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