BLOG.GOAL.ORG: Recent Comments

Comment on License Renewal Problems - Range Access

RON BEATY — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:40:57 GMT

"Law abiding citizens should be allowed to lawfully own guns in accordance with their 2nd amendment rights without harassment or excessive financial burdens being placed upon them by the federal, state, county or local governments..."

RON BEATY
Candidate for Barnstble County Commissioner

Comment on License Renewal Problems - Range Access

Dan Shine — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:29:44 GMT

Information like this is one of the reasons that I support GOAL. I urge all MA gun owners to support GOAL and help to increase the membership. Strength in numbers!

Comment on State Argues 18 Year Olds Can Purchase Handguns in Massachusetts

fixthis — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:52:09 GMT

this is crazy!!!! as a young Massachusetts resident i would love some clarity from the suits my parents pay taxes to!!!!! GETTIT RIGHT OR GET OUT OF OFFICE.....

Comment on Government Turns on Itself

Michael Lupachini — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 02:08:34 GMT

I am that Officer Jones, and so are many of my brother officers. Many of us train with the "tools of our trade" to become more proficient with that tool. It is our job, it is what is expected of us by the people we swore to serve and protect to the best of our ability.

Sometimes we are paid for the training we do, and sometimes it's on our own time and dime. We do it for reasons which we believe are right. Training funds are the first to go when Chiefs are told to make cuts. Many municipalities don't have the funds to provide their officers with proper tools to do the job they expect them to do. Many municipalities cannot afford to provide the training time to maintain and meet a minimum level of proficiency.

We train with these tools because we are professionals. It is the wise officer who realizes that he must sometimes provide his own equipment, and train to meet that worst case scenario we hope never happens.

President Teddy Roosevelt once said: "Every person owes some of his time to the up-building of the profession to which he belongs" A statement I firmly believe in, as true now, as it was in the early 20th century.

As a police firearms instructor (pistol & patrol rifle (AR-type) I encourage officers to get some trigger time on their own. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I can never give them enough.

If an officer takes a so-called "assault rifle", whether issued or personally owned and takes part in a three gun match, or an NRA high power rifle match, as far as I am concerned, that is training.

As to what is interpreted in an unsigned letter by someone in a branch of government who does not have the authority to do so, what a slap in the face it is to tell these men or women that by doing what they believe is right, what they believe is their job, they can potentially be prosecuted and jailed. Only in Massachusetts!

It was bad enough when the state government took away the right of law abiding citizens to choose their tools of self defense and recreation. Now it's even worse. Chapter 140 of the acts of 1998 needs to be repealed altogether.

Michael Lupachini
Patrol Officer/Upton
Sustaining GOAL Member

Comment on Government Turns on Itself

Norman H Shackley — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:30:11 GMT

Jim, how are you?The article is fantastic as usual.Mass is so convoluted in gun laws that the whole system should be scraped and reformed.I know about the reform act that Goal has tried to get implemented.It was alot of hard work Goal did.It is a good reform idea.Now, this law is the same regurgitated rhetoric from the politicians in Mass that feel the need to pass into law.So, what we have is a "wallpaper" effect of gun laws in Mass.One bad law on top of other one until there is so many that no one can figure any of it out.I think the problem is that the politicians writing the bills are uneducated about the issue at hand.Then the good people get caught up in the after math.Law enforcement should NOT be effected by these blind "laws". Never mine the honest people that pass NICS but don't get licensed by there police chiefs in there town.The "may" issue is part of the problem.I have relocated to NC where I can buy any type of hand gun or rifle and I open carry.I honestly believe that most of the firearm laws are not needed as it is a civil right to begin with anyways.Also a constitutional right in a broader scope.I hope you still fight the good fight Jim and stay vigilant.These politicians just need to be voted out of office.They do not have the peoples best interest in mind.Just alot of attention for political votes.Instead of fixing the problem, Mass makes a new laws they think or feel will fix the problem.Never looking at bad legislation that most likely caused the problem at hand.I am on a scattered tangent of sorts.Living in Mass for my whole life has left myself perplexed and vexed I guess.

Life NRA and GOAL Member.

Comment on Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Issues Contorted Ruling in Powell Case

JR Scrima — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:02:41 GMT

what happened with Ma House Bills 1202,1234,665,1561

Comment on Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Issues Contorted Ruling in Powell Case

Joe Landers — Wed, 11 May 2011 22:54:08 GMT

nothing that these political Judges do shocks me anymore, GOD HELP US !!!

Comment on Laws, Regulations and Policies Don’t Make Us Bulletproof

Erik — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:52:40 GMT

"People have become so reliant on government that far too many have completely surrendered their own responsibility."

Well, when you have a jury awarding a sizeable amount of money to a woman that spilled hot coffee on herself, due to her own carelessness (as well as many other "liability" lawsuits that should never have made it), how can anyone actually expect people to be responsible for their own actions? Especially when it is easier and more beneficial to blame someone else? We live in a time of frivolous lawsuits that award people thousands of dollars because the neighbors dog peed on the lawn. This needs to stop, and only when it does will people start to hold themselves responsible for their actions.
However, I can't wait til a victim of a violent crime sues the state as an accomplice (ok, maybe too far fetched, but the media attention would be interesting to watch), stating "well, had the State of Massachusetts let me carry my lawfully owned firearm (that I am licensed to carry) on the Blue Line going into Revere, I would never have been raped."
I mean, are there any criminal liability charges that can be brought against the state for enabling the criminal element?

Comment on Voting For Someone

Erik — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:36:30 GMT

Unfortunately, the ones that people actually would vote FOR, normally don't end up making it past the primaries. And many more don't even make it that far, due to a lack of funding for their campaign (and that's on both sides).

I fear people will always vote against someone (because of political ideologies, and nothing more), rather than vote for someone. Heck, I know a few people that voted for someone whose policies and politics they were against, just so they wouldn't be labeled as racist.

Comment on Expecting Less is not the Answer

Mark Jester — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:48:03 GMT

Jim great article, just as an fyi, my wife just came across her fathers HS year book from 1950. As we looked through it for the first time, I noticed something very odd in it. The Pittsfield High School class of 1950 had a rifle team. A rifle team? There they were lined up in school the members of that rifle team each holding their rifle with coats and ties on, smiling for their picture. Those kids would be 80 years old this coming year and many of them are still alive here in the Berkshires. Some are still active locally in the shooting sports.

Back in 2006 my daughter who shot in the youth archery league at the Lenox Sportsmen's Club, wanted to bring her bow and arrows to school (Pittsfield High School Class of 2006) to shoot in the archery segment of her PE class. It took an act of congress to allow her to bring her equipment to school. It had to be in a locked case, I had to hand it off at the school admin office and locked in a closet. At class time she had to go to the office and request the bow, she had to have the school’s police officer, yes the school has a police officer, carry it to class for her and then when the class was over, the whole process was repeated again. Wow, where have we gone in society?