit to Purchase Firearms or Firearms Identification Card is-sued under the laws of any state or territory ever been suspended, re-voked or denied?

m)Are you currently the subject of any outstanding arrest warrants in any state or federal jurisdiction?

n)Other than Massachusetts, in what state, territory or jurisdiction have you resided?

o)Have you ever held a License to Carry in any other state, territory or jurisdiction?

3)The applicant is required to pay a $100 application fee. The fee is non-refundable in the case of a denial or the issuance of a restricted license.

4)During the application process, the applicant will be fingerprinted and photographed.

5)In many cases the applicant will be subject to an interview with the local licensing authority.

6)Many local authorities add provi-sions to the state’s application pro-cess. These include supplying letters of reference, doctor’s letters, man-datory club memberships, etc.

7)Once an application has been submitted, the local licensing au-thority will forward one copy of the application and one copy of the ap-plicant’s fingerprints to the colonel of state police.

8)The colonel shall conduct a back-ground check on the applicant utilizing files maintained by the department of probation and state-wide and nationwide criminal jus-tice, warrant and protection order information systems and files in-cluding, but not limited to, the Na-tional Instant Criminal Background Check System and the department of mental health.

9)The colonel shall notify the li-censing authority of any automatic disqualifications. Those include:

a)has, in any state or federal juris-diction, been convicted or adjudi-cated a youthful offender or delin-quent child for the commission of (a) a felony; (b) a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for more than two years; (c) a violent crime as defined in section 121; (d) a violation of any law regulating the use, possession, ownership, trans-fer, purchase, sale, lease, rental, re-ceipt or transportation of weapons or ammunition for which a term

of imprisonment may be imposed; or (e) a violation of any law regu-lating the use, possession or sale of controlled substances as defined in section 1 of chapter 94C;

b)has been confined to any hospital or institution for mental illness, un-less the applicant submits with his application an affidavit of a regis-tered physician attesting that such physician is familiar with the appli-cant’s mental illness and that in such physician’s opinion the applicant is not disabled by such an illness in a manner that should prevent such applicant from possessing a firearm;

c)is or has been under treatment for or confinement for drug ad-diction or habitual drunkenness, unless such applicant is deemed to be cured of such condition by a licensed physician, and such ap-plicant may make application for such license after the expiration of five years from the date of such con-finement or treatment and upon presentment of an affidavit issued by such physician stating that such physician knows the applicant’s his-tory of treatment and that in such physician’s opinion the applicant is deemed cured;

d)is at the time of the application less than 21 years of age;

e)is an alien;

f)is currently subject to: (A) an or-der for suspension or surrender is-sued pursuant to section 3B or 3C of chapter 209A or a similar order issued by another jurisdiction; or (B) a permanent or temporary pro-tection order issued pursuant to chapter 209A or a similar order is-sued by another jurisdiction; or

g)is currently the subject of an out-standing arrest warrant in any state or federal jurisdiction.

10)Regardless of the lack of any dis-qualifiers, the local authority may deny a license if they deem the ap-plicant to be “unsuitable”. There is no statutory standard for this term.

11) The local licensing author-ity may also arbitrarily downgrade the license to a Class B that prohib-its the possession of large capacity handguns and prohibits concealed carry.

12)The local licensing authority may also add arbitrary restrictions that are not defined in statute or regulations such as “Target and Hunting Only”.

13)If a license is issued it shall be revoked or suspended upon the oc-currence of any event that would have disqualified the holder from being issued such license.

14)The licensing process can take anywhere from a month to a year. (Statute requires 40 days, but is sel-dom complied with.)

15)If a license is issued, the license holder may then seek out a hand-gun that meet the restrictions, if any, placed on their license.

16)The handgun that is to be pur-chased must meet the manufactur-ing requirements of Massachusetts Attorney General Regulations 940 CMR 16.00. The office of the At-torney General does not certify any handgun as meeting the regulations. Manufacturers and licensed dealers must make that determination at their own risk. The Office also does not recognize the “Approved Fire-arms Roster”.

17)The handgun that is to be pur-chased must also meet the manufac-turing requirements of MGL Chap-ter 140, Section 123. The Secretary of Public Safety publishes the “Ap-proved Firearms Roster” for hand-guns that have passed the manu-facturing standards tests. (These regulations and laws greatly restrict the makes and models of handguns that can legally be sold in Massa-chusetts. Massachusetts remains the only state in the nation where a law-fully licensed citizen cannot pur-chase a single shot Olympic target pistol.)

18)The handgun must also meet the requirements of MGL Chapter 140, Section 131M which bans the pos-session, sale or transfer of certain large capacity magazines not law-fully owned prior to September 13, 1994.

19)If the handgun to be purchased is owned by a private citizen or a fed-erally licensed dealer (18 U.S. Code 923) in another state, the handgun must be transferred to a licensed dealer in the state of Massachusetts.

20)The Massachusetts dealer must be licensed under federal law (18 U.S. Code 923) and state law (Chap-ter 140, Section 122).

21)Once in possession of the hand-gun the Massachusetts licensed dealer must record the information about the gun in their permanent Bound Book (Bound Book - 27 CFR 178.125).

22)The proposed Massachusetts buyer must then appear in person to the Massachusetts Dealer and present their valid License to Carry a firearm together with other per-sonal identification.

23)The buyer must complete a fed-eral form ATF 4473. This form asks for the personal information of the potential buyer. The potential buyer

must also answer and sign under penalty of law the following ques-tions:

a)Are you the actual transferee/buy-er of the firearm listed on the form?

b)Are you under indictment or in-formation in any court for a felony, or any other crime, for which the judge could imprison you for more than one year?

c)Have you ever been convicted in any court of a felony, or any other crime, for which the judge could have imprisoned you for more than one year, even if you received a shorter sentence including proba-tion?

d)Are you a fugitive of justice?

e)Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any de-pressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?

f)Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective or have you ever been committed to a mental institu-tion?

g)Have you ever been discharged from the Armed Forces under dis-honorable conditions?

h)Are you subject to a court order restraining you from harassing, stalking, or threatening your child or an intimate partner or child of such partner?

i)Have you ever been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence?

j)Have you ever renounced your United States citizenship?

k)Are you a nonimmigrant alien?

24)The dealer must also fill out a state form FA-10 which contains the information of the seller/dealer, the buyer and a description of the fire-arm. The form must then be signed by the purchaser.

25)If more than one handgun is be-ing purchased within a five day pe-riod, the dealer is required to fill out BATFE Form 3310.4 and submit a copy to the BATFE and the state agency in charge of licensing before the close of business on the day of the second sale.

26)The dealer must then conduct a background check on the proposed buyer through the National Instant Checks System.

27)The National Instant Check Sys-tem can delay, deny, or approve a sale/transfer. If a sale/transfer is de-layed or denied the licensed dealer is not informed as to why.

28)If the dealer is equipped with the new Massachusetts Instant Records

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 15

33 Steps - Cont’d from page 14

GOAL News - Print Edition

above statement is not only an in-sult to America and Americans but is also a bold faced lie, according to the World Health Organization America ranks 28th worldwide for gun related homicides. This despite the fact that we have way more le-gally owned guns per person than any other country - more than dou-ble the country in second place.

So here we are, two hearings down and 3 to go. Some trends that we have noticed to date are interesting, namely the “pro control” side is very coordinated, almost to the point of it working against them in that they are all working off of the same talk-ing points sheet provided to them by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns and other anti-freedom, anti-Amer-ican radicals.

The second thing that has really jumped out at us about the “con-trol” crowd is that they are all very misinformed. One of the better pro 2A speakers made a great point about them in which he mentioned something along the lines of “most of you that are here trying to tell me what I can or cannot do with my guns have never even fired one.”

And therein lays a bulk of the prob-lem, fear of the unknown. We need to work harder to fix that and urge all of our membership to be sure to bring as many new people to the range this summer as you can.

Of the people who have come in support of our Second Amendment Civil Right we’ve noticed some trends as well. We’ve heard some great testimony, very well informed speakers, talking from the heart and backing up their statements with actual facts. However, and this is a big thing, the bulk of the speakers from our side have been older men. We really hope that more working people will realize the significance of the remaining hearings and how much weight effective testimony from our side will carry going for-ward. We have truly reached a time where we need to stand and fight, years of inaction and saying “why bother” have left us in the mess we’re in. Please urge everyone you know to join us at these hearings, the burden belongs to all of us.

Public Hearing Update continued from page 13

Checks System (MIRCS), the buyer must submit to a digital scan and recognition of their fingerprint.

29) If all the checks have passed, the dealer must instruct the buyer on the safe use and operation of the firearm.

30) The dealer must also pro-vide a tamper resistant mechanical locking device that has been ap-proved by the Colonel of the Mas-sachusetts State Police when selling/transferring handguns or large ca-pacity long guns.

31) If all of the above steps are met, the transaction may take place.

32) Once the license holder leaves with the firearm it must be transported home in accordance with the state laws regarding the transportation of firearms Chapter 140, Section 131C. The firearm must be under the direct control of the li-cense holder or the firearm must be unloaded and contained within the locked trunk or in a locked case or

other secure container.

33) Once the license holder has the firearm in their home they must store firearm in accordance with Chapter 140, 131L. A firearm that is not under the direct control of the license holder must be stored in a locked container or equipped with a tamper-resistant mechanical lock or other safety device.

belief that more laws will stop vio-lent criminals and the insane from committing horrendous criminal acts. They are truly an insult to those that they represent.

As an example, look at the quotes above - note that many of them call the Newtown murders a “devastat-ing tragedy”. The Indian Ocean tsunami that killed over 230K peo-ple in 2004 is a devastating trag-edy, an devastating F5 tornado like those that occurred in Oklahoma last month define devastating trag-edy, Newtown was a horrific crime. Conflating the two helps them separate fact from reality in play-ing the “blame game” and pushing un-needed restriction and regula-tion. In reply we need to drive the point home, “It’s about Rights, not wrongs”, and we need to make this simple statement the ground we stand on backed up by facts. Over the last two decades we’ve seen the majority of our states deregulate and lessen restrictions which effect firearms ownership and posses-sion. With this has come a steady decline in violent crime including homicides. Nationwide, murder has declined 39% and violent crime by 70%, it’s no coincidence.

Statements like those quoted above are how they methodically use nu-ances in language to subvert our freedom. By objectifying firearms and calling crime “tragedy” they lead their base to believe that re-strictive legislation will curb violent crime.

These replies are truly shameful, I hope that Americans and the citi-zens of the Commonwealth will see through these ploys and will not only expect more from those that represent us, but will hold those who speak these lies accountable for enabling further crime via leg-islation which restricts the ability of law abiding Americans to rightfully defend ourselves via the most effec-tive means available.

Rights Not Wrongs - continued from page 5

ginia Tech by a deranged illegal alien. The following is a statement on the Bureau of Justice Services web page regarding that legisla-tion. http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=49

“The Virginia Tech shooter was able to purchase firearms from an FFL because information about his pro-hibiting mental health history was not available to the NICS and the system was therefore unable to deny the transfer of the firearms used in

the shootings. The NICS is a criti-cal tool in keeping firearms out of the hands of prohibited persons, but it is only as effective as the in-formation entered into the databas-es upon which it relies. The NIAA seeks to address the gap in informa-tion available to NICS about such prohibiting mental health adjudica-tions and commitments and other prohibiting backgrounds. Filling these information gaps will bet-ter enable the system to operate as intended to keep guns out of the hands of persons prohibited by fed-eral or state law from receiving or possessing firearms.”

From what we have told Massachu-setts is one of the few states that have not complied with the new reporting requirements of the 2007 NIAA. Governor Deval Patrick has filed legislation for several terms to address that discrepancy, but the legislation has continually been written incorrectly.

According to the information pro-vided by the Bureau of Justice Ser-vices, the NIAA requires the report-ing of individuals who have been adjudicated as a mental defective or have been committed to a men-

tal institution against their will. The following are the definitions for those terms.

How are the terms “adjudicated as a mental defective” and “committed to a mental institution” defined?

Section 922(g)(4), Title 18, United States Code, prohibits the receipt or possession of firearms by an in-dividual who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective” or “commit-ted to a mental institution.” Regu-lations issued by the Bureau of

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Ex-plosives (ATF), 27 C.F.R. § 478.11, define these terms as follows:

Adjudicated as a mental defective.

(1) A determination by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease:

•Is a danger to himself or to others; or

•Lacks the mental capacity to con-tract or manage his own affairs.

(2) The term shall include —

•A finding of insanity by a court in a criminal case; and

•Those persons found incompetent to stand trial or found not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsi-bility pursuant to articles 50a and 72b of the Uniform Code of Mili-tary Justice, 10 U.S.C. 850a, 876b.

Committed to a mental institution. A formal commitment of a person to a mental institution by a court, board, commission, or other law-ful authority. The term includes a

Wallace, Firearms - Mental Health continued from page 4

Continued on page 17

GOAL News Print Edition July 201316

1245 Safety Brief (Outdoor Pistol) NOTE: NEW DATE

HFS: Saturday, 07/27/13, 0900, (Meeting Room) NOTE: NEW DATE

WPRC Open House: Sunday, 07/28/13, 1200 -1530, all ranges closed. NOTE: NEW EVENT

August Schedule

IDPA Practice on 08/04/13 @ 1700 IDPA Match: 08/10/13 @ 0800

GOAL EDC Skills & Knowledge course 08/20/13 @ 0930 (Action Pistol)

Work Party Sunday 08/18/13 @ 0800

Pin Shoots: 08/25/13, 1200 Set-Up, 1230 Registration, 1245 Safety Brief (Outdoor Pistol)

HFS: Sunday, 08/25/13, 0900, (Meeting Room)

Club News: Worcester Pistol & Rifle

E-Board Minutes 16/18/2013

Board Members present:

Al Bonofiglio, Mike Henry, Bill Hardell, Tom LaRoche, Mike Swett, Ann Kerouac

Members present: Mike Henry

Meeting called to order by Presi-dent, Al Bonofiglio at 6:50pm.

Open House –

Due to a scheduling conflict, the date has been changed to July 28th. There will be a work party that morning to clean the property. The CLUB member invitees will include the E-Board, John Gabriel, Mike French, Mike Henry, Brian Frappier, Steve Moysey, Jon Green, John Cun-ningham, Karoline Gildemeister, Don Brickman.

The E-Board granted Mike Henry the authority to create a barrier on the 100 yard range.

Executive Officer - Bill Hardell

Bill suggested that we purchase a power door closer for the door en-tering the indoor range and possi-bly the front door. This was tabled until the sound-proofing of the in-door range is completed.

Bill presented a request for range use that he had received from a person who is not a Club Member, nor affiliated with any organization. The E-Board denied the request.

We still have almost 100 Members who have not picked up their fob.

Calendar Events

The 2103 calendar is available on line. There is also a paper copy posted on the bulletin board. We will be working with GOAL for ad-ditional training events. Please re-member to check the on-line ver-sion for updates.

Please review the calendar and con-tact Bill Hardell with any changes and or corrections. If you have a request to schedule event please see Bill.

July Schedule

GOAL NRA Basic Pistol: Tuesday 07/30/13, @ 0800 (Action Pistol Range)

GOAL CFS Course: Saturday 07/20/13, 0900 – 1700 and Sunday 1200 – 1700 (Action Pistol Range) NOTE: NEW EVENT

GOAL Massachusetts Gun Law Seminar: Thursday 07/25/13, 1800 – 2100 (Meeting Room) NOTE:

NEW EVENT

Work Party Sunday 07/14/13 @ 0800

Pin Shoots: Sunday 07/21/13, 1200 Set-Up, 1230 Registration,

Please remember to contact Bill Hardell for any additions or dele-tions to the calendar. You can use the link from the club web-site un-der the “Club Officers” tab. Any additions / corrections need to be made two weeks out so we can get them posted on-line.

Indoor / Outdoor Ranges:

Mike Henry: Routine Maintenance Continues. The next Work Party is scheduled for 07/14/13. Please re-member to use the dud bucket. Try to remember to put duds only in the dud bucket. Expended brass goes in the brass buckets.

Web-Site:

Web-Site maintenance continues on an almost daily basis. Craig Hib-bert has made numerous changes to the calendar, updated the format to support a new tab with meeting minutes and maintained the home page. Please contact Bill for any

questions regarding the web-site.

Treasurer’s Report - Mike Swett

Mike presented the state of the Club’s finances.

In response to a question regarding water, he stated that water bills are received quarterly.

Mike Henry presented Al an appre-ciation gift from the E-Board – a bust of President Regan.

Meeting adjourned at 7:50 pm.

Next E-Board Meeting: Tuesday, July 23rd @ 6:45 pm (if needed)

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 17

GOAL News - Print Edition

commitment to a mental institu-tion involuntarily. The term in-cludes commitment for mental de-fectiveness or mental illness. It also includes commitments for other reasons, such as for drug use. The term does not include a person in a mental institution for observation or a voluntary admission to a men-tal institution

The Governor’s bill, H.47 “An Act to Strengthen and Enhance Fire-arms Laws in the Commonwealth” purports to address the new re-quirements of the NIAA, but uses incorrect terms with no definitions. Rather utilizing “adjudicated as a mental defective” or “committed to a mental institution”, H.47 uses the term “confined”.

SECTION 43. (a) No later than 6 months from the effective date of this act, the department of mental health shall transmit to the depart-ment of criminal justice informa-tion services sufficient information to identify all persons known to the department of mental health who have been confined to any hospi-tal or institution for mental illness within 20 years of the effective date or who are so confined at the time of transmission; and

(b) Thereafter, the department of mental health shall transmit such information to the department of criminal justice information servic-es on a quarterly basis concerning individuals who have been so con-fined in the 3-month period preced-

Wallace, Firearms - Mental Health continued from page 15

have guns from getting them? Some would argue that we are not enforc-ing the laws we already have, and they would have a point. There are over 20,000 Federal and state laws on the books relating to gun con-trol. We, as a nation, need to focus on enforcing the laws we have and prosecuting those that perpetrate crimes with illegally held firearms. In a very sad example, the city of Chicago had 522 gun murders in 2012, but of the 90 Federal judicial districts in the U.S., Chicago ranked 90th in gun crime prosecutions in the same year .

Tragedies like Sandy Hook, Col-umbine, Aurora, Virginia Tech and the other mass shootings we experi-ence cannot be stopped by legisla-tion that focuses not on the action of crazed individuals, but on the law abiding citizens of the country. We like to believe that we keep our stu-dents, and fellow citizens, safe from those that would do them harm by cocooning them in pretend “gun free zones.” I say “pretend” as unless we are prepared to fence off such designated areas and make everyone coming and going go through a se-curity screening, we will never stop these shootings and violent events. Mentally unstable or criminal ele-ments do not pay attention to signs or laws that prohibit guns; in fact they serve as a lure. James Holmes, the Aurora movie theater shooter, passed by several other theaters that did not have a “no gun” policy before choosing a theater that did prohibit firearms. Being law abiding citizens, the patrons of that theater had obeyed the no gun directive, so there was no one to potentially stop Holmes. Besides, why carry out a mass shooting attack where some-one could be armed and stop you

from achieving your desired noto-riety? We cannot discount the role that copycat shootings have in this phenomenon. We know that many would-be mass killers obsessively study their predecessors – and cable TV, the Internet and social media make this macabre research easier to do than at the time when “active shooters” were rare. These mediums greatly magnify the instant celebri-ty, and notoriety, that a mass killer can achieve.

For the potential mass shooter, any gun free zone is just a target rich en-vironment with low risk of anyone fighting back. We only have to look at the relatively ineffectual school and college campus lockdown pro-cedures to see why they favor, rather than hinder, the determined armed active shooter. Some elements in the debate argue in favor of allow-ing trained concealed carry licensed faculty or staff members to carry a gun on campus and several states and education boards are working toward that goal. But this is a diffi-cult situation and one that is equally as controversial as the gun control debate itself.

Some have argued that stricter back-ground checks would stop these events. They would not, as our sys-tem currently stands. Licensed gun dealers ( FFL’s) are required by Fed-eral law to submit every gun pur-chaser to the FBI’s NICS ( National Instant Check System) background check. This is a database of disquali-fied individuals that includes felons, convicted drug users, perpetrators

ing the date of each transmission.

While this might seem like nitpick-ing to some, one term with no defi-nition could easily open the door to abuse. For example, if for some reason one were to receive a pre-scription medication that caused an unbefore known allergic reaction causing erratic behavior you could easily find yourself temporarily confined for assessment. Without a clear definition with exemptions this could mean permanent dis-qualification.

As for this particular part of the debate, if Massachusetts wishes to become compliant with the NIAA it must utilize the same terminol-ogy and definitions NIAA calls for. Granted there are many mental

health proponents that take offense to the Federal term “mentally defec-tive”, but emotions aside there has to be continuity.

In general, mental health has been ignored by the public for many decades and the discussion must start in earnest now. If we are go-ing to find solutions, we must use intelligence and honesty, not po-litical agendas to address the obvi-ous need for mental health reform. What has become painfully obvious is the state has a very poor set of gun laws that desperately need to be re-formed to respect the rights of citi-zens. Poorer even still is the way we deal with mental health.

of domestic violence as so on. The purchaser fills out a form called a 4473 which asks question relating to drug use, mental health treatment and criminal prosecutions – includ-ing, amazingly enough: “are you a fugitive from justice?” Lying on this form is a Federal offence. The dealer calls the information into the FBI, they check the database, and if all is good the go-ahead to complete the purchase is given. If you buy a gun via the internet, it has to be shipped to an FFL in your home state who will run a NICS check before trans-ferring the firearm to you in person. Same applies on out -of-state pur-chases – the gun must be shipped to an FFL before you can take posses-sion. The NICS check, from an FFL, applies if this is at their store, gun show or kitchen table: it is a Federal requirement.

The Columbine shooters, Harris and Kiebold, were under age for firearms purchases, so obtained their guns illegally through friends – a process called “straw purchas-ing” which is a felony offence. Adam Lanza killed his mother and then stole guns from her to use at Sandy Hook. Other mass shooters, such as James Holmes ( Aurora), Cho Seung-Hui (Virginia Tech) and Jared Lee Loughner ( Tucson) all passed federal background checks and obtained their firearms lawful-ly. However, there is a concern that, given the mental state of these kill-ers, a better linkage could be created between the mental health profes-sion and the FBI NICS background check system, but that may open up

Figure 2: Excerpt for Form 4473

a host of other issues.

It’s a sad fact of life that criminals will continue to illegally obtain and misuse guns. We have to guard against legislative kneejerk reac-tions, in the fallout of tragic mass shootings, that only impact the rights of law abiding citizens, do nothing to improve public safety and chip away at our Constitution. As a society, when a drunk driver kills a pedestrian, we blame the drunk. In a terrorist attack, as in the tragic Boston marathon events, we blame the terrorist. In an unlawful shooting case, we have a tendency to blame the gun, not the person who pulled the trigger.

The topic of gun control will con-tinue to be a contentious issue in the United States and emotions will run high, at either end of the spectrum, every time the topic gets raised on the state or national political stage. As a responsible gun owner, I dearly wish we could take out the partisan politics, the stereotypical rhetoric and the empty insults that are ex-changed across the political aisles and instead have a rational debate on the subject. Both sides are too focused on scoring quick victories for their cause and, in so doing, lose sight of the real issues. Underneath of this we are all Americans and as such we have a social responsibility to care for both our Constitutional rights and our fellow countrymen who may need our help, while at the same time making every effort to keep guns out of the hands of crimi-nals and disqualified people.

Gun Control Continued

GOAL News Print Edition July 201318

Reloading BenchFull Length Sizing for Bottleneck Cases - Jim Finnerty

Last month’s article covered case preparation for straight and tapered cases. The actual sizing process for these types of cases is simple - squeeze the case to reduce the di-ameter. This month, we’ll tackle bottleneck case resizing. Setting up the sizing die for a bottleneck case requires a higher level of precision than for straight-walled cases, and the quality of your setup has a much bigger impact on safety, accuracy, and brass life.

Full Length Sizing

This article will describe the process known as “full length” resizing. With full length resizing, the entire case is returned to its original ‘factory’ di-mensions. During full length sizing, the case body is squeezed back to its original dimension, the case shoul-der is pushed back, and the neck is reduced in diameter so that it will hold a bullet. Full length resizing allows the reloaded cartridge to be fired in any firearm of the appropri-ate caliber. Another type of resiz-ing called “neck sizing” can be also be used, but neck-sized cartridges can only be used in the rifle that last fired them, and is not appropriate for all firearm types. I’ll cover neck sizing in a later article.

Case Lubricants

Unlike straight walled cases, it is necessary to lubricate bottleneck cases even when using a carbide siz-ing die. If you try to resize an un-lubricated bottleneck case, you will find that it requires a significant amount of force to insert the case into the sizing die. Although diffi-cult, it’s not impossible to take ad-vantage of the leverage inherent in the design of your reloading press to muscle a dry case up into the sizing die. The trouble starts when you try to get it out. Without lubricant, the case will be stuck so firmly in the die that the shellholder will rip the rim off the case when you try to extract it. This quickly puts an end to your reloading session while you hunt down a stuck case extraction kit to get your sizing die back into service. You must lube bottleneck cases prior to sizing,

The most effective case lubes are lanolin based. For a small number

of cases, a solid lanolin lube such as Imperial Sizing Die ‘Wax’ (on the left in Figure 1) is convenient. Simply rub the tips of your fingers over the lube, and then handle each case to apply a thin film of lubricant onto it. With a little practice, this can be accomplished while picking up the case and placing it into the shell holder.

For larger numbers of cases, a lano-lin-based pump spray lube is more efficient (Figure 1 on the left). To use a spray lube, spread an old dish-towel out on your bench and place a hundred or so cases on it in a single layer. Spray the lube onto the cas-es, use your hands to roll the cases around to coat them, and then wait for the liquid carrier in the lube (isopropyl alcohol) to evaporate off. The cases will be coated with a thin film of lanolin, and ready to go into the sizing die. Put the now lanolin-soaked dishtowel in a ziplock bag for future use. The more saturated it gets, the less lube you’ll have to spray.

Lanolin-based pump spray lubes are available from Dillon and Frank-ford Arsenal. You can also make your own using anhydrous lanolin (available from online suppliers) and 90% isopropyl alcohol (gas line anti-freeze) in a 1:10 ratio.

If you instead decide to use a non-evaporating liquid lube (such as with a lube pad), be careful not to leave any droplets of liquid on the case neck or shoulder because the liquid will create dents in the cases during sizing.

Headspace

Before we get into setting up the sizing die, we need to discuss head-space and cartridge headspace length. Headspace in a firearm is defined as the distance from the breech or bolt face to the part of the chamber that stops the forward movement of the cartridge when it is inserted into the chamber. For rimless bottleneck rifle cartridges (like .223, 308, and .30-06), the part of the chamber that stops the for-ward movement of the cartridge is

Figure 1 – Lanolin-based case lubricant in a pump spray liquid (left) and solid form (right) Figure 2 – RCBS Precision Mic

Figure 3 – Hornady Headspace Comparator installed on a dial caliper

the angled portion that contacts the shoulder of the case. The cartridge headspace length is the distance from the case head to the part of the case on which the cartridge head-spaces. For a rimless bottleneck rifle cartridge, this is a point on the shoulder of the case.

The difference between the cham-ber’s headspace and the cartridge headspace length determines the amount of extra fore-and-aft ‘room’ the cartridge has in the chamber. If there is too little room (because the

cartridge headspace length is too long for the chamber), the bolt will not close and the firearm will not go into battery. Too much room (because the cartridge headspace length is too short for the chamber) can result in inconsistent ignition, poor accuracy, short brass life, or catastrophic case head separation. In other words, if you get the car-tridge headspace length wrong, the ammo will not shoot at all, will shoot badly, or will blow up. There-fore, it’s quite important to get the cartridge headspace length right.

Measuring Headspace Length

There are two common tools avail-able – The RCBS Precision Mic and the Hornady Headspace Compara-tor - that allow you to measure car-tridge headspace length. The Preci-sion Mic from RCBS (Figure 2) is a self contained device that is sort of a specialized hollow micrometer. To use the Precision Mic, you unscrew the top, drop in a case, and screw the top back on until it contacts the case shoulder. There are graduations on

the side of the device that allow you to read the headspace length of the case compared to the SAAMI “0” distance for that caliber. The RCBS Precision Mic is caliber/cartridge specific. If you want to measure the headspace length of the .308 and .30-06, you’ll need two different Precision Mics – one for each cali-ber. RCBS makes Precision Mics for dozens of common calibers. They cost $40 to $50 each.

The Hornady Headspace Compara-tor Set is used in conjunction with

a dial or digital caliper. To measure headspace length with the Hornady Comparator, you attach the bushing holder to one jaw of the dial caliper, then install the caliber-appropriate bushing into the holder. The bush-ing has a hole with a diameter that is larger than the case neck, but small-er than the case body. You place the neck of the case to be measured into the hole on the bushing, and close the caliper until it contacts the case head. The resulting measurement will show you the distance from the case head to a point on the shoulder of the case. (See Figure 3).

The Hornady kit costs about $40. It comes with 5 bushings that al-low you to measure the headspace length on 100’s of different car-tridges. Instead of measuring to SAAMI “0”, the Hornady gage gives you a relative measurement of the case headspace length. As you’ll read below, a relative measurement is often enough.

Continued next month, setting up the die and more.

July 2013 GOAL News Print Edition 19

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