Massachusetts Gun Shops Losing Badly
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36277-2001Jan23.html
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36277-2001Jan23.html
Massachusetts's Gun Laws Take Heavy Toll on Sales
Licensed Dealers Dwindle as More Controls Are Proposed
By Pamela Ferdinand
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, January 24, 2001; Page A03
BOSTON -- It's about two miles along Route 1 from Bob's Tactical Indoor Shooting Range in Massachusetts, with its near-empty cabinets and forlorn rifle displays, to Big Al's Gun and Sport Shop in southern New Hampshire, where wooden gun racks teem with firearms and shelves display stacks of ammunition.
Not that the profusion of shooting supplies on that side of the border means much to Dave Morill, a Massachusetts gunsmith whose residency binds him to the toughest gun laws and strictest handgun safety regulations in the nation. Sure, Morill can eye gleaming Berettas and Glocks stowed safely in Big Al's glass cases, and he can purchase an array of rifles and shotguns, but most of the handgun merchandise is off-limits because it does not meet the standards of his home state.
"Massachusetts laws are almost freakish," said Morill, a hunter and target shooter who has bought and used firearms for most of his 62 years. "There's a lot of guns I want to buy, but I can't."
Those "freakish" rules that cause laments from gun enthusiasts such as Morill come from a two-pronged attack on guns by state officials. First came the landmark Gun Control Act, passed by the legislature in October 1998. Then last spring, the state attorney general began using his consumer protection authority -- the gun industry is exempt from federal consumer regulations -- to enforce the most comprehensive handgun safety regulations in the country.
Recent evidence shows the initiatives have had a dramatic impact on the state's firearms industry. Consumers are facing a severely curtailed choice of guns, higher prices and more paperwork before purchases. The number of the state's licensed gun dealers -- including all of the so-called "kitchen table" residential operations -- has fallen by almost half, from 950 dealers a year ago to 469. Several major firearms manufacturers, including Glock Inc. and Browning, also have stopped selling handguns here, at least temporarily, rather than risk prosecution.
Massachusetts is the only state to have licensing and registration for all guns. The 1998 Gun Control Act instituted stiffer procedures for background checks and steep penalties for gun crimes. It also prohibited anyone convicted of drug trafficking or any violent crime from owning a gun, among other provisions. Handgun sales from home-based businesses were banned.
Last May, Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly began enforcing handgun safety regulations banning the sale of cheap handguns and requiring all handguns sold here to have child-proofing safety devices.
The regulations also required that all handguns sold in Massachusetts have tamper-resistant serial numbers and state-approved trigger locks. Devices indicating whether a gun is loaded must be included on semiautomatic handguns, and suppliers must explain safe storage and handling to customers and provide written and verbal safety warnings. Violators are subject to fines of as much as $5,000 for each violation, loss of their license to sell firearms and possible additional charges. Certain new or used handguns are exempt.
Following the armed assault last month when a Wakefield software firm employee allegedly killed seven of his co-workers, state legislators are proposing even more tough measures, including a one-gun-a-month purchase limit (similar to laws in Virginia and Maryland), ballistics fingerprinting and a ban on assault weapons. Mental health screening measures also may be expanded, said state Sen. Cheryl Jacques (D), chief sponsor of the 1998 law.
Gun control advocates tout Massachusetts as a national model. They contend it is no coincidence that firearms-related injuries, accidents and deaths in the state are far below the national average, and that fewer homes here are likely to have guns than elsewhere. Non-fatal firearms injuries to residents declined to 368 in 1999 from 740 in 1994, and firearm-related deaths fell by 29 percent in a four-year period through 1998, according to the state Department of Public Health.
"Massachusetts has proven that gun laws and prevention efforts effectively reduce gun injuries and deaths without banning guns," said John Rosenthal, chairman of Stop Handgun Violence Inc. in Massachusetts.
Gun industry sources argue that crime rates and incidents involving firearms began declining even before the new restrictions took effect, and they point to other places, such as the District, that have tough gun control laws and still have high rates of gun-related crime. The intent of the enforcement squeeze, they suggest, is not to promote safety, but to slow gun sales and drive the industry out of Massachusetts, a virtual island of gun control regulation in New England.
"It's a very, very frustrating situation," said Lawrence Keane, vice president and general counsel of the American Shooting Sports Council, one of the industry groups that attempted to block enforcement of the consumer regulations first issued in 1997. "The impact on dealers has been significant, and the object of these consumer regulations is political."
Kevin Sowyrda, spokesman for the Gun Owners Action League, the state firearms association, agreed. "To do business as a gun merchant in Massachusetts has become impossible," he said. "There is an anti-gun culture here. Massachusetts is not just geographically far from Wyoming. Psychologically, we are a million miles away."
Six months after the regulations took effect, investigators reviewed handgun sales by nearly 100 dealers, conducted undercover buys and visited the major dealers responsible for more than 50 percent of state gun sales. So far, a majority appears to be in compliance.
"This isn't about driving anyone out of business. It's about common sense safety measures," Reilly said. "If it takes a few minutes longer and causes more care and more restraint in selling guns, that was the whole purpose in the first place."
Unlike California, Massachusetts has not provided gun suppliers or manufacturers with an approved roster of compliant firearms. Dealers and manufacturers complain that the attorney general's office has been unresponsive and his refusal to interpret the regulations has created a chilling effect.
Some dealers plan to move out of state; others have shifted the focus of their business. Many said they will no longer accept out-of-state handgun transfers because they fear the firearms may not be compliant by prosecutors' standards. Even those trading over the Internet are being extra cautious.
Handgun sales have plummeted at the Collector's Gallery north of Boston and elsewhere. "If I call the attorney general and say, 'Can I sell this model?' They say, 'Do what you want, we'll let the courts decide,' " said owner Jack Gallagher. "You're almost afraid to do anything because you haven't got it in black and white."
Michael LaRocca, a police officer and owner of LaRocca Gunworks in Worcester, agreed: "None of us wants to be a test case."
Even though Glock expects its handguns to comply with the consumer rules by the end of March, the firearms manufacturer remains nervous about reentering a market that is ground zero for regulatory control. "I'm not altogether positive that we're not going to get sandbagged," confessed Paul Jannuzzo, vice president and general counsel.
Not everyone is coming out a loser. Smith & Wesson, based in Massachusetts, last year agreed to broad restrictions on how it manufactures and distributes its handguns in an unprecedented legal settlement. As a result, a company spokesman said the nation's largest gunmaker has just about doubled its business in the state.
