Massachusetts just became the first state to fully ban assault rifles. All assault-style rifles are banned in the state. They are the first state to progress this far on gun reform.
The Orlando shooting sparked a debate about firearms accessibility. Omar Mateen used an assault rifle to kill 49 people and wound over 53 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
The Massachusetts legislature finally stood up to the National Rifle Association (NRA). It shouldn’t take a huge shooting to get these bans in place. The American Medical Association is going after the NRA big time. They are lobbying to get rid of a 20-year-old law that bans the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from doing any research on gun violence.
The Boston Globe reported:
“It’s no surprise the Orlando killer chose an AR-15 style assault rifle. It’s a weapon of war, originally created for combat, and designed to kill many people in a short amount of time with incredible accuracy. It’s in the same category as weapons chosen by killers in Newtown, Aurora, and San Bernardino. These are not weapons of self-defense. They are weapons used to commit mass murder. And they have no business being in civilian hands.”
Their assault weapons ban mirrors the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. They also ban any “copycats” of these weapons as well.The state bill explicitly defined a copied assault rifle as a gun that has interchangeable parts with any banned weapons.
Massachusetts is cracking down on all of these weapons. Unfortunately, people that already have assault weapons that were purchased before Wednesday will be allowed to keep their guns.
This ban will make a lot of guns in Massachusetts illegal. There were 10,000 assault weapons sold there in just the last year. Since the Orlando shooting, gun sales have gone up about 450 percent.
Here is a gun shop owner explaining the difference between pre-ban and post-ban guns:
