(more calls to action that need your support here: CALLS TO ACTION: What you can do NOW!)

UPDATE: The House of Represenatives passed this bill, now it’s up to the senate! Please send a message or call your State Senator, contact info below.

UPDATE: The Massachusetts Police Chief Association has ENDORSED THIS BILL! But that does NOT MEAN YOUR STATE SENATOR WILL SUPPORT IT. They need to hear from you.

Please contact your state senator and representative! For Cape and Islands residents, find your state senator’s contact information here or download the list here.  If you are not from Cape Cod, you can find your  state senator contact information here.

Note – we’ve learned that even the NRA supports this bill, but their MA affiliate, GOAL, is against it.

From Everytown for Gun Safety:

We’ve been asking Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a life-saving Red Flag law all year. We need a law to empower Bay Staters to prevent tragedies — like mass shootings and gun suicides — before they happen.

Our representatives will vote on this bill — the question is when. Tell your representatives to push this bill to a vote NOW.

More on what this bill is below.

This bill has been voted out of committee and is ready to be voted on first by the house and then the senate. Time is tight.  Contact your state rep and tell him/her you want this bill to come to the floor for a vote, ASAP.  Ask them to request that the speaker bring this bill to a vote. You can also contact the speaker yourself.

And ask your rep. to support this bill.

Red Flag laws are being passed in other states. Recently the Vermont legislature passed a Red Flag law and their republican Governor signed it into law. That law was credited for preventing a school shooting.

After it passed their state legislature, Maryland’s Governor, a republican with an A+ rating from the NRA signed a Red Flag Bill into law.  Mom’s Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety are saying these laws would not have passed if people didn’t contact their legislators.

For Cape and Islands residents, find your state rep’s contact information here or download the list here.  If you are not from Cape Cod, you can find your state rep here.

Call or send an email.

A sample script:

Please support the Red Flag flag bill, H.3610, that would create an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), allowing family members and law enforcement to request a temporary restriction of a person’s access to guns when they pose a significant risk of harming themselves or others.

This bill does not permanently take a person’s guns, it is good balance between protecting someone’s civil rights and protecting potential victims including the person who owns the guns. Red Flag bills were recently signed into law by two republican governors.

Please contact the Speaker and request a vote on this bill.  And, please vote to support this bill to protect all of us.

Thank you;
Your constituent
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

If you are concerned because your legislator enjoys a high grade from the NRA (see links below), remind him/her that as a constituent you want him/her to make you a priority.  Don’t write your state rep off if he/she is supported by the NRA.  Remind them, this is the chance to stop a tragedy before it stops.

More details about this bill.

H.3610 would allow a doctor, a police officer, or someone who lives with a gun owner to seek an “extreme risk protective order.” Based on the details and a judge’s review of the level of danger, these orders can be done immediately.

According to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Linsky:

A judge would review the evidence in the application, and a judge could issue an [extreme risk protection] order for up to 10 days. The police department would go to that person and seize all of that person’s firearms. And then within 10 days, the person would get a full hearing … where he can present evidence if he wants to, he can challenge evidence he wants to — it’s a full hearing. The district court judge would decide whether or not that order should stay in effect for up to one year.

A police chief does, in fact, have the right to suspend or take away a person’s gun permit in Massachusetts [currently]. However, that doesn’t give the police the right to seize the guns that that person already has. In order to do that, [police] have to then apply for a search warrant to enter the home in order to get whatever guns the person has. What happens in that type of situation is you have created a very volatile situation. The person knows that the police have suspended his gun permit, they have certainly increased the tension level, and the person still has his guns.

Of course the MA arm of the NRA, Gun Owner’s Action League, (GOAL) opposes this bill. They are encouraging their members to contact their legislators and declare that this bill would “allow for cruel and extremely dangerous treatment of people who may or may not have severe mental health issues.”

They insist that it would be unfair to someone who “may be going through a temporary crisis in the same manner as a person that may be so mentally ill that he or she is a potential mass murderer.”

This bill addresses that issue, the order would first be for 10 days, and can be extended for just one year, allowing someone to get the help they need.  This is not a permanent order,  there is a whole different process to revoke a person’s gun license and permanently confiscate their guns if they are arrested and convicted of certain crimes.

If our legislators fail to pass this bill and there is a tragedy,  we will remind them of this missed opportunity.

Form email alternative:

A personal email directly from your account is best, but if you are not comfortable sending an email yourself Everytown and Moms Demand Action have a form you can fill in that will send a form email to your legislator:

Everytown for Gun Safety form email

If you live in a Cape Cod and Islands district, or a Plymouth District and are interested in your legislators grades and endorsements from gun advocacy groups:

• Cape Cod’s State Senator and State Rep’s NRA and gun groups grades and endorsements
• Plymouth Districts Senators and House Reps with good ratings and endorsements from the NRA

See more about gun control efforts on this page: GUNS.

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