By Bill Fonda
Perhaps Don Detweiler of Concord and Frank Beckstein III of Boxborough should get together sometime.
Detweiler is chairman of the Social Action Committee at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, an organization he said is looking to “prevent the violence, the suicides, the accidents.” However, he said too much of the gun control debate is politically motivated — “Probably by us, too” – and believes talking about “gun control” focuses too much on rights and regulations.
“We don’t want to take anyone’s guns away,” he said. “Maybe the message isn’t getting out.”
Detweiler said he, like others he knows, would like to engage in a calm discussion, person-to-person, about concerns. He wants to prevent violence.
“We’d like to talk to gun owners,” he said.
Beckstein is a member of Harvard Sportsmen’s Club who participates in Cowboy action shooting (a competitive sport), hunts, takes target practice and shoots clay pigeons. He thinks many reporters and people who are “emotionally concerned” about guns don’t understand the issues, such as talking about “assault rifles” without knowing what they really are or aren’t.
He also offers to bring people who don’t shoot guns to Harvard Sportsman’s Club so they can learn about people who do, although he said no one has taken him up on the offer.
Beckstein said he doesn’t believe people who are anti-gun or anti-gun owners are bad people, and would love to see more of an open exchange between the two groups.
“We don’t get anywhere yelling at each other,” he said. “There’s a lot of common ground, but we need to have more understanding.”
As the gun control debate in this country continues, how do gun owners feel about their portrayal? Why do people who support more gun control feel the way they do?
And do they have any common ideas about gun regulations?
A personal matter
Eric Austin of Lexington said part of the problem with the gun control debate is the stereotyping of the people who own them.
Austin, who has a Class A license to carry and occasionally competes with the Greater Boston Pistol League, said many people who support gun control focus on the ability of guns to kill. However, he said taking action from fear is similar to the threat of banning or registering all Muslims in the United States because of the shootings in San Bernardino last December or the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or blocking Internet sites that create fear in some people.
“It has repercussions beyond gun ownership,” he said. “The idea of this nation was individual liberty.”
Austin said advocates for strict gun control often ask, “Why do you want to kill people?” but that’s not his goal or that of nearly all legal gun owners. He said personal protection wasn’t even his motivation for getting licensed.
Ann Catania lived in Woburn before she and her husband, Jim, and youngest daughter, Casey, moved to New Hampshire last year. Ann pointed to the gun debate in Lexington, where an article originally proposed for Town Meeting would have created a Lexington-specific definition of “assault weapons” and prohibited owning, storing or selling those guns in town, as well as prohibit magazines of 10 rounds or more.
Instead, Robert Rotberg, who is proposing the article, will bring a nonbinding resolution requesting the selectmen inform state legislators of Town Meeting’s concern that state gun laws regarding assault weapons are not strict enough. The resolution also calls for selectmen to initiate “a town wide discussion about assault weapons and gun violence that would lead to fully considered proposals (to be conveyed to the Great and General Court) for a strengthening of those laws.”
Ann said her husband believes Massachusetts is trying to take away their right to bear arms.
“This is a man who did not want to commute more than five to 10 minutes away from home, and now commutes 45 to 60 minutes without traffic to up to two hours with bad traffic just to keep his gun rights,” she said. “I agree with him on all of this. I am also going to take hunter and gun safety course in New Hampshire so that I will be able to get my license to carry and go hunting.”
Patricia Carpenter lives in Woburn and grew up with guns. Her father, Harry Morton, was a hunter when field trials were once held in Woburn. She learned how to shoot as a young child – when there was “no problem with guns.”
“I was active in the trials and ran a lot of hunting dogs (and) we raised hunting dogs. I always owned guns and have belonged to gun clubs,” she said.
Carpenter said the problem today isn’t with guns, but rather, with people.
“My uncle was shot to death being robbed right here in Woburn,” she said, an event that took place many years ago. “No one was caught.”
Controlling violence versus controlling guns
Diane Scinto is active with two organizations — the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence since 2001 and the Massachusetts chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America for the past two years.
Scinto doesn’t want to revisit the experience of Newtown, Conn, saying she has seen the damage to families who have lost family members to gun violence.
Nor does she like to use the phrase “gun control” because she doesn’t want to control anyone. Rather, Scinto wants the loophole on backgrounds checks closed. She wants background checks for all aspects of gun sales — Internet private sales and gun shows.
“You want to have a background check to make sure the purchaser is someone who should have a gun. You want to be sure the person you sell it to is the right person.”
Scinto said guns should not be sold to people with criminal backgrounds — someone who has domestic violence arrests or people who may be on a terrorist watch list. Nor should people who have a record of mental health issues and have demonstrated they could hurt others or have suicidal tendencies should not be allowed to purchase a gun, she said.
But Scinto added, “I do not believe everyone with a mental health issue is dangerous.”
Dan MacGilvray, of Woburn, a retired, court officer for the Massachusetts Trial Court system, doesn’t believe in gun control, saying it hurts law-abiding citizens, and they are the only ones who are punished under gun control policies and laws.
MacGilvray said government officials go after the firearm using gun control, but asked, “When was the last time an elected official, such as the attorney general, the district attorney or (chief of police) publicly request(ed) legislators passed a law that require ‘from and after jail sentences’ for criminals who use a gun while performing violent criminal acts?”
“A from and after jail sentence,” he said, is a statement used in the courts and is a jail sentence that starts after another jail sentence ends.
“Putting more gun control restrictions on legal owners of guns will not stop violence using guns. It punishes the public who use a constitutional right,” he said.
What to do
“When you talk about restrictions on to a constitutional right, I always ask, ‘What specific problem are you trying to solve and how does that solve it?’” said Al Prescott of Westford.
According to Prescott, machine guns are already federally regulated, and most laws targeting weapons such as the AR-15 would effectively ban all other types of firearms.
“Most of the folks that know something about firearms, look at any attempt to ban guns today as a backdoor attempt to confiscate all guns and when you read through a lot of the proposals, that is, in fact, the case,” he said.
Prescott believes people should worry less about firearms and more about criminals, including targeting what is known as “straw purchases,” in which someone who is allowed to buy a gun does so for someone who isn’t.
“The question that we all should be asking is this — if I get a license to carry, not only have I never done anything wrong in my life, I sat there, in Massachusetts, and certainly I fingerprinted myself,” Prescott said. “But what happens when a person tries to buy a gun and is flagged? Who follows up on why that prohibited person tried to get that gun? And you know what the answer is right now? Nothing.”
Beckstein also cited straw purchases, saying the main issue is that the federal government needs to enforce existing gun laws, especially those pertaining to illegal purchases.
“If it’s easy to get a gun that way, the criminals are going to do it,” he said. “If you can’t pass a federal background check, you shouldn’t purchase a gun.”
The Social Action Committee at Temple Isaiah is connected to Do Not Stand Idly By, a network of citizens groups and religious organizations which is requesting that gun manufacturers research safer technology
“We know that it’s not impossible to significantly reduce gun violence in America. But it is impossible to do it without the active involvement of the manufacturers of guns – without change in the gun industry,” states its mission. “On the issue of gun violence, the owners and investors of the world’s gun manufacturers have that power.”
Detweiler said there also has to be a discussion of the issues of mental health, an opinion shared by the Whites, who say prohibiting people with severe mental health issues who could be a danger to themselves or others from owning a gun would be ideal. They know there are questions about how, if and when to collect, release or judge people’s medical histories.
“It’s a rock and a hard place,” said Doug White.
Catherine and Doug White of Lexington, who were concerned that the original citizens petition being presented to Lexington Town Meeting would have forced them to move out of the state, agree that one of the benefits of the Massachusetts system, which allows a police chief to use discretion when granting a license, is — if it is not being abused — that chiefs know the people in their community.
“It’s a difficult question. It’s much more difficult than ban all the guns. The problem is the shooters,” Doug said. “There are a lot of messy issues. How do you balance the right to privacy with the societal need to keep the firearms out of the hands of whackos?
Burrows said people who need help for mental health issues it can’t necessarily get it.
“The system needs a lot of work,” she said.
Boxborough Police Chief Warren Ryder said he supports gun control, but hasn’t seen any rational proposals other than improved background checks. He believes doctors and mental health professionals should more-easily be able to alert police about potential problems people may have.
Saying it’s harder to access an iPhone than a gun, Ryder also supports identification technology such as fingerprint access that could keep guns from falling into the wrong hands.
“We just want some basic security measures,” he said. “I don’t think taking away people’s rights is going to solve anything.”
Westford Police Chief Thomas McEnaney said other states need to come in line with some of Massachusetts’ requirements.
“You don’t have to go far — Vermont, New Hampshire — about licensing issues. It’s just a short distance up the road,” he said. “That’s concerning that people can still access firearms that in Massachusetts they would not be able to because of our rules, our laws and our requirements.”
McEnaney said he thinks there may be a better way of doing gun control “that really addresses the issue and closes some of these loopholes on accessing firearms that should not be accessible to the public.”
“Weapons, ammunition that’s designed to go through bulletproof vests — that’s an officer safety issue and, quite frankly, there’s no need of that and the public has no need of having something like that,” he said.
The Whites also believe a right-to-carry rule would make sense, saying gun violence drops in areas where people are legally allowed to carry guns. Catherine cited the claim that James Holmes, the movie theater shooter in Aurora, Colorado, bypassed movie theaters much closer to his home to target the one that prohibits customers from carrying in a firearm.
Jim Wallace, the executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League of Massachusetts, said the state’s firearms bureau does not have the money for firearms education, because of the $100 fee for a license or a firearms identification card is divided multiple ways. Of the money, $25 goes to town, $25 goes to the State Police Fingerprint Verification Fund and $50 to the state general fund.
“What we pay as gun owners in Massachusetts is twice as high as any state in the region,” he said. “With all the talk about Massachusetts leading the nation, they collect millions of dollars from us and don’t spend a single penny on firearms education. The system is designed to register and watch the good guys, but not designed to watch the bad guys.”
— Caitlyn Kelleher, Al Gentile, Bruce Coulter, Alexander Silva and Melissa Russell contributed to this story.
Bill Fonda 