October 2, 2024 • 39 mins
MA Gov. Maura Healey signed an emergency preamble that puts the new MA gun reform bill into law immediately, ensuring it cannot be suspended by a referendum petition. The governor said the new gun law bans ghost guns, invests in violence prevention programs, and more. This evening, MA Sen. Peter Durant joined Dan to discuss!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Costin's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, everybody, welcome on back. It is nine o'clock,
about nine oh six, actually coming up on nine oh
six thirty five and say Wednesday night. So today, in
a very interesting development, Governor Moore Healey UH issued an
(00:28):
emergency preamble to a piece of legislation that she signed.
I believe it was in late July, and normally when
a governor issues an emergency preamble, he or she issues
that at the signing of the bill. But there's a
story behind the story. The governor today in his statement,
(00:49):
I don't know that the governor made herself available, said
this gun safety law bands ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme
Risk Protection Order Statute to keep guns out of the
hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others,
and invests in violence prevention programs. It is important that
(01:10):
these measures go into effect without delay, which of course
raises the question why sign it today and why not
have signed it in July when the bill was signed
by the governor. To help us explain that, we are
joined tonight by Massachusetts State Senator Peter Durant. Senator Durant welcome,
(01:32):
Welcome back to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Thanks for having me on, Dan.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I'm doing well, okay, So we can get into some
of the specifics about this bill. But am I incorrect
when I say that normally, when an emergency preamble is signed,
it's attached to the bill at the time of signing.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, actually it's normally. Most of the times the emergency
preambles are voted on in the legislature prior to enactment.
So a bill that has to go through quickly needs
that emergency preamal is voted on it in the legislature
and then it goes to the governor with's one. But
(02:13):
you're right, in certain circumstances, if the governor feels that
that that bill now needs to become law much more quickly,
then they can attach that and they typically would do
it at signing. So say, it's very highly unusual that
it's done now, and I think we all kind of
know why they decided to do it now.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, we're gonna we're going to get into that, and
again we have we have time to explain this. But
this was a very comprehensive, uh piece of gun control
legislation which again as the governor said, be ads ghost guns,
and I don't know anybody is in favor of Is
(02:53):
there anyone that favors ghost guns that you're aware of.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Not that we're aware of. In fact, Dan, as this
bill was making its way through the legislature, that's something
that we as the Republican Caucus, had advocated for the
whole time. We said, look, just just do the ghostgun
portion of this. Everybody can agree on that. There were
other pieces to like the so called glock switches in
(03:19):
things of that nature, and we said, just pass those
and we can then argue the other things. But no,
nobody has had has a problem with banning this so
called ghost guns.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, but there were some elements of the legislation that
the Democrats, you know, put into the bill, which people
are concerned about. And as a consequence, there's a petition drive,
an initiative petition drive underway which would do two things.
(03:50):
If a certain number of signatures I think it was
roughly forty thousand signatures were submitted through the towns, cities
and towns and onto the Secretary of State's office. By
I think it's October twenty third, this piece of legislation
would not have gone into effect. It would have been
an effect suspended.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Correct, that's correct, that you're spot on. So the law
goes into effect, or at least was supposed to go
into effect on October twenty third, so the petition, the
initiative petition was undertaken. Had they collected the signatures and
had them all certified prior to that, then they would
(04:32):
have it would have prevented the law from taking effect.
So that was the whole.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And then the second aspect of the signats to collection
is to get this law in front of the general
public on the ballot in twenty twenty six, which is
two years, two years away.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
That's right. It was too early, it was I'm sorry,
it's too late to get it onto the this year's ballot.
So you would you would delay it and then it
would become the referendum question in one of the referendum
questions in twenty six.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, so I know what that what the governor's argument
would be. She's not here with us tonight, but I'm
sure that she would say, this is an important piece
of legislation. Lives would be saved and being ghost guns.
And that's why I sat to sign the emergency preamble.
What is what is your argument from the other side
(05:25):
of the aisle, having having done this, so what's wrong
with what she did today?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, our argument is is, actually there's a few things
that we want to talk about, which is, first of all,
Massachusetts has a very low instance of gun violence, especially
among sportsmen in those who are legally authorized to have guns.
You know, we think that the current system, or the
system that was in place prior to this worked, which
(05:51):
is you've got your LTC or license to carry, You've
got that through your local police department, and those things work.
So you know, we see that Massachusetts is a very
low risk state for gun violence. I think I think
it was weird number where we're like, we're like number
(06:12):
one or two in the least amount of gun violence.
So we do very well here. And so that's our
argument is this wasn't especially needed. We can make an
argument that they were, you know, we wanted to get
rid of the ghost guns, but that's not a huge
prevalent problem here at this time. So there was no
reason to do this bill in such a quick fashion
(06:33):
as we did it last last summer anyway, but to
now go through this process it's really a slap in
the face, more than a slap in the face to
everybody who has worked hard to have their voices heard
through this petition drive.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So I assume that from your point of view and
from the point of view of the people who were
working in the petition drive, we hopefully we'll hear from
some of them tonight. They were engaging in in an
exercise in democracy by trying to secure not easy to do,
by the way, forty thousand signatures in a relatively brief
(07:09):
period of time. And maybe they would have got the
forty thousand, maybe they wouldn't have, but either way, that
effort has been short circuited and curtailed quickly by the
governor with a stroke of a pen.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, you know, and it's been curtail and I want
to I do want to say, you know, we shouldn't
give up the fight. We still need to go through
this process because if we want to get this as
a referendum question in twenty six this is the first step.
And so yes, we've gone through our constitutional process to
(07:46):
get you know, make some change. This is your local
democracy at work, and so we need those signatures. We
need to continue getting them and let the process continue
to play out. And really these you know, everybody who
was collecting has done such a yeoman's work on this.
Because they were behind the eight ball right from the start.
(08:07):
They had a very very short window in which to
get these, and they put a full court press on.
They did a lot of work, and hats off to them.
It was it was obviously through their effort that the
governor said, oh, oh, well they're getting close. We have
to do something.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, So they're almost penalized by their own success to
some extent. Now, I'm sure the governor would say, look,
this is an important piece of legislation, and if they
want to get it on the ballot, they have plenty
of time to get it on the ballot. It's they
got to get more signatures. Forty thousand signatures doesn't get
it on the ballot. They got to get a certain
amount of signatures. And we get into that a little bit,
and then I think they have to get another group
(08:47):
of signatures, separate group of signatures again. So it's it's
it's and it has to pass mustered by the Secretary
of State's office, so it's it's difficult. It's not an
easy procedure per se, but it takes a lot of
people ours. So the governor is going to say, hey,
you know, if the governor was asked, if this is
such an important piece of legislation, why did you attach
(09:09):
an emergency preamble to it the day you signed it?
What do you think should say?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I don't know, because that's that's the most valid question.
I mean, you know, to go out and then sin
this at the eleventh hour clearly shows that she was
worried that this law might not take effect. Now again,
I think you read early as we started the segment
that you know, these pieces of the of the bill
(09:36):
have to go forward, and this is some very important
part of it, but you know, there's a lot of
other parts of this bill that are going to go forward,
and they're going to hurt people in Massachusetts. They're going
to hurt legal gun owners. And we can get into
some of the specific.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
We want to get in. I'd like to do that.
I think we've set the table properly. I think everybody
kind of understands this. We're a little bit into the weeds,
but we're at a commercial break. We're going to go
to phone calls as well. Uh, if you're a gun owner,
if you're an opponent of gun ownership for yourself or
for others, feel free to join the conversation. Six one, seven, two, five,
(10:12):
four to ten thirty six one seven, nine, three one,
ten thirty. We'll get you on. I've got some callers already.
I'd love to fill the phone lines up and we'll
get to the calls. But we'll also talk more with
State Senator Peter Durant, who is a Republican. Peter, you
represent what communities in central Massachusetts and Worcester County and elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I represent what's known as the Western Hampshire District. It's
twenty two counties. Essentially, it's twenty two towns, twenty twenty
two season towns. Yeah, hey, I'm sorry, it's ONNY two kinds. Yeah,
twenty two cities in towns in central Massachusetts, right in
the heart of Wister County.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Perfect. All right, we'll take a quick break, be back
with State Senator Peter Durant talking about this piece of
gun this piece of legislation, obviously, advocates call it gun
control reform. I'm sure who are opposed to it probably
have some different words how they would describe it. Some
of those words probably we got us on the radio.
But we'll take a break and be right back with
(11:08):
State Senator Peter Durant. More calls and conversation and questions
for Peter right after this.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Lake Side Studios on w b Z to News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Peter. I have full lines here, and if it's okay
with you, you can you can add anything you would like,
but I'd love to get the callers incorporated in this
as well. And yeah, I think any nothing that we've
really missed it, I think we've laid it out pretty well.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Okay, I agree.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
All right, let's keep rolling here that we're going to
start it off. First up this hour is this is
Toby Leary. Toby is with what's called the Civil Rights Coalition.
He is a Guns to Our owner here on the Cape.
I had him on a few weeks ago, and Toby,
I was surprised to find out that now that this
law has gone into effect and you were unable to
(12:05):
stop it by the governor's decision to sign the emergency Preamble,
you won't be able to sell shotguns.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Yeah. Well, it's interesting because the government and all of
its wisdom came out today with a new advisory memorandum
to law enforcement and gun stores and said, don't worry
about that pesky thing that we just signed into law today,
because you can go ahead and violate the new law
(12:35):
and sell whatever long guns you were selling before, as
long as they don't violate another part of the law
of Massachusetts. But as far as this law is concerned,
we're going to let you go ahead and break it.
So that's what they told.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
At Explain to me what's going on there. I mean,
this law has been rushed into effect. What's going on here?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Literally, that's the guidance that they gave today. It's the
second day in a row they issued a memorandum, and
the first memorandum was we're going to take as much
time as we need to implement this law, but you,
on the other hand, are going to have to abide
by it. And that's exactly what they did today. They
didn't give any guidance on the poor guy who wakes
(13:20):
up tomorrow with an FID card that possesses a semi
automatic shotgun a rifle, what he's supposed to do. But
they told gun stores that, yeah, go ahead and keep
selling the long guns that you've been selling, even though
it violates this part of the law that we pasked
requiring them to be on a roster. And we talked
(13:41):
about this extensively on your show a couple of weeks ago, Dan,
and they said, go ahead and do that. We'll get
the new Firearms Control Advisory Board up to speed at
some point whenever they're seated. Right now, we have the
Gun Control Advisory Board that needs to be unseated and
these new these new people need to be seated. Once
(14:02):
that's all done, will come out with the list. But
in the meantime, carry on. Don't worry about this pesky
law that we rushed in seventy one days after it
was originally signed.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I'm confused. Are you familiar what Toby's telling us here?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I think. And first of all, Toby, thank you for
all the work that you've done. You have really taken
a bull by the horns on this, and everyone in Massachusetts,
oh's you a debt of gratitude for all you've done
and will continue to do on this. Yeah, and you
know we've seen this actually as well. They did it
in the supplemental budget that was passed as well, the
(14:43):
Basics firearm basic firearm training, which had no parameters around it,
and the Mass Day police who were to implement it.
He said, we have no idea what this is supposed
to do or how we're supposed to do this. They
just change that part as well and said, well, you
know what, we're not gon and we're not going to
worry about that for eighteen months. So this is just
(15:04):
indicative dan of a horrible bill that has been passed.
It was passed, it was rushed, they had to get
something done this which we just have to do something,
and you're seeing the effects of it, which are nobody
understands it. The portions of it. There are portions of
it that we're not going to enforce because those aren't
(15:26):
quite as important. But I have talked to police officers
who are equally confused. But you know, they're saying, listen,
we're trying to enforce a law, or we're going to
be required to enforce a law that we don't know
how to enforce. And so it's just an absolute disaster
what we're looking at right now.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
When Toby was on the show a couple of weeks ago,
actually I think it was more than a couple of
weeks ago. Toby. We had a SoundBite from President Biden
which Rob found for us while we were doing the show.
I don't know if he's able to reload catered in
which President Biden advised people back a couple of years
(16:06):
ago that all you needed was a shotgun, and that
he had told his wife that she ever heard noise
outside and was troubled by it, just take that shotgun
and pump off a couple of rounds and whoever's who's
ever out there would would would get get away pretty quickly. Rob,
(16:26):
you don't have that sound by do you still looking
for it? We'll play that a little bit later on.
But the point was that as I understand that, as
this law was passed and now in law now, I'm
not sure how it's going to be enforced. People theoretically
are not able to buy a shotgun if they decide
they want to buy a shotgun.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Correct, well, and so yeah, and so if I may
just jump in, you you have to have a LTC.
It used to be able to have an f ID
to buy a shotgun. If it's a semi automatic, then
you have to have an LTC. And the problem is
is that those who don't have an LTC or can't
(17:07):
get one. And that's the problem is you can't get
an LTC for whatever reason. And you own a you
legally owned a semi automatic shuckgu and you you now
are a felon. And and the second thing, And I
think Toby would ask.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Question, I'm not I'm a little confused. I think of
a regular shotgun. You throw the you click the thing
close with the with the the amo in there, and
you fire the shotgun. It's almost like, are there automatic shotguns?
I've never heard of that.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
No, it would be a Tobey you can jump in.
But it's a semi automatic shotgun. So uh, In a
you have a pump action shotgun, you have a single,
single shot. So in a in a pump action you
you would load five or three or five shells into
the gun, you shoot it, you pump it manually and
then put another one in. A semi automatic loads itself
(18:02):
after the shot is fired. So just like a semi automatic.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Right again, I don't think that the shotguns are used
in I mean, they're used in robberies, I know that,
but they're not used in these mass shootings, et cetera.
Do you have the sound bite? Rub okay, This is
what the President said a couple of years ago, which
seemed to almost encourage people, particularly if you lived in
a rural area, get yourself a shotgun. That's really all
(18:29):
you need. He was basically saying, you don't need an
AK forty seven, you don't need an AR fifteen. A
shotgun will do the trick. This is President Biden.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
If you want to protect yourself, get a double barrel shotgun,
have the shelves twelve gay shotgun. And I promise you,
as I told my wife, we live in an area
that's wooded and somewhat secluded, said Jill, if there's ever
a problem, just walk out on the balcony here or
walk out, put that double barrel shotgun and fired too
(18:59):
blacks outside the house. I promise you was ever coming
in is not going to You don't need AR fifteen.
It's harder to aim, it's harder to use, and in fact,
you don't need thirty rounds to protect yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So that was his argument against you know, a semi
automatic AR fifteen's or AK forty seven's, and now in Massachusetts,
anyone who wants to follow the president's advice. They may
have a trouble, they may have trouble going forward buying
a shotgun.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It's just it's just a ridiculously stupid Steve And I
remember him saying that. And by the way, if you
discharge a weapon within five hundred feet of a house,
that's against the law. So what he is actually telling
you is to break the law here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
If you if you think that someone messing around in
your driveway, you'll look at to steal your catalytic converter
or your car. You step out of the porch, you know,
you fire something, not at it, but you fire shot
in the other scarable way. You breaking the law in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, I would, I would. I would encourage you not
to do that. That would be a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Tell it, well, tell me why how are you gonna
You're gonna say, hey, don't.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Well, yeah, Senator Durant points out it's uh, you know,
illegal to discharge of firearm within five hundred feet of
the house. And they actually part of this bill just
strengthen those laws, uh in this bill, you know, and
made the penalties for doing that even more severe. So
I would recommend people don't discharge of firearm unless their
(20:37):
life is in danger, you know, uh, in protection of
themselves or someone else. But more importantly, uh as as
a senator pointed out, this, this really focuses in on
the people who've already gone through all the steps already
in background.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yeah, it's incredible that, uh, Peter, I was unaware that
they that you cannot shoot a shotgun. I mean when
I heard what the President said, that thought that made
a lot of sense. You know, you're in your house
and all of a sudden you hear some people, you know,
you know, fifty feet away in your backyard, and you
now they're up to no good. So if you just
(21:17):
fire it into the air to scare them, that's you
could be arrested for that in Massachusetts. Let's change that.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, that would be illegal. And and and as Toby
just said, you you you really And again I'm never
advocating that somebody who fire, but you are. You can't
fire at somebody unless your life is an imminent danger.
So and somebody being outside if you could, again it's
it's really crazy, but you have to retreat, So you
would you should be going inside and letting them go
(21:46):
do whatever they do. It's it's just you know, the
shoot them.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You can only shoot them if they come into your house,
if they in Massachusetts, if they just want to steal
your car or rip off some packages from your front porch,
you gotta got to encourage her to gun come in
eus before you can shoot him in trouble.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You might even be in trouble in your own house
if you had a way to escape and they really
wanted to come after you about it. So it's uh.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, okay, gentlemen. Uh, Toby, I got full line, So
I'm going to get some more phone calls. I just
got to take a news break for joining us and
helping to clarify that I learned something tonight. Let me
tell you. Uh it's uh that is that lost. That's alaar.
I think Peter, that should be changed. I mean, I'm serious.
(22:35):
If you're if your wife is at home alone some
night and she hears people outside and she doesn't want
to go outside and investigate it, but she wants to
break a gun with her and if if all of
a sudden they started to come at her, she's got
to go into the living room, uh and wait for
them to come through the front door.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I mean yeah, and you know we've tried over the years,
and it is an effort that goes forward. I believe
every term. It's called the castle drop doctrine, and it's
it's something that says you do not you're not forced
to retreat. And so but at this time in Massachusetts,
(23:16):
the law says that if you if you have a place,
if you can retreat, you must retreat.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Cool. Yeah, well we will continue with our callers. Ed
with State Senator Peter Durant. I think that's nuts. I
just think that's absolutely nuts. Peter. You're in your home
and all of a sudden, you think that someone break
you doors a lot? Do you think someone's trying to
break into your home? You got you got even discharge
(23:43):
the weapon as a discouragement that Welcome to Massachusetts, folks.
If you go now again, if you're the governor, you
have state police outside your home, which is important. Okay,
So therefore you don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, and you better and you better not invite them
in because that's a whole other superhe I was.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Being sarcastic when I said that, Hey, gentlemen, come out
of the house. That's have a beer before because I
want to shoot you. No, no, no, I just think
that what then, what President Biden said made a lot
of sense. I mean, you know, there are there are
certain parts of the country where I think you need
an AK forty seven or an AR. If you're living
out in Montana and you've got wolves that are going
after your your cattle, you may need an AK forty seven.
(24:26):
I don't necessarily think that you need an AK forty
seven if you're if you're living in an apartment building
down down Boston. But I just think we've we've missed
these laws up so badly. I'm going to get to
more phone calls. I promise all of you. You've waited
very patiently. Jason stay there, Darren and Travis would get
to all of you. We got one line at six
one seven, two, five, four, ten thirty and one at
(24:46):
six one, seven, ninth, three, one, ten thirty. The more
you talk about these laws, the crazier they see, because
obviously there's no law that criminals are ever are ever
going to observe. I mean, we'll be back with State
Senator Peter Durant, who makes a lot of sense to me,
and I congratulate the people of his district for having
(25:10):
the wisdom to have promoted him from the State House
of Representatives to the State Senate, because I think you
need voices in both chambers, and there's only four Massachusetts
Republican state senators out of forty. We'll be back right
after this.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
We are talking with State Senator Peter Durant about this
Massachusetts gun law which passed some controversy last July, signed
by the governor, and there was a group of people,
including Toby Leary, who he had just heard from a
Cape Cod gun store, who had been collecting signatures to
suspend it. Its implementation was due to which now will
(26:00):
go into effect on Trouble twenty third. They've been done well,
they've been doing very well with the signatures, and they
hope to get this in the ballot in twenty twenty six.
Let me go right back to the calls. I spent
a lot of time with Toby. I can't spend that
much time with everyone, but let's go to Jason in Norwood. Jason,
you are off the State Senator Peter Duram say, had
a senator drink? All right ahead?
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Jason Well, Senator, are you hearing me?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Okay? I do, Jason, okay.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
I just want to mention if I sound nervous tonight.
What you're hearing in my voice isn't nerves, it's anger.
I am very angry. I'm one of the volunteers, have
been collecting signatures and I'm struggling to stay calm for
this call.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
You're doing fine so far. Go ahead, Jason Well.
Speaker 7 (26:47):
Ben I want to mention something very important that the
governor neglected to mention when she's signed that emergency preamble.
It's critically important for parents of school children and the
school children high school is in middle schools because as
of the signing of that preamble, it is now prohibited
(27:08):
for high schoolers and middle schools to bring pepper spray
into the schools unless they have applied and received a
permit to do that from their police department. The governor
didn't bother to mention that, but your listeners are hearing
it for the first time tonight. Parents, I urge you
(27:29):
go through the back pass, go through the purses, et cetera,
and take those pepper sprays away. From your children. I
don't know how likely it is that it would happen,
but if your kids take pepper spray into the schools tomorrow,
they could be arrested and the charge would be a
serious one.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And by the way, pepper spray is legal in Massachusetts.
Speaker 7 (27:52):
It is legal, but not anymore for teenagers high school here.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
No, I understand. I just want to I want to
be to realize and I encourage any woman that I
know they should have been the spray, particularly if they're
going to be out at night, in their purse, in
their wallet, or somehow on them, because it could be
a very effective deterred Okay, do you have a question
for Senator Durand as.
Speaker 7 (28:17):
Well or just so much a question? I'd like to
make an observation about the reason for my anger. It's
the governor's raw abuse of power. You know, tens of
thousands of people have signed that petition already. I think
when we started collecting three weeks ago, I think the
(28:38):
governor was probably laughing at us because it's incredibly difficult
to collect fifty thousand signatures in the four weeks available
to us, and we are nearly there, and the governor
realized that, and in a panic, she exhibited her willingness
to engage in a raw abuse of power. It's a disgrace.
(29:01):
It's disrespectful to the tens of thousands who have already
signed the petition. It's disrespectful to the hundreds and hundreds
of volunteers such as myself, who have been collecting the signatures.
She has I hope you won't bleep this, but she
has flipped a certain digit in the middle of her
(29:23):
hand at the residents and the citizens of this commonwealth.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Okay, that's your opinion. It wasn't It wasn't cut out
because you were a gentleman in the way you described it.
She basically told a lot of people in a very
different way that they're number one.
Speaker 7 (29:41):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
So that's all I had.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Roll and call anytime. I got three other folks that'd
like to get to and I got to get to
a break very effective phone call. Jason.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Thank you, thank you, good night, Thank you Jason for
all you've done.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I'll tell you, but those signatures are still going to
go toward getting this issue on the ballot. So it's
it's not as if what they have done has gone
for not And I think that's important tops as well.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
And that is important they keep collecting the signatures, keep
doing the work. The the fighters is. We may have
lost that that this portion this round, but the fight
continues on absolutely, and.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I do think that frankly, uh, the governor was probably
a little bit concerned about the number of signatures that
had already been filed, and she wanted to defend a
law that she obviously fervently believes it. I was unaware
of the prohibition included in the bill which would prevent
young girls from young boy boys or girls from carrying
(30:48):
pepper spray.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
There's a lot in this in this building, and you know,
and one thing that I just wanted to brief and
I'll make it quick, is you know, when we talked
to about banning the semi automatic weapons for those who
don't have a license to carry no TC. We have
people who come from out of state to go hunting here.
It is bird season. You typically would use or many
(31:13):
people would use a semi automatic shotgun to hunt pheasant
and quail, a partridge, whatever you make, woodcock, whatever it
may be, you'd use a semi automatic shotgun. And people
come from out of state. There's tourism dollars to be
lost there. They can no longer come here because they
can't bring their weapon, and so they're not going to
hunt in Massachusetts anymore.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Well, I think they certainly have are going to have
full warning here. Let's take a quick break, coming right
back on nightside, going to get everybody, and I promise
with State Senator Peter Durant, coming back on nightside.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
All right, we're going to get everybody. I promise. Let
me go to John and Sandwich, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Join you.
Speaker 8 (32:00):
Hey, Dan, thanks for taking my call. And Senator Durant,
thank you for all you do for the sportsmen and
women around the state.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
I'm I'm the state field coordinator for the petition drive
and I just real quickly just wanted to let you
know we you know, we followed the process that was
laid out in the mass State Constitution. We brought about
just shy of eight hundred passionate volunteers and a complete
grassroots effort to get this done together, all from the
(32:31):
Berkshires to the Cape and the islands. And when it's
all said and done. I fully expect to have you know,
north of eighty thousand petitions that will be complete.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
You know, we came.
Speaker 8 (32:44):
Together, we worked our tails off, and as far as
my understanding is, the House had a chance to add
the preamble, Senate had a chance to add the preamble,
and even the Governor herself had the opportunity to add
the preamble at the time of signing and she did not.
So the fact that she enacted it now at this
(33:04):
stage of the game is just, in my opinion, unconsciousable.
But with that said, we will continue to collect right
up until the deadline and continue to look at other
options and avenues as well.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
John, thank you very much for those comments. I got
three other callers. I'm going to try to get them
all in, but thank you. We've taking the time to call.
Peter quick comment for John from the team.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, no, he's spot on. I remember we talked about it.
It was talked about during the process whether or not
the emergency preamplould be attached, and and he's right, they
had an opportunity to do it before this, but did.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Thanks John, appreciate your call.
Speaker 8 (33:42):
Thank you have a great night.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Let me keep rolling here. We're gonna get a little
quicker on time here as we go along, I got
Travis and Milton. Travis, go right ahead. You're next to
a nice Iowa State Centative Peter Durant.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
H thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Got me quick. Unfortunately, Travis, I never've been waiting a while,
but we're title time.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
That's all right, I'll be quick.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
You know, I'm a gun owner in Massachusetts. I took
the License to Carry class. You know, I own just
a nine millimeter handgun, you know, very simply. I think
one of the reasons I liked the gun laws of
Massachusetts because I had to take a class. I had
to be instructed in order to own a fire arm,
and I think it's very basic. So you know, listen,
(34:25):
I grew up in New Hampshire, where gun loans are
a lot looser, and my family owned shotguns, grow up
duck hunting. You know, I just don't think it's that
big of a deal to take a license to carry exam,
which I did take in my handgun in order to
get a shotgun.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
So I'm curious.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
You know, I understand the arguments either way, but I'm
curious your thoughts and stay cenator's thoughts about like, why
is that such a big hurdle?
Speaker 8 (34:50):
Now?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Which is your lot? So, yeah, I'm Cravis. Thanks for
the question, because it's a really good one. So the
problem is is that not everyone can get an LTC. So,
for example, if you I'm almost sixty years old, if
I had a DUI in the past, maybe I had
(35:13):
one when I was eighteen, I am forever ineligible to
get an LTC. So if I have a semi automatic
right now, if I have a semi automatic shotgun and
I say, oh well, the new law comes in, I
better get my LTC, I can't. So I don't necessarily
disagree with you that getting an LTC is a good thing.
(35:33):
I think people should go get it. It's a good
thing to have, but not everyone can get one.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
All right. I appreciate your comment, Travis, and Senator Durance comment,
I want to try to get at least one more
in here before we have to part. Thanks Travis, appreciate it.
Let me go to Darren and Saugus. Darren, if you're
gonna be quick for me, I can also accommodate Jennifer
and Webster.
Speaker 9 (35:55):
Go ahead, Darren, absolutely, thank you Dan for having me on.
I just want to say I'm an avid outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman.
I live in Saugust, so you know I enjoyed doing
a lot of the outdoors things in this state. One
of the things I want to hit on is this
makes hunting illegal for non residents under the year under
(36:20):
the age of eighteen years old. I think that that
hunting licenses contribute to so much dollars going into conservation
in this state that it's it's going to be missed,
and then the tradition of hunting in the outdoors as
well can be lost in that generation. It's really unfortunate.
(36:44):
And the other thing that I want to hit on
real quick is that you know, the legislation, like you
pointed out, mister Senator, is very confusing and a lot
of the police officers don't know how to enforce it.
There's nothing I spent a lot of time reading it,
and there's nothing in there that talks about consequences being
(37:05):
steeper for gun violence, which I think would be one
of your biggest deterrences from gun crimes in the first place.
Those two things probably confused me the most. I'd love
to hear what you have to say as center.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah, we you know, we all know that we have
a law on the books in Massachusetts that says if
you are in possession of a firearm without a license,
it's a mandatory one year. Nobody gets prosecuted for that period.
That's the first thing. Second thing about the juniors. You know,
I had opportunity this summer to visit what's called the
Junior Conservation Camp, which is where they teach high schoolers
(37:47):
and young adults that teach kids under eighteen. They teach
them about the outdoors, they show them how to shoot,
they teach them safety, They go boat hunting, they do canoeing,
they do all these great things, and a lot of
that is kurk tailed now because you can't execute, as
you said, you can't possess a firearm, you can't have
a youth shooting sport.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
So we're flat out of time. You went a little longer, Darren,
than we expected. Jennifer from websity, you needed to have
called earlier. Thank you, Darren. Senator Durant, thank you. Please
keep us posted and what's going on with this? Lauren.
A pleasure to have you on the program as always.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Dan I appreciate it, and anybody wants to catch up
with us, It's senator Durant dot com, so we'd love
to have you.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Sounds great. Senator Durant d You are a n T
Senator Peter Durant of Worcester County, Central Massachusetts, one of
the four members of the Republican Party in the Massachusetts
State Senate. Hopefully they'll there'll be more sometime soon. We'll
be back on night Side right after the ten o'clock news,
and we talk with Reverend Kevin Peterson about an event
(38:54):
this past Saturday which called for more reparations or called
for reparations for slight I've wrote back on right after
the ten o'clock news
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Costin's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, everybody, welcome on back. It is nine o'clock,
about nine oh six, actually coming up on nine oh
six thirty five and say Wednesday night. So today, in
a very interesting development, Governor Moore Healey UH issued an
(00:28):
emergency preamble to a piece of legislation that she signed.
I believe it was in late July, and normally when
a governor issues an emergency preamble, he or she issues
that at the signing of the bill. But there's a
story behind the story. The governor today in his statement,
(00:49):
I don't know that the governor made herself available, said
this gun safety law bands ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme
Risk Protection Order Statute to keep guns out of the
hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others,
and invests in violence prevention programs. It is important that
(01:10):
these measures go into effect without delay, which of course
raises the question why sign it today and why not
have signed it in July when the bill was signed
by the governor. To help us explain that, we are
joined tonight by Massachusetts State Senator Peter Durant. Senator Durant welcome,
(01:32):
Welcome back to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Thanks for having me on, Dan.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I'm doing well, okay, So we can get into some
of the specifics about this bill. But am I incorrect
when I say that normally, when an emergency preamble is signed,
it's attached to the bill at the time of signing.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, actually it's normally. Most of the times the emergency
preambles are voted on in the legislature prior to enactment.
So a bill that has to go through quickly needs
that emergency preamal is voted on it in the legislature
and then it goes to the governor with's one. But
(02:13):
you're right, in certain circumstances, if the governor feels that
that that bill now needs to become law much more quickly,
then they can attach that and they typically would do
it at signing. So say, it's very highly unusual that
it's done now, and I think we all kind of
know why they decided to do it now.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, we're gonna we're going to get into that, and
again we have we have time to explain this. But
this was a very comprehensive, uh piece of gun control
legislation which again as the governor said, be ads ghost guns,
and I don't know anybody is in favor of Is
(02:53):
there anyone that favors ghost guns that you're aware of.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Not that we're aware of. In fact, Dan, as this
bill was making its way through the legislature, that's something
that we as the Republican Caucus, had advocated for the
whole time. We said, look, just just do the ghostgun
portion of this. Everybody can agree on that. There were
other pieces to like the so called glock switches in
(03:19):
things of that nature, and we said, just pass those
and we can then argue the other things. But no,
nobody has had has a problem with banning this so
called ghost guns.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, but there were some elements of the legislation that
the Democrats, you know, put into the bill, which people
are concerned about. And as a consequence, there's a petition drive,
an initiative petition drive underway which would do two things.
(03:50):
If a certain number of signatures I think it was
roughly forty thousand signatures were submitted through the towns, cities
and towns and onto the Secretary of State's office. By
I think it's October twenty third, this piece of legislation
would not have gone into effect. It would have been
an effect suspended.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Correct, that's correct, that you're spot on. So the law
goes into effect, or at least was supposed to go
into effect on October twenty third, so the petition, the
initiative petition was undertaken. Had they collected the signatures and
had them all certified prior to that, then they would
(04:32):
have it would have prevented the law from taking effect.
So that was the whole.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And then the second aspect of the signats to collection
is to get this law in front of the general
public on the ballot in twenty twenty six, which is
two years, two years away.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
That's right. It was too early, it was I'm sorry,
it's too late to get it onto the this year's ballot.
So you would you would delay it and then it
would become the referendum question in one of the referendum
questions in twenty six.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, so I know what that what the governor's argument
would be. She's not here with us tonight, but I'm
sure that she would say, this is an important piece
of legislation. Lives would be saved and being ghost guns.
And that's why I sat to sign the emergency preamble.
What is what is your argument from the other side
(05:25):
of the aisle, having having done this, so what's wrong
with what she did today?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, our argument is is, actually there's a few things
that we want to talk about, which is, first of all,
Massachusetts has a very low instance of gun violence, especially
among sportsmen in those who are legally authorized to have guns.
You know, we think that the current system, or the
system that was in place prior to this worked, which
(05:51):
is you've got your LTC or license to carry, You've
got that through your local police department, and those things work.
So you know, we see that Massachusetts is a very
low risk state for gun violence. I think I think
it was weird number where we're like, we're like number
(06:12):
one or two in the least amount of gun violence.
So we do very well here. And so that's our
argument is this wasn't especially needed. We can make an
argument that they were, you know, we wanted to get
rid of the ghost guns, but that's not a huge
prevalent problem here at this time. So there was no
reason to do this bill in such a quick fashion
(06:33):
as we did it last last summer anyway, but to
now go through this process it's really a slap in
the face, more than a slap in the face to
everybody who has worked hard to have their voices heard
through this petition drive.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So I assume that from your point of view and
from the point of view of the people who were
working in the petition drive, we hopefully we'll hear from
some of them tonight. They were engaging in in an
exercise in democracy by trying to secure not easy to do,
by the way, forty thousand signatures in a relatively brief
(07:09):
period of time. And maybe they would have got the
forty thousand, maybe they wouldn't have, but either way, that
effort has been short circuited and curtailed quickly by the
governor with a stroke of a pen.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, you know, and it's been curtail and I want
to I do want to say, you know, we shouldn't
give up the fight. We still need to go through
this process because if we want to get this as
a referendum question in twenty six this is the first step.
And so yes, we've gone through our constitutional process to
(07:46):
get you know, make some change. This is your local
democracy at work, and so we need those signatures. We
need to continue getting them and let the process continue
to play out. And really these you know, everybody who
was collecting has done such a yeoman's work on this.
Because they were behind the eight ball right from the start.
(08:07):
They had a very very short window in which to
get these, and they put a full court press on.
They did a lot of work, and hats off to them.
It was it was obviously through their effort that the
governor said, oh, oh, well they're getting close. We have
to do something.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, So they're almost penalized by their own success to
some extent. Now, I'm sure the governor would say, look,
this is an important piece of legislation, and if they
want to get it on the ballot, they have plenty
of time to get it on the ballot. It's they
got to get more signatures. Forty thousand signatures doesn't get
it on the ballot. They got to get a certain
amount of signatures. And we get into that a little bit,
and then I think they have to get another group
(08:47):
of signatures, separate group of signatures again. So it's it's
it's and it has to pass mustered by the Secretary
of State's office, so it's it's difficult. It's not an
easy procedure per se, but it takes a lot of
people ours. So the governor is going to say, hey,
you know, if the governor was asked, if this is
such an important piece of legislation, why did you attach
(09:09):
an emergency preamble to it the day you signed it?
What do you think should say?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I don't know, because that's that's the most valid question.
I mean, you know, to go out and then sin
this at the eleventh hour clearly shows that she was
worried that this law might not take effect. Now again,
I think you read early as we started the segment
that you know, these pieces of the of the bill
(09:36):
have to go forward, and this is some very important
part of it, but you know, there's a lot of
other parts of this bill that are going to go forward,
and they're going to hurt people in Massachusetts. They're going
to hurt legal gun owners. And we can get into
some of the specific.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
We want to get in. I'd like to do that.
I think we've set the table properly. I think everybody
kind of understands this. We're a little bit into the weeds,
but we're at a commercial break. We're going to go
to phone calls as well. Uh, if you're a gun owner,
if you're an opponent of gun ownership for yourself or
for others, feel free to join the conversation. Six one, seven, two, five,
(10:12):
four to ten thirty six one seven, nine, three one,
ten thirty. We'll get you on. I've got some callers already.
I'd love to fill the phone lines up and we'll
get to the calls. But we'll also talk more with
State Senator Peter Durant, who is a Republican. Peter, you
represent what communities in central Massachusetts and Worcester County and elsewhere.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I represent what's known as the Western Hampshire District. It's
twenty two counties. Essentially, it's twenty two towns, twenty twenty
two season towns. Yeah, hey, I'm sorry, it's ONNY two kinds. Yeah,
twenty two cities in towns in central Massachusetts, right in
the heart of Wister County.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Perfect. All right, we'll take a quick break, be back
with State Senator Peter Durant talking about this piece of
gun this piece of legislation, obviously, advocates call it gun
control reform. I'm sure who are opposed to it probably
have some different words how they would describe it. Some
of those words probably we got us on the radio.
But we'll take a break and be right back with
(11:08):
State Senator Peter Durant. More calls and conversation and questions
for Peter right after this.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Lake Side Studios on w b Z to News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Peter. I have full lines here, and if it's okay
with you, you can you can add anything you would like,
but I'd love to get the callers incorporated in this
as well. And yeah, I think any nothing that we've
really missed it, I think we've laid it out pretty well.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Okay, I agree.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
All right, let's keep rolling here that we're going to
start it off. First up this hour is this is
Toby Leary. Toby is with what's called the Civil Rights Coalition.
He is a Guns to Our owner here on the Cape.
I had him on a few weeks ago, and Toby,
I was surprised to find out that now that this
law has gone into effect and you were unable to
(12:05):
stop it by the governor's decision to sign the emergency Preamble,
you won't be able to sell shotguns.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Yeah. Well, it's interesting because the government and all of
its wisdom came out today with a new advisory memorandum
to law enforcement and gun stores and said, don't worry
about that pesky thing that we just signed into law today,
because you can go ahead and violate the new law
(12:35):
and sell whatever long guns you were selling before, as
long as they don't violate another part of the law
of Massachusetts. But as far as this law is concerned,
we're going to let you go ahead and break it.
So that's what they told.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
At Explain to me what's going on there. I mean,
this law has been rushed into effect. What's going on here?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Literally, that's the guidance that they gave today. It's the
second day in a row they issued a memorandum, and
the first memorandum was we're going to take as much
time as we need to implement this law, but you,
on the other hand, are going to have to abide
by it. And that's exactly what they did today. They
didn't give any guidance on the poor guy who wakes
(13:20):
up tomorrow with an FID card that possesses a semi
automatic shotgun a rifle, what he's supposed to do. But
they told gun stores that, yeah, go ahead and keep
selling the long guns that you've been selling, even though
it violates this part of the law that we pasked
requiring them to be on a roster. And we talked
(13:41):
about this extensively on your show a couple of weeks ago, Dan,
and they said, go ahead and do that. We'll get
the new Firearms Control Advisory Board up to speed at
some point whenever they're seated. Right now, we have the
Gun Control Advisory Board that needs to be unseated and
these new these new people need to be seated. Once
(14:02):
that's all done, will come out with the list. But
in the meantime, carry on. Don't worry about this pesky
law that we rushed in seventy one days after it
was originally signed.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I'm confused. Are you familiar what Toby's telling us here?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I think. And first of all, Toby, thank you for
all the work that you've done. You have really taken
a bull by the horns on this, and everyone in Massachusetts,
oh's you a debt of gratitude for all you've done
and will continue to do on this. Yeah, and you
know we've seen this actually as well. They did it
in the supplemental budget that was passed as well, the
(14:43):
Basics firearm basic firearm training, which had no parameters around it,
and the Mass Day police who were to implement it.
He said, we have no idea what this is supposed
to do or how we're supposed to do this. They
just change that part as well and said, well, you
know what, we're not gon and we're not going to
worry about that for eighteen months. So this is just
(15:04):
indicative dan of a horrible bill that has been passed.
It was passed, it was rushed, they had to get
something done this which we just have to do something,
and you're seeing the effects of it, which are nobody
understands it. The portions of it. There are portions of
it that we're not going to enforce because those aren't
(15:26):
quite as important. But I have talked to police officers
who are equally confused. But you know, they're saying, listen,
we're trying to enforce a law, or we're going to
be required to enforce a law that we don't know
how to enforce. And so it's just an absolute disaster
what we're looking at right now.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
When Toby was on the show a couple of weeks ago,
actually I think it was more than a couple of
weeks ago. Toby. We had a SoundBite from President Biden
which Rob found for us while we were doing the show.
I don't know if he's able to reload catered in
which President Biden advised people back a couple of years
(16:06):
ago that all you needed was a shotgun, and that
he had told his wife that she ever heard noise
outside and was troubled by it, just take that shotgun
and pump off a couple of rounds and whoever's who's
ever out there would would would get get away pretty quickly. Rob,
(16:26):
you don't have that sound by do you still looking
for it? We'll play that a little bit later on.
But the point was that as I understand that, as
this law was passed and now in law now, I'm
not sure how it's going to be enforced. People theoretically
are not able to buy a shotgun if they decide
they want to buy a shotgun.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Correct, well, and so yeah, and so if I may
just jump in, you you have to have a LTC.
It used to be able to have an f ID
to buy a shotgun. If it's a semi automatic, then
you have to have an LTC. And the problem is
is that those who don't have an LTC or can't
(17:07):
get one. And that's the problem is you can't get
an LTC for whatever reason. And you own a you
legally owned a semi automatic shuckgu and you you now
are a felon. And and the second thing, And I
think Toby would ask.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Question, I'm not I'm a little confused. I think of
a regular shotgun. You throw the you click the thing
close with the with the the amo in there, and
you fire the shotgun. It's almost like, are there automatic shotguns?
I've never heard of that.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
No, it would be a Tobey you can jump in.
But it's a semi automatic shotgun. So uh, In a
you have a pump action shotgun, you have a single,
single shot. So in a in a pump action you
you would load five or three or five shells into
the gun, you shoot it, you pump it manually and
then put another one in. A semi automatic loads itself
(18:02):
after the shot is fired. So just like a semi automatic.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Right again, I don't think that the shotguns are used
in I mean, they're used in robberies, I know that,
but they're not used in these mass shootings, et cetera.
Do you have the sound bite? Rub okay, This is
what the President said a couple of years ago, which
seemed to almost encourage people, particularly if you lived in
a rural area, get yourself a shotgun. That's really all
(18:29):
you need. He was basically saying, you don't need an
AK forty seven, you don't need an AR fifteen. A
shotgun will do the trick. This is President Biden.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
If you want to protect yourself, get a double barrel shotgun,
have the shelves twelve gay shotgun. And I promise you,
as I told my wife, we live in an area
that's wooded and somewhat secluded, said Jill, if there's ever
a problem, just walk out on the balcony here or
walk out, put that double barrel shotgun and fired too
(18:59):
blacks outside the house. I promise you was ever coming
in is not going to You don't need AR fifteen.
It's harder to aim, it's harder to use, and in fact,
you don't need thirty rounds to protect yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So that was his argument against you know, a semi
automatic AR fifteen's or AK forty seven's, and now in Massachusetts,
anyone who wants to follow the president's advice. They may
have a trouble, they may have trouble going forward buying
a shotgun.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It's just it's just a ridiculously stupid Steve And I
remember him saying that. And by the way, if you
discharge a weapon within five hundred feet of a house,
that's against the law. So what he is actually telling
you is to break the law here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
If you if you think that someone messing around in
your driveway, you'll look at to steal your catalytic converter
or your car. You step out of the porch, you know,
you fire something, not at it, but you fire shot
in the other scarable way. You breaking the law in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, I would, I would. I would encourage you not
to do that. That would be a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Tell it, well, tell me why how are you gonna
You're gonna say, hey, don't.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Well, yeah, Senator Durant points out it's uh, you know,
illegal to discharge of firearm within five hundred feet of
the house. And they actually part of this bill just
strengthen those laws, uh in this bill, you know, and
made the penalties for doing that even more severe. So
I would recommend people don't discharge of firearm unless their
(20:37):
life is in danger, you know, uh, in protection of
themselves or someone else. But more importantly, uh as as
a senator pointed out, this, this really focuses in on
the people who've already gone through all the steps already
in background.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yeah, it's incredible that, uh, Peter, I was unaware that
they that you cannot shoot a shotgun. I mean when
I heard what the President said, that thought that made
a lot of sense. You know, you're in your house
and all of a sudden you hear some people, you know,
you know, fifty feet away in your backyard, and you
now they're up to no good. So if you just
(21:17):
fire it into the air to scare them, that's you
could be arrested for that in Massachusetts. Let's change that.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, that would be illegal. And and and as Toby
just said, you you you really And again I'm never
advocating that somebody who fire, but you are. You can't
fire at somebody unless your life is an imminent danger.
So and somebody being outside if you could, again it's
it's really crazy, but you have to retreat, So you
would you should be going inside and letting them go
(21:46):
do whatever they do. It's it's just you know, the
shoot them.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
You can only shoot them if they come into your house,
if they in Massachusetts, if they just want to steal
your car or rip off some packages from your front porch,
you gotta got to encourage her to gun come in
eus before you can shoot him in trouble.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You might even be in trouble in your own house
if you had a way to escape and they really
wanted to come after you about it. So it's uh.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, okay, gentlemen. Uh, Toby, I got full line, So
I'm going to get some more phone calls. I just
got to take a news break for joining us and
helping to clarify that I learned something tonight. Let me
tell you. Uh it's uh that is that lost. That's alaar.
I think Peter, that should be changed. I mean, I'm serious.
(22:35):
If you're if your wife is at home alone some
night and she hears people outside and she doesn't want
to go outside and investigate it, but she wants to
break a gun with her and if if all of
a sudden they started to come at her, she's got
to go into the living room, uh and wait for
them to come through the front door.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I mean yeah, and you know we've tried over the years,
and it is an effort that goes forward. I believe
every term. It's called the castle drop doctrine, and it's
it's something that says you do not you're not forced
to retreat. And so but at this time in Massachusetts,
(23:16):
the law says that if you if you have a place,
if you can retreat, you must retreat.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Cool. Yeah, well we will continue with our callers. Ed
with State Senator Peter Durant. I think that's nuts. I
just think that's absolutely nuts. Peter. You're in your home
and all of a sudden, you think that someone break
you doors a lot? Do you think someone's trying to
break into your home? You got you got even discharge
(23:43):
the weapon as a discouragement that Welcome to Massachusetts, folks.
If you go now again, if you're the governor, you
have state police outside your home, which is important. Okay,
So therefore you don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, and you better and you better not invite them
in because that's a whole other superhe I was.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Being sarcastic when I said that, Hey, gentlemen, come out
of the house. That's have a beer before because I
want to shoot you. No, no, no, I just think
that what then, what President Biden said made a lot
of sense. I mean, you know, there are there are
certain parts of the country where I think you need
an AK forty seven or an AR. If you're living
out in Montana and you've got wolves that are going
after your your cattle, you may need an AK forty seven.
(24:26):
I don't necessarily think that you need an AK forty
seven if you're if you're living in an apartment building
down down Boston. But I just think we've we've missed
these laws up so badly. I'm going to get to
more phone calls. I promise all of you. You've waited
very patiently. Jason stay there, Darren and Travis would get
to all of you. We got one line at six
one seven, two, five, four, ten thirty and one at
(24:46):
six one, seven, ninth, three, one, ten thirty. The more
you talk about these laws, the crazier they see, because
obviously there's no law that criminals are ever are ever
going to observe. I mean, we'll be back with State
Senator Peter Durant, who makes a lot of sense to me,
and I congratulate the people of his district for having
(25:10):
the wisdom to have promoted him from the State House
of Representatives to the State Senate, because I think you
need voices in both chambers, and there's only four Massachusetts
Republican state senators out of forty. We'll be back right
after this.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
We are talking with State Senator Peter Durant about this
Massachusetts gun law which passed some controversy last July, signed
by the governor, and there was a group of people,
including Toby Leary, who he had just heard from a
Cape Cod gun store, who had been collecting signatures to
suspend it. Its implementation was due to which now will
(26:00):
go into effect on Trouble twenty third. They've been done well,
they've been doing very well with the signatures, and they
hope to get this in the ballot in twenty twenty six.
Let me go right back to the calls. I spent
a lot of time with Toby. I can't spend that
much time with everyone, but let's go to Jason in Norwood. Jason,
you are off the State Senator Peter Duram say, had
a senator drink? All right ahead?
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Jason Well, Senator, are you hearing me?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Okay? I do, Jason, okay.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
I just want to mention if I sound nervous tonight.
What you're hearing in my voice isn't nerves, it's anger.
I am very angry. I'm one of the volunteers, have
been collecting signatures and I'm struggling to stay calm for
this call.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
You're doing fine so far. Go ahead, Jason Well.
Speaker 7 (26:47):
Ben I want to mention something very important that the
governor neglected to mention when she's signed that emergency preamble.
It's critically important for parents of school children and the
school children high school is in middle schools because as
of the signing of that preamble, it is now prohibited
(27:08):
for high schoolers and middle schools to bring pepper spray
into the schools unless they have applied and received a
permit to do that from their police department. The governor
didn't bother to mention that, but your listeners are hearing
it for the first time tonight. Parents, I urge you
(27:29):
go through the back pass, go through the purses, et cetera,
and take those pepper sprays away. From your children. I
don't know how likely it is that it would happen,
but if your kids take pepper spray into the schools tomorrow,
they could be arrested and the charge would be a
serious one.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And by the way, pepper spray is legal in Massachusetts.
Speaker 7 (27:52):
It is legal, but not anymore for teenagers high school here.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
No, I understand. I just want to I want to
be to realize and I encourage any woman that I
know they should have been the spray, particularly if they're
going to be out at night, in their purse, in
their wallet, or somehow on them, because it could be
a very effective deterred Okay, do you have a question
for Senator Durand as.
Speaker 7 (28:17):
Well or just so much a question? I'd like to
make an observation about the reason for my anger. It's
the governor's raw abuse of power. You know, tens of
thousands of people have signed that petition already. I think
when we started collecting three weeks ago, I think the
(28:38):
governor was probably laughing at us because it's incredibly difficult
to collect fifty thousand signatures in the four weeks available
to us, and we are nearly there, and the governor
realized that, and in a panic, she exhibited her willingness
to engage in a raw abuse of power. It's a disgrace.
(29:01):
It's disrespectful to the tens of thousands who have already
signed the petition. It's disrespectful to the hundreds and hundreds
of volunteers such as myself, who have been collecting the signatures.
She has I hope you won't bleep this, but she
has flipped a certain digit in the middle of her
(29:23):
hand at the residents and the citizens of this commonwealth.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Okay, that's your opinion. It wasn't It wasn't cut out
because you were a gentleman in the way you described it.
She basically told a lot of people in a very
different way that they're number one.
Speaker 7 (29:41):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
So that's all I had.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Roll and call anytime. I got three other folks that'd
like to get to and I got to get to
a break very effective phone call. Jason.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Thank you, thank you, good night, Thank you Jason for
all you've done.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I'll tell you, but those signatures are still going to
go toward getting this issue on the ballot. So it's
it's not as if what they have done has gone
for not And I think that's important tops as well.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
And that is important they keep collecting the signatures, keep
doing the work. The the fighters is. We may have
lost that that this portion this round, but the fight
continues on absolutely, and.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I do think that frankly, uh, the governor was probably
a little bit concerned about the number of signatures that
had already been filed, and she wanted to defend a
law that she obviously fervently believes it. I was unaware
of the prohibition included in the bill which would prevent
young girls from young boy boys or girls from carrying
(30:48):
pepper spray.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
There's a lot in this in this building, and you know,
and one thing that I just wanted to brief and
I'll make it quick, is you know, when we talked
to about banning the semi automatic weapons for those who
don't have a license to carry no TC. We have
people who come from out of state to go hunting here.
It is bird season. You typically would use or many
(31:13):
people would use a semi automatic shotgun to hunt pheasant
and quail, a partridge, whatever you make, woodcock, whatever it
may be, you'd use a semi automatic shotgun. And people
come from out of state. There's tourism dollars to be
lost there. They can no longer come here because they
can't bring their weapon, and so they're not going to
hunt in Massachusetts anymore.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Well, I think they certainly have are going to have
full warning here. Let's take a quick break, coming right
back on nightside, going to get everybody, and I promise
with State Senator Peter Durant, coming back on nightside.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
All right, we're going to get everybody. I promise. Let
me go to John and Sandwich, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Join you.
Speaker 8 (32:00):
Hey, Dan, thanks for taking my call. And Senator Durant,
thank you for all you do for the sportsmen and
women around the state.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
I'm I'm the state field coordinator for the petition drive
and I just real quickly just wanted to let you
know we you know, we followed the process that was
laid out in the mass State Constitution. We brought about
just shy of eight hundred passionate volunteers and a complete
grassroots effort to get this done together, all from the
(32:31):
Berkshires to the Cape and the islands. And when it's
all said and done. I fully expect to have you know,
north of eighty thousand petitions that will be complete.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
You know, we came.
Speaker 8 (32:44):
Together, we worked our tails off, and as far as
my understanding is, the House had a chance to add
the preamble, Senate had a chance to add the preamble,
and even the Governor herself had the opportunity to add
the preamble at the time of signing and she did not.
So the fact that she enacted it now at this
(33:04):
stage of the game is just, in my opinion, unconsciousable.
But with that said, we will continue to collect right
up until the deadline and continue to look at other
options and avenues as well.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
John, thank you very much for those comments. I got
three other callers. I'm going to try to get them
all in, but thank you. We've taking the time to call.
Peter quick comment for John from the team.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, no, he's spot on. I remember we talked about it.
It was talked about during the process whether or not
the emergency preamplould be attached, and and he's right, they
had an opportunity to do it before this, but did.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Thanks John, appreciate your call.
Speaker 8 (33:42):
Thank you have a great night.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Let me keep rolling here. We're gonna get a little
quicker on time here as we go along, I got
Travis and Milton. Travis, go right ahead. You're next to
a nice Iowa State Centative Peter Durant.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
H thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Got me quick. Unfortunately, Travis, I never've been waiting a while,
but we're title time.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
That's all right, I'll be quick.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
You know, I'm a gun owner in Massachusetts. I took
the License to Carry class. You know, I own just
a nine millimeter handgun, you know, very simply. I think
one of the reasons I liked the gun laws of
Massachusetts because I had to take a class. I had
to be instructed in order to own a fire arm,
and I think it's very basic. So you know, listen,
(34:25):
I grew up in New Hampshire, where gun loans are
a lot looser, and my family owned shotguns, grow up
duck hunting. You know, I just don't think it's that
big of a deal to take a license to carry exam,
which I did take in my handgun in order to
get a shotgun.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
So I'm curious.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
You know, I understand the arguments either way, but I'm
curious your thoughts and stay cenator's thoughts about like, why
is that such a big hurdle?
Speaker 8 (34:50):
Now?
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Which is your lot? So, yeah, I'm Cravis. Thanks for
the question, because it's a really good one. So the
problem is is that not everyone can get an LTC. So,
for example, if you I'm almost sixty years old, if
I had a DUI in the past, maybe I had
(35:13):
one when I was eighteen, I am forever ineligible to
get an LTC. So if I have a semi automatic
right now, if I have a semi automatic shotgun and
I say, oh well, the new law comes in, I
better get my LTC, I can't. So I don't necessarily
disagree with you that getting an LTC is a good thing.
(35:33):
I think people should go get it. It's a good
thing to have, but not everyone can get one.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
All right. I appreciate your comment, Travis, and Senator Durance comment,
I want to try to get at least one more
in here before we have to part. Thanks Travis, appreciate it.
Let me go to Darren and Saugus. Darren, if you're
gonna be quick for me, I can also accommodate Jennifer
and Webster.
Speaker 9 (35:55):
Go ahead, Darren, absolutely, thank you Dan for having me on.
I just want to say I'm an avid outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman.
I live in Saugust, so you know I enjoyed doing
a lot of the outdoors things in this state. One
of the things I want to hit on is this
makes hunting illegal for non residents under the year under
(36:20):
the age of eighteen years old. I think that that
hunting licenses contribute to so much dollars going into conservation
in this state that it's it's going to be missed,
and then the tradition of hunting in the outdoors as
well can be lost in that generation. It's really unfortunate.
(36:44):
And the other thing that I want to hit on
real quick is that you know, the legislation, like you
pointed out, mister Senator, is very confusing and a lot
of the police officers don't know how to enforce it.
There's nothing I spent a lot of time reading it,
and there's nothing in there that talks about consequences being
(37:05):
steeper for gun violence, which I think would be one
of your biggest deterrences from gun crimes in the first place.
Those two things probably confused me the most. I'd love
to hear what you have to say as center.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah, we you know, we all know that we have
a law on the books in Massachusetts that says if
you are in possession of a firearm without a license,
it's a mandatory one year. Nobody gets prosecuted for that period.
That's the first thing. Second thing about the juniors. You know,
I had opportunity this summer to visit what's called the
Junior Conservation Camp, which is where they teach high schoolers
(37:47):
and young adults that teach kids under eighteen. They teach
them about the outdoors, they show them how to shoot,
they teach them safety, They go boat hunting, they do canoeing,
they do all these great things, and a lot of
that is kurk tailed now because you can't execute, as
you said, you can't possess a firearm, you can't have
a youth shooting sport.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
So we're flat out of time. You went a little longer, Darren,
than we expected. Jennifer from websity, you needed to have
called earlier. Thank you, Darren. Senator Durant, thank you. Please
keep us posted and what's going on with this? Lauren.
A pleasure to have you on the program as always.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Dan I appreciate it, and anybody wants to catch up
with us, It's senator Durant dot com, so we'd love
to have you.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Sounds great. Senator Durant d You are a n T
Senator Peter Durant of Worcester County, Central Massachusetts, one of
the four members of the Republican Party in the Massachusetts
State Senate. Hopefully they'll there'll be more sometime soon. We'll
be back on night Side right after the ten o'clock news,
and we talk with Reverend Kevin Peterson about an event
(38:54):
this past Saturday which called for more reparations or called
for reparations for slight I've wrote back on right after
the ten o'clock news
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