Mayors from across the state united Thursday in support of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s crackdown on copycat assault-style weapons.
Led by Newton Mayor Setti Warren, seven mayors, including Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, spoke in a conference call about the importance of the move as a preventive measure to keep high-powered rifles off their city’s streets. Twelve other mayors, including Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, signed a statement of support for Healey but did not participate in the call.
On July 21, in the wake of the June shooting that killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Healey announced her office would increase enforcement on the sale of copies or duplicates of banned assault weapons, including the Kalashnikov AK-47 and Colt AR-15.
These copies operate in essentially the same way as those weapons and are only differentiated by small changes to elements that don’t affect their lethality. At the time, Healey estimated 10,000 copycat guns had been sold in Massachusetts last year.
Duplicates of banned weapons are covered under the state’s assault weapons ban, but manufacturers had been able to deem guns “state compliant” by making small changes without government intervention.
Healey’s move caused an immediate backlash from gun rights advocates, hundreds of whom rallied outside the Statehouse a few days later. Fifty-eight state lawmakers signed a letter opposing the move, and it drew criticism also from Gov. Charlie Baker.
“I just don’t understand what the big deal is,” Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said during the call. “We have a law that’s been on the books, and we’re enforcing it. God forbid we enforce the laws.”
Warren emphasized that Healey is not interested in taking guns away from owners but in scrutinizing the gun industry. She has given manufacturers a chance to work with her office to determine which guns are legal and which aren’t, he said.
The crackdown is also timely, he said. He referenced mass shootings in recent years in which killers used assault weapons — in Orlando, Dallas and Newtown, Connecticut — and said Healey’s call for enforcement is crucial if such tragedies are to be prevented. He spoke about the sheer power of assault weapons.
“I’m an Iraq War veteran,” he said. “I saw firsthand the explosions and destruction these types of weapons cause, and in fact, I carried an assault rifle myself … These types of weapons do not belong on any of our streets in Massachusetts.”
Mayors Kim Driscoll, of Salem, and Dick Alcombright, of North Adams, said though much of the gun conversation may focus on urban violence, small communities are equally concerned with the availability of assault weapons.
Several of the mayors said Massachusetts can present itself as a leader through crackdowns on assault weapons, especially given that no federal assault weapons ban exists, and how talk of gun laws has factored into this year’s presidential race.
“I think given the carelessness with which certain candidates for president, specifically Donald Trump, have begun to talk about violence, I think Massachusetts should stand above the rest,” Rivera said.
On Tuesday, Trump seemed to suggest violence against or assassination of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, when he told a crowd Tuesday there was nothing they could do about her judicial appointments if she is elected president — except for maybe “the Second Amendment people.”
When asked in the conference call about the low rate of assault rifle use in violent crimes in Massachusetts, the mayors again reiterated the emphasis on prevention.
“It’s important for us to be proactive,” Morse said.
Asked if they’d seen pushback on Healey’s enforcement action from their own communities, all of the mayors in the call had the same answer.
“No,” they said.