After hosting a private meeting that drew half the Legislature and invited gun control advocates, Natick Democrat Rep. David Linsky said Thursday he intends to file a comprehensive bill within the next two weeks that will address the type of guns and ammunition that can be sold legally in Massachusetts and who will be eligible to purchase firearms.
Linsky hosted a crowded, closed-door meeting with newly sworn in members of the House and Senate, their staffs and a select group of advocates to discuss ideas to reduce gun violence in Massachusetts and update existing gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut that left 27 dead.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray both listed addressing gun violence as a top priority in speeches given Wednesday to kick off the new legislative session, and Gov. Deval Patrick has said he intends to pursue gun control proposals he has filed in the past that have stalled.
"If we have children, if we have loved ones, if we have families, if we care about the people of Massachusetts we have a stake in this because our goal is quite simple. It is to reduce gun violence in Massachusetts," Linsky told a large gathering of reporters after the meeting.
The bill, according to Linsky, will address who should be eligible to own a gun, gun storage, mental health screening for gun owners and an update to the definitions and types of firearms and ammunition permitted under the state's assault weapons ban. Linsky said he will also look to close loopholes in existing law, such as the one that allows purchases to be made at gun shows without background checks.
Linksy said about 150 to 200 people attended the meeting, including 100 Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate, who demonstrated an "enormous amount of passion" about reforming the state's gun laws.
"There was a quorum," Linksy said.
In addition to lawmakers, Linsky invited Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police, Norwood Police Chief Bill Brooks, Sherborn Police Chief Richard Thompson, Northeastern University Associate Dean Jack McDevitt, John Rosenthal, the founder of Stop Handgun Violence, and Angus McQuilken, a Massachusetts Life Sciences Center official who helped develop the state's existing assault weapons ban while working as an aide to former Sen. Cheryl Jacques.
While not invited, Gun Owners' Action League Executive Director Jim Wallace attended the meeting, though he said it was so crowded he heard pieces of the discussion from the hallway.
"Definitely, the mental health issues have to be paramount," said Wallace, noting that for the past four years GOAL has been advocating for tracking not just gun owners, but also "prohibited persons" who should be barred from gun ownership.
Wallace called Patrick's idea of limiting gun purchases to one per month a "slap in the face" to gun owners, and called for an overhaul of the state's overly complicated licensing system. Wallace said legal gun owners are currently waiting up to five or six months to renew their licenses when it is supposed to happen within 40 days.
Having worked on gun control issues for 14 years in the House, Linsky said the mass shooting of elementary school students and teachers in Newtown, Conn. was not the impetus for his push, but acknowledged it has played a role in "inspiring" many of his colleagues who have been pushed by constituents to action.
"Clearly we have to cut down on illegal guns, but we also have to be looking at whether or not there are too many legal guns out there," Linsky said.
In remarks to the House on Wednesday, DeLeo highlighted the issue of gun violence and said he had asked Northeastern University Associate Dean Jack McDevitt to lead a commission to explore the intersection of guns and mental illness.
"I'm trying to bring a balance of folks to this issue so hopefully we can get some legislation at the end of the day that we can address some of the issues that face us as a Commonwealth and that face us as a society as well," DeLeo told reporters, adding that he had still not decided who else will serve on the commission.
Linksy said he doesn't plan to wait for the findings the speaker's panel, and will instead file a bill by Jan. 18, the deadline for lawmakers to file new bills for consideration over the next two years, though late files are permitted at any time.
Linsky, who chaired the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight last session, said that before any bill gets to the floor of the House for a vote there will be time to incorporate ideas from McDevitt's commission to his bill.
In addition to updating the list of restricted weapons in Massachusetts, Linsky said mental health screening must be looked at to keep guns out of the hands of those who may not be stable enough to operate a weapon safely.
"A database, quite frankly, won't work," Linsky said, highlighting instead a law in Hawaii that requires gun permit applicants to sign a release for their mental health records.
He also called the National Rifle Association's call for armed guards to be stationed in all schools "absolute folly."
Patrick said on Thursday he has made his positions clear in legislation filed over the past couple of years to limit gun purchases and close loopholes around gun shows, but said all options should be considered in the new session, including premiums for gun owners on homeowners' insurance rates.
Patrick said he has spoken only briefly with the "leader of the gun lobby," who he said expressed a willingness to participate in the debate in a "fresh and constructive way." As for mental health screenings for gun permit applicants, Patrick said, "We have got to figure out a way both to have as robust a system of care for people who are suffering from mental health issues and a way to ensure that information is available to people who are selling guns so we can keep them out of the wrong hands."
Rep. Ellen Story, an Amherst Democrat, attended the meeting and said she was "impressed" by the number of her colleagues who joined the discussion.
Story, too, mentioned the Hawaii law. "That sounds promising to me because it's not creating a database of everyone with mental health issues. It's only those who want to purchase guns which is a voluntary act," she said.
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston) said she heard a lot of "creative" ideas in the meeting, including an "intriguing one" to require gun owners to purchase liability insurance. She also said Congress should reauthorize the federal assault weapons ban and close the gun show loophole. Wallace said gun liability insurance doesn't even exist on the market in Massachusetts.
Following her reelection as Senate President Wednesday, Sen. Murray said her district, centered in Plymouth, has a lot of "sportsmen," but questioned the need for high-capacity rifles like the one used in Connecticut.
"I don't know if you need the big weapons to kill deer, or to go hunting, and a lot of the people in my district depend on what they kill. They eat what they kill, so it's not necessarily sport. But we can't continue to have proliferation of these kinds of weapons here," Murray said.
Wallace said sportsmen use the civilian adaptation of military rifles, like the Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in Newtown, in national marksmanship competitions.
Murray also said the Legislature should tread carefully when considering issues related to mental illness and gun violence. "I'm not ready to demonize the mentally ill. There are people who are not mentally ill that shoot people, as we know," Murray said.
Murray said law enforcement is aware of how illegal guns are trafficked into Massachusetts, originating in the South and coming through New York into Connecticut to Springfield. She said they are then transported east on the Massachusetts Turnpike to Plymouth where they are stored and sent to cities like Brockton, Fall River and New Bedford.
"We need to stop them from coming in so the urban centers don't continue to have the violence with the young street gangs. But more important we have to look at what kind of weapons are acceptable in a society we should have, a society that cares about people," Murray said.
McDevitt said that while it's important to understand where illegal guns come from, more must be done to reduce incidences of gun violence by both legal and illegal possessors of weapons. McDevitt said he did not have a timetable for his work, and said he would be hesitant to pursue a database or list of prohibited persons because of the potential for error that could impinge on someone's constitutional rights.
"I would want to be sure it's pretty foolproof," McDevitt said.
While Massachusetts already has an assault weapons ban, leaders on Beacon Hill said state efforts to tighten gun laws must be accompanied by federal law changes to make it easier for police to enforce laws, and to stop illegal guns from coming over the border.
"The enforcement becomes very, very difficult so hopefully we'll see something in Washington as well," DeLeo said.
