Please join us on July 18th at 1pm in Massachusetts State House Hearing Room A-1 for a Hearing of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to make your voice heard and keep Massachusetts the safest state in the nation.
There will be a chance to lobby your elected officials at 11am on the same day in Nurses Hall on the 2nd Floor of the State House.
You can be sure that members of the Massachusetts gun lobby affiliate, GOAL, will be showing up in large numbers to push for easier access to guns and silencers. Your presence in support of gun violence prevention will speak volumes, nobody is required to testify.
We will be speaking out about three bills in particular:
1. Extreme Risk Protective Orders (H3081) – We support this bill, which would allow police, concerned family members, and concerned healthcare providers to petition for the court to temporarily remove guns from people who have demonstrated that they are at an extreme risk of harming themselves or others. Duke and Yale researchers found that a similar law prevented dozens of suicides of in Connecticut.
2. and 3. Repealing the Silencer Ban in Massachusetts (H763 and H789) – We oppose these bills, which were filed by allies of the gun lobby. They would repeal the Commonwealth’s ban on silencers, which has almost wholly prevented silencers from being used criminally. This is an especially dangerous time to weaken state laws on silencers, as the United States Congress is also poised to make them readily available through private sales without a background check.
More information about the hearing and a complete list of the bills to be heard can be found here. And more information about all the gun-related bills introduced in Massachusetts can be found here.
If you have any questions about how to get to the State House or what the day’s events will entail, please contact us at programs at stophandgunviolence dot com.
Thank you,
The Stop Handgun Violence Team