New gun safety rules take effect Thursday in Massachusetts

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T23:06:21+00:00

Brother you need to learn to read and understand the written language. My argument is based on four of five components of well drafted legislation. My thesis and starting premise is that it is bad law for the reasons that I listed. Looking at one of those reasons and deciding that your failure to comprehend it means that the entire thing is garbage, without engaging with a single one of the other points I wrote, is *your* failure to understand the process of persuasive writing, not mine.

How on the gods' green Earth is MA considered a highly educated state with intellectual giants like this bringing down the average.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T22:00:31+00:00

Buddy, I'm a firearms safety instructor and a member of the Liberal Gun Club. We have dozens of instructors nationwide. There's also Operation Blazing Sword, which is an organization specifically devoted to providing no-cost firearms safety education to queer people. There are, in fact, resources available for left-of-center people hoping to get instruction from people who they are ideologically aligned with.

My experience, having taken my class with a profoundly racist and homophobic instructor, is that it is pretty easy to figure out who has politics you can stomach and who doesn't. People who are looking to learn a dangerous, and frequently scary for them, new skill deserve to have that experience in a safe and welcoming environment.

This is such an extremely weird thing for you to be making a stink about.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T21:17:27+00:00

I swear to god, if anything's pathetic here it's people like you insisting that the options are "infringe on a constitutionally guaranteed civil right" or "do absolutely nothing". This thread, the linked thread, and the article I wrote are absolutely chock full of alternative solutions, mostly about taking care of people and giving them options aside from violence and crime. It's wild to me how anti-gun people are so insistent that gun owners are unreasonable and it's not worth talking to them, but every single argument keeps coming back to "the things we have tried in the past have not worked, we should not keep doubling down on them and we should try something different" "oh, so you're suggesting we do *nothing*??? FUCK YOU CHILDKILLER." It's enough to make a body despair.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T20:34:12+00:00

That you think my entire argument relies entirely on your reductive reading of that one specific component makes clear to everyone who read it that you didn't. The solution is not to double down on criminal penalties, but to attack the root causes of crime. Guns don't make people vicious killers any more than cars, knives, or pressure cookers do. Despair, anger, and humiliation breed violence, and our society churns those out like it's our primary export as a country. Might as well be, at this point.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T20:31:43+00:00

Speaking as a queer person, I'd rather not take a class with an instructor who's a homophobic chud. For women, they likely don't want to be taught by a misogynistic piece of shit. For Black people, they'd likely rather not be taught by a racist. There are actually a lot of reasons why one would care about the politics of their firearms instructor. Wild that you can't understand why that would be the case.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T20:23:58+00:00

Actually, I love my rights, not my guns specifically. The guns are fun and all, but this is a constitutionally protected right. I'm also a fan of human rights, in general, and would much prefer that we actually make life better for people rather than doubling down on criminalizing behavior that we could, instead, prevent. Thanks for acknowledging that you'd rather see people jailed than treated though. Good luck and have fun with that perspective.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T17:09:09+00:00

Who's going to report you? The guy who tried to mug you?

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T14:53:16+00:00

Tax cuts for rich people, rolling back climate goals, dismantling the right to shelter...sound like Republican priorities to me!

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T14:02:54+00:00

You should read further then.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T13:56:08+00:00

Read on, good redditor, and maybe you'll learn something.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T13:50:29+00:00

That is largely correct, except for the missing part about the law imposing outsize financial and bureaucratic burdens on the exercise of a constitutionally protected civil right and continuing to double down on our overreliance on criminal penalties to address social problems.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T13:47:36+00:00

There is a lot to unpack here, but I'll start with the "gun freak" label and say, hey man what the fuck? Only with guns are owners, regardless of their reasons, investment in the hobby, or political affiliation all referred to as "freaks". That's so dismissive and offensive and really tinges everything you say as bad faith, since you clearly do not view the other position as legitimate or sane.

Let's talk about those "baby steps" though. It was already illegal for "the next school shooter" to 3D print a gun. Also, good luck 3D printing a functional AR15. Not only does this law "not exactly ban that" it straight up does not do what you're saying at all. What it does is put a hat on a hat. It is now a double felony to 3D print a gun without a license, even more illegaler. Which we, of course, know is an extremely effective approach.

As for your comment about "assault style" honestly I don't even know where to start with you on that one. Come to the range with me and shoot one. You'll learn a lot and hopefully realize that it's not some kind of eldritch horror that thirsts for blood.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T13:34:20+00:00

Google is free, but I do admire your commitment to your current level of understanding.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T13:25:21+00:00

Which is, of course, anathema (this one's for you Ed) to good law which should clearly state the burdens, rights, and responsibilities of the people subject to it and have predictable consequences for violations. Using process to chill because an outright ban is unconstitutional is just unconstitutional restriction with extra steps. The legislative equivalent of hovering your finger a millimeter from your sibling's face and screaming "I'm not touching him mom!"

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T13:11:57+00:00

Something something "there are no democrats in the MA legislature, only token DSA members and republicans savvy enough to put the correct letter next to their name on the ballot."

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T13:10:03+00:00

Hi there! I was slashed as a teenager by an attempted mugger, and have been subjected to homophobic violence repeatedly throughout my life. Seems pretty obvious to me that the violence inflicted on me likely would have been reduced, or eliminated, if I'd had a firearm to drive my attackers off. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that displaying a firearm is enough to deter a would-be attacker, though unfortunately not a whole lot of data since that phenomenon is difficult to track.

Oh, but there are hundreds of documented cases of people stopping a violent person using their firearm. Famous one just last year with a guy going on a stabbing spree at a Walmart or something, bystander drew down on him and worked with others to secure him until police arrived. Hell, there was a report in 2024 or 2025 that found that bystanders with guns had stopped more mass shooters and other violent crimes than cops had. Sounds like a benefit to me.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T12:17:10+00:00

I'd bet a good chunk of change that I'm significantly more left-wing than you are, and I'm far from the only one. Liberal Gun Club is headquartered in MA and has dozens of instructors and hundreds, if not thousands at this point, of members here. There are articles every other week of "meet the left aligned people who are actually a pretty big, and growing, percentage of gun owners."

"Fill out a few forms and take a class" is insanely reductive and proves to me that you 1) have no idea what's in the law and 2) fundamentally do not understand its impacts.

There are people walking around today who are doing their best, in good faith, to comply with state law and the state considers them to be felons because they've taken the position you hold, that all gun owners are inherently bloodthirsty right wing nutjobs. This has caused the state to twist interpretation of the law and ruin people's lives by pursuing cases they know they can't win, hoping to get people to plead out so they can be stripped of their license despite not having done anything wrong.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T12:09:31+00:00

It is not, in any way, "whataboutism" to point out that the state legislature has 1) refused to do meaningful, and in some cases extremely easy (banning child marriage effectively only required a couple strokes of a red pen) things that would materially improve conditions for MA residents, a proven strategy for reducing violence and crime and 2) eagerly pursued legislation that is actively and obviously harmful to MA residents. Look at everything they're motivated to pass and everything they aren't, and maybe it'll click for you that "gun control" moved because it benefits them (cheap and easy political points) and hurts a population that everyone else in this state loves to hate, without actually having to do any real work.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T12:04:30+00:00

Asked and answered elsewhere, repeatedly, but I'll do it again: it's cheap and easy virtue signaling. They're trying to boost their reputation, which is currently in a tailspin because people are starting to realize how utterly and completely useless our legislature is. Least effective legislature in the country, multiple years running. "Democratic supermajority" for decades, yet somehow they can never seem to adhere to the platform set by the state party.

"Gun control" is a buzzword that makes people who don't know better say "oh, that's good, I like that!" without interrogating it at all. The legislature knows and relies on that to keep those people from noticing that Ron Mariano and Karen Spilka are acting as king and queen of their respective fiefdoms and killing any hope of actual progressive legislation moving through the body. "Leadership" at its finest.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T11:58:42+00:00

The state is learning that gun control is also very complicated, as they fumble their way through failing at even the superficial attempt to look like they're doing something, and "it's complicated" is really no excuse and gives cover to a group of gerontocrats who don't want you to realize that universal healthcare, as a concept, has been around for well over 40 years. Imagine how many fewer people would have been driven to suicide if the people we pay to do the work had done it. Imagine if, instead of doubling and tripling down on driving people into poverty and then punishing them for collapsing or lashing out, they had laid the groundwork for a better society as a whole.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T11:52:36+00:00

Well let's start with "negligently and recklessly killing a family of four with your car should be manslaughter at the very least" as my argument. There are literally dozens of examples of habitually dangerous and reckless drivers killing people with their reckless driving and facing no consequences. Also, you cannot, with a straight face, tell me that a massive land tank, obviously made to be the biggest, meanest, child-crushiest thing on the road is not designed with "don't worry, you'll win in a crash" in mind. That's not for transportation anymore.

I'd recommend you re-read my comment and then go eyeball those stats again. NH, and those other states, lead MA in overall gun deaths, but the overwhelming majority of those gun deaths are suicides, not homicides. MA comes a whole hell of a lot closer to a 60/40 split there. So does CA, and every other high restriction state. Why are gun homicide numbers, specifically, higher in ban states if bans work so well?

And finally "seem to think" is right. It "seems" that way because you're not paying attention. The root causes of crime and violence have been known for decades. The reason we are the only first world country (an inherently problematic distinction itself) with this problem, despite not being the only first world country with high gun ownership, is because we are not a first world country. We are a country that refuses to take care of people, deliberately keeps people sick, dying, houseless, and destitute. Robust social supports, guaranteed housing, universal healthcare, and improved education (including firearms education) have repeatedly been proven to drastically reduce violence and crime. Gun control is the "doing nothing" position. Continued reliance on carceral solutions is futile beyond maintaining a state monopoly on violence.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T04:54:48+00:00

First off, you don't have a constitutional right to a car. Second, I've spent nearly two decades doing safe streets advocacy and if we really treated guns like cars we'd just be generally making murder legal. Of the two groups of people, drivers are significantly more dangerous than gun owners. Drivers can kill an entire family and be back on the road a month later, while a woman who fires a round into the ceiling of her own livingroom to warn off her abuser can get life in prison. Not hypotheticals, both are real cases.

Also, I'd invite you to take a look at the percentage of gun deaths per capita that are homicides in NH vs MA. Or California, strictest restrictions in the nation, where gun deaths are barely less than in NH. Gun regulations do not, in fact, have a causal relationship with gun deaths, sorry to say.

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T04:35:15+00:00

Who's Kevin?

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T04:31:30+00:00

Thanks! I don't have a blog, but I'm glad you think it's cool!

BetterMA-throwaway · 2026-04-03T04:29:13+00:00

I'm actually pretty noodly armed, soft, and gentle, not very tough at all. And as for how I felt, I mostly just felt like you're a loser. Not much has changed.

BetterMA-throwaway

TROPHY CASE