A reporter for the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise figures out that he’s going to be the first one on the scene of any crime where he’s the intended victim, and applies for a permit to carry a firearm in Massachusetts.
In 2011, I had to run for my life from Albee Street in Fitchburg after getting chased by a group of thugs while covering a crime story. In 2012, I covered a court story in which the defendant started writing angry screeds about me online. I didn’t know what I would do if he found out where I live.
What clinched it, however, was the way I felt during the manhunt for the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. I didn’t feel safe in Leominster, which is less than an hour’s drive away from where the suspect was last seen.
The sheriff of Fitchburg, however, isn’t too happy ’bout them uppity common folk wantin’ to carry guns and such. He don’t like their kind around here, and wants them that he’s in charge.
Fitchburg Police Chief Robert DeMoura said the overwhelming majority of applicants pass because people with felony convictions know they would fail and rarely apply. DeMoura said he denies concealed-weapon permits to new shooters 90 percent of the time.
“I will give them a target and hunting permit,” said DeMoura. “First and foremost, they just went through a one-day course about firearms, and I just don’t feel that they’ve had enough time to be around a weapon to be able to carry a concealed weapon. My philosophy is that the state law says I have to give them a permit if they qualify — they don’t tell me what kind of permit, but I have to give them a permit.
Let’s rewrite a bit of that to clarify what Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane DeMoura is actually saying.
DeMoura said he denies people the right to defend their lives 90 percent of the time.
How long would “May Issue” be the law of (some of) our land if people talked about it the way it really was?
(Original story via Jennifer)
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