The following is GOAL's response to a Boston Herald OpEd piece titled "Where's the desire to disarm?" This response was emailed to the Boston Herald on Monday, April 2, 2007.

http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=191951&format=&page=1

There should be no desire to disarm us against crime!

In response to Mr. Judson’s March 31, 2007 OpEd piece concerning the murder of a young women there needs to be a rational and responsible look at what we really know about what is happening on our streets.

In 1998 the Massachusetts Legislature passed into law the Gun Control Act of 1998. These new laws were touted as a “reasonable” means at controlling crime and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. Those of us who support the civil rights of our fellow citizens worked to educate the legislature on the consequences of attempting to control criminal behavior by restricting the rights of its lawful citizens. Unfortunately for the most part our efforts fell on deaf ears and with the stroke of a pen our state’s destiny was set.

As a result of one the worst set of gun laws ever passed in the nation, hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts citizens were now branded as “unsuitable” people and had their Second Amendment rights stripped from them. Men and women who had responsibly practiced their right to keep and bear arms were now told they were untrustworthy because of minor legal infractions that might have happened twenty, thirty and in some cases fifty years ago.

The laws in Massachusetts had become so strict that the mere possession of an empty brass cartridge casing could cause an unlicensed person to receive a two year jail sentence. The same is true for carrying pepper spray without a license.

With the reduction in lawful gun owners and the severity of penalties now in law, the supporters of the 1998 Gun Control Act heralded the new law as a great success story that other state’s should follow. However the truth has now raised its ugly head.

We now know that the laws passed in 1998 have been a great failure. One only needs to watch the news or talk to neighbors on the street to realize we have lost control of streets. If this is not enough and you need honest verifiable statistics we need to look no further than the State’s Department of Public Health. The crime injury report system from that agency reveals some shocking, but predictable truths.

Since the Gun Control Act of 1998, gun crime injuries per 100,000 residents, has risen out of control. The following are some of the categories the agency tracks and the results since the passage of the new laws.

The facts are indisputable. The great promise of control has been proven beyond any doubt that it is nothing short of a myth and a dangerous one at that. Now we see that certain people who wish to hang on to this myth are blaming other states for our state’s problems.

Unsubstantiated claims run rampant through the media that criminals are traveling around the country to obtain their illegal guns and then return to this state to commit the crimes. Even if that is the case, why hasn’t anyone asked the question that should be on everyone’s lips? If illegal guns are so easily obtained in other states, why is it that the criminals return to Massachusetts to commit the crimes? The reason the question is never posed is because the answer is too obvious and too embarrassing to certain politicians.

By creating a defenseless citizenry, the state has created a feeding ground for a criminal element that will not hesitate for a moment to take advantage of helpless people. Think about the cities around the country with the strictest gun laws and then think about the cities you always hear about that have an out of control crime problem. They are one in the same, Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and now, sadly, Boston.

The lesson is hard learned, but too true. If we allow our government to control lawful citizens as a way of trying to get at criminals, we all lose. The hard fact is that even if the attempt at keeping the gun, knife, baseball bat or car out of the hands of the criminal on the street that wants to hurt you and your family was successful, the government still hasn’t done anything about the criminal who wants to hurt you and your family.

There are many things we need to do to regain control of our streets. We need to fund and reestablish the Massachusetts Neighborhood Crime Watch Commission (this program had its funding stripped by the legislature a few years ago). We need to get our community to work better with police. We need our political leaders to react responsibly and rationally to situations at hand. When we do implement and properly fund programs that were successful, things get better. Finally, our government needs to find a way to apologize to and regain the trust of lawful gun owners.