[Since a number of folks shared this post I made on Facebook, I feel like I should repost it here]
If you’re wondering why pro-gun folks are so mean and do everything that they can to stop “common sense” measures like assault weapons bans*, look no further than Massachusetts. They’ve had an AWB that mirrored the Clinton era federal AWB on the books basically since the federal one expired.
The state AG recently decided to officially interpret that law radically different than anyone in the 20 years of its existence has done so. To the point that she’s basically declared any semi-auto rifle or pistol to be illegal in her state. The good news is that she promises to not go after anyone that owned said items before she made this declaration. Of course, this isn’t her saying “oh, that one’s legal,” it’s her saying “we won’t prosecute.”
So… without a single piece of legislation being passed, thousands of people woke up to discover that they now possess items that very well could get them hit with a felony charge.
Yeah… that’s reason to trust the other side.
*there’s lots of reasons that AWBs are stupid on their own merits, but that’s not the point here.
Not just /currently/ possess.
They could be charged by guns they used to own. Guns they owned years before the AG made this decision, and also sold to an FFL years before
And given that they filled out an official government document saying they took possession of those items….
Well, given the AG’s logic, it’d be an easy case to prosecute, If the AG /decided/ to prosecute.