By Jim Hammond
Newton, Massachusetts is a wealthy suburb that is only nine miles from downtown Boston. The proximity to Bean Town has always been a boon for commuters who desire an easy drive to the city, and the pleasure of living in a peaceful community where the median income of its citizens is $127,000. However recent upticks in criminal behavior in Boston has created real concern for residents of Newton.
In 2019 there were 28 fatal shootings in Boston. In 2020 that number increased to 45. Also 2020 was the year that Covid-19 spread through the country resulting in questionable decisions made by the state that affected everyone.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that 367 prisoners were to be released back into society because of Covid. The logic behind this ruling was that with overcrowded prisons it was impossible for criminals to socially distance themselves from their fellow inmates.
What’s more, like so many other Soros-backed DA’s, Suffolk District Attorney Rachel Rollins refused to prosecute those accused of crimes ranging from resisting arrest, shoplifting and possession with intent to distribute drugs.
There was another reason for heightened safety concerns among Massachusetts residents. Thousands of criminal convictions were overturned by the D.A.’s office because drug evidence seized by authorities was improperly handled by drug lab technicians. It isn’t known how many convicted criminals were released as a result.
In Newton over eleven hundred citizens have a class A license which grants them permission to carry a firearm for their protection. But, if it’s left up to the mayor and city council, they may not have a place to purchase a firearm in their own hometown.
Joseph Kammouj wants to open a shop on Washington Street in downtown Newton where a variety of shops are located including The Great Remedies marijuana dispensary. A sign was posted on a door at 709 Washington street, announcing the opening of Newton Firearms.
Almost Immediately Newton residents started a petition to prevent the business opening in their town. The petition, which has more than 6,000 signatures so far, declares the presence of a gun store in Newton “Would undermine our reputation as a welcoming and progressive city.”
Other residents started a petition entitled “Allow Gun Sales in Newton” which has, to date, gathered 563 signatures. The petition in favor of locating a gun shop in town states that “many Newton residents have been trying to suppress the rights of others to own and purchase firearms. As Americans we should never try to suppress the rights of others.””
Ruthanne Fuller, the mayor took up the opponents’ cause saying she is “ deeply concerned” about having a gun shop in Newton. The entire city council voted to issue a stop-work order against the gun shop when they discovered the business owner had not acquired a permit to renovate the space.
City hall officials are now trying to introduce a slate of zoning changes. Current zoning rules would regulate firearm dealers as falling into a general retail business that would allow such shops to operate in all of Newton’s business use zoning districts. The new zoning plan would ban gun stores from locating downtown and Newton city council president Susan Albright wants councilors to vote on the plan on May 17.
A local gun control activist was quoted in the Boston Globe saying she was worried that greater access to guns would lead to more deaths due to suicide, accidental shootings and homicides. Kammouj told The Globe, “This is just a business, like any other business,” but didn’t want to comment further on the kerfuffle. My attempts to contact him for comment haven’t been successful.
Newton Firearms’ website states the business will include gun sales, safety training, gunsmithing and repairs. It also states Kammouj’s intention to provide home security, and personal protection products as well.
Given the increase in crime in and around Boston — like most large urban areas — over the last year, residents of Newton have good reason to be concerned for their safety and that of their families. When police are defunded and criminals are released or never prosecuted at all, the message to the average citizen is clear: you are your own first responder. It’s up to you to protect yourself and those you love.
There’s no evidence that the presence of a local gun store increases the incidence of crime or suicides. The opposition of many Newton residence is nothing but hysterical hoplophobia in a state that’s becoming increasingly hostile to guns and firearm ownership.
Every time I hear about Massachusetts I think how the revolutionary war would be fought today. The British, marching through with their dull point butter knives and the last of the American patriots fighting desperately with air soft to keep them from seizing the CO2 stored in Concord.
I propose using the space for a take-out hamburglar joint, like what was recently discovered in Hollister, CA. Being that close to Boston, naming it Ocean Burger makes more sense…
Left Mass when I was 18. Seems like they want to be a British Colony. How do you recognize a MA lifetime resident? Their farts are so high pitched they attract dogs!
Speaking of Massachusetts militia using airsoft guns and paintball guns reminds me of something. Every time I see an airsoft gun or paintball gun with a “flash suppressor” I burst out laughing. A “flash suppressor” on an airsoft or paintball gun is like tits on a salamander! Do tacticool paintball players actually think they need to suppress a “flash” from a CO2 cartridge? LOL
Flash suppressors on paintball guns are probably still banned here in NJ, anyway, LOL!
Got to be some truly lazy assailants and suicidal people in MA if they think that forcing them to go a few miles from downtown or further from the schools is going to have any practical effect.
Future changes will certainly affect that, I suspect that “500 miles from any school zone” is coming right up. Seriously, try for a moment to consider reality, if a law can be passed relating to “500 feet”, why is “500 miles” not exactly the same authority, identical rationale? There is zero constitutional foundation for a law considering “500 feet from a school zone”, and if there were it would prohibit constructing or maintaining a school zone within 500 feet of a gun store, not the other way around. This would be completely Constitutional and would require any school to immediately shut down and move if a gun store opened nearby. FANTASTICALLY expensive, would be killed in a week. In reverse, it’s all good. NOT!!! Where a school can be constructed or maintained is not a matter of specific Constitutional prohibition, but the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Do not let them LIE to you!
Are these the same 13 colonies that took on mighty England and won?
We have become such pansies/pussies/soy boys.
In name only. Most of the freedom-minded types moved westward out of New England long ago.
Also, Boston has a well-earned reputation for being narrow-minded and censorious that goes back several hundred years, and as one of Boston’s bedrooms, Newton is no different.
https://infogalactic.com/info/Banned_in_Boston
@Ing:
Some of us moved north to NH.
A free state (so far).
There is a reason for the development of the word “Mass-holes”.
And, “we” haven’t become “pussies and soy boys”.
THEY have. And, THEY suffer from acute cranial rectal immersion.
Like the girl who hit my parked truck in a Leominster parking lot. The truck was in the middle of the lot in a valid spot. Idiot tagged my bumper and when I came out of the building to see the damage, she blamed me for her lack of driving skills and claimed I was responsible. I laughed at her and told her to file a claim. It’s a no fault state and I had no damage. Went back inside to eat my lunch and watched her in case she decided to do something stupid. She didn’t and finally left with her busted front passenger side turn signal out.
Typical Newton!! Holier than thou blowhards spouting unsubstantiated drama. So glad I moved to NH!
There are only two kinds of Americans who do not own defensive firearms: cowards and fools. Either they are so cowardly that they would not protect themselves or others, or the are so foolish as to think they would never have to. In addition, they hide behind and among those who do as parasites on society. Inform them of their condition so they realize what they are, directly and forcefully.
“Inform them of their condition”
There’s a difference between ignorant people and fools. Calling someone a fool isn’t going to make them very perceptive to your spiel.
…but calling them ‘ignorant’ will ensure they will listen intently to your message!
Or here’s a crazy idea. Talk to them without putting them down by calling them names. The real world isn’t like the internet.
most people that will use a gun illegally will not buy a gun from a gun shop but get a street gun or steal one the people who are fighting this store is the same people who would use the store sounds like a bunch of democrats
Oh! and being nice to the ignorant fools has really worked great!
Being nice to some people just does not work.
It sure doesn’t sound all that ‘welcoming’ to me. It also sounds like a place that criminals just haven’t gotten around to yet.
Places like this are filled with a misguided belief that people are safest when they are helpless.
But apparently the trafficking of Asian women for the sex trade in Newton is just fine with the residents and the city council. There’s an Asian massage parlor on the same block as the gun shop. Newton is an UBER liberal warren of people who soil their draws when firearms are concerned.
In Newton, as in most of Massivetwoshits, if a citizen plays by the rules, the government simply changes the rules. It’s almost a sport.
I live in a red town in the middle of this deep blue state, so I don’t have to put up with typical Massachusetts hysteria and corruption.
Lived all over NE MA and worked all north south and Boston. Nanny-ass jack-boots, the lot of them, cops, politicians, etc. Looked at what happened after the marathon bombing to get the proper perspective of what the elites think of their lessers.
One of the safest schools in America is the Visitation Parochial School in Verbort Oregon. The playground abuts Al’s Gun Shop. Imagine the reaction of the local gun nuts if they heard shooting from the school.
Unfortunately those LARPers would run (well waddle urgently) the other way, revealing their true cowardly nature.
“…the other way, revealing their true cowardly nature.”
It sounds like your extensive personal experience in being a spineless coward is showing.
A coward is someone who who uses a different name most every time they comment in TTAG.
Wassa matter, Braveheart? You don’t have the balls to use the same name? What a tiny boy you are! 😉
Could somebody explain to me why a properly ran liquor store and a properly ran gun store in the same neighborhood presents any kind of a problem? Or near a school for that matter?
Feelz and excuses.
Karen wears two masks in her car or out in a park 200 yards away from the nearest person for fuck’s sake. You think she’s gonna logic real hard about the gun store she dislikes from the jump?
Karen and Ken are fat, dumb sheep who live in a fantasy land when it comes to any sort of risk. They’ll hide from Covid and fly off the handle over social distancing “violations” in a grocery store but they’ll take an experimental injection without a second thought if you tell them it makes the scary chest cold go away. “Downside risk”? “Unknowns”? Nah, those only go one way for Karen and Ken and that’s the way they emote, not think, those risks go.
“Karen and Ken are fat, dumb sheep…”
I’ve seen *plenty* of skinny Karens out there, Strych… 🙁
Alcohol causes more misery in this country than guns. Do they freak out when a new liquor or wine store opens? Why do cops get called to more domestic disputes over weekends and holidays? It ain’t because of guns.
BS. I consume a LOT of alcohol, and am no problem for anyone. Once again, as USUAL!!, put the troublemakers in prison and never let them out. The problems arise from attempts to be nice to everyone while controlling their lives by some means other than the obvious, “if you fuck up I will kill you! Now, FLY, be free!”
“I consume a LOT of alcohol, and am no problem for anyone.”
So do the people of Newton, Mass. They understand that, yet they can’t comprehend that a gun store doesn’t equal more crime and death.
Damn it.
I feel sorry for Americans who don’t live in my state…Texas.
Absolutely.
Arkansas sucks, Missouri sucks, Oklahoma sucks and Kansas. New Mex and Tex is the place to be. Can’t brag it up enough.
BTW, the boarders still open, all sides, grab it while you can.
i love alton/ thayer.
and currentview.
Texas is America’s taint.
Most stuff comes in the ports in Texas, so if its the taint all your goods smell of it.
“Most stuff comes in the ports in Texas…..”
Hardly. Houston is #7 and there’s a big gap between #6 and Houston. Not knocking Texas – just the facts Ma’am.
Has Texas become a constitutional carry state, yet?
No – but, but, butt.
A few years back I was on an extended work assignment just outside Boston. On a free weekend I decided to go to a range, rent a pistol, and have some fun. Imagine my surprise when I was told that I needed a Massachusetts issued CCW permit to just shoot at the range. It makes me glad that I live in the free state of Missouri.
Sam Adams would be ashamed of what his state has become….
Way back in the 1980s or early 1990s, I was passing through Massachusetts, stopped in a department store, and decided to buy a BB gun.
The sporting goods department asked to see my gun permit (handgun permit, CCW permit, FOID card, FPID card, or something like that).
I said, “No, you don’t understand; I just want a BB gun, not a real gun.”
They said it didn’t matter; in Massachusetts, a BB gun was considered a firearm and required a gun permit.
It’s the exact same way here in New Jersey!
Newton MA is stuck up old white money. I grew up 10 miles north of Boston. We had at least 3 gun stores, worked in one at 10 doing sweeping and cleaning, bought my first rifle there. At the time a permit was lifetime, then the corrupt chief made ix expiring to get more renewal money. One of the safest towns growing up, no blood in the streets, no stabbings, settled our beef’s with fists.
Effing newton can piss off, besides real estate in that town is bonkers.
Explain to me the part where I’m supposed to care?
It sounds to me like they’ve done the prospective owner a favor. McD’s used to spend a mint scouting out prime locations for their *cough* stores *cough*. The people of this town have done the legwork for this guy and found a location he most certainly doesn’t want to put his business.
Open somewhere else where you won’t have problems and you’ll do a better business.
Besides, how long would it be before the ATF “watched someone they totally didn’t know” go straight from the pot shop to the gun store and then accused the FFL of selling to someone he should have known not to? Like… 20 minutes after he opens?
If that. And, that someone would be an ATFE agent himself.
Like it or not, Newton is STILL in America! You know, that place with the pesky bill of rights?
I grew up in Newton Centre, back when it was still part of America. I was a member of the Newton High School Rifle Club. We practiced at the West Newton National Guard armory range. My nextdoor neighbor was the Treasurer of B.U., and I used to shoot squirrels with him on his property. He was a delightful old gentleman, held several trap and skeet records, and very keen on firearms safety (we used .22 shot cartridges in smoothbore .22s). I got my first concealed carry permit from the Newton P.D.. Well, the place has obviously changed over the years, and I’m damned glad that I moved to AZ 26 years ago.
I’m curious as to why the article is blaming the mayor and city council for the actions of the residents. If the pussies don’t want a gun store, and they all feel that way about it, it’s their prerogative. Now, me being the vindictive shit that I am, I hope they all suffer a MASSIVE crime wave. But that’s certainly nothing to be proud of. But don’t cover for these people, to hell with ’em.
Don’t like the idea of a gun shop in your neighborhood? Don’t shop there.
Problem solved.
When a Bostonian farts, it’s so high pitched dogs come fro miles away. Will never forgive my parents for raising me in mASS.
“A local gun control activist was quoted in the Boston Globe saying she was worried that greater access to guns would lead to more deaths due to suicide, accidental shootings and homicides.”
This individual is worried about something which has no reality nor substantiation in FBI or DOJ figures. This is the prime reason for all the beliefs / un-true statements about weapon issues. People who want change attempt to influence others with FALSE statistics and false statements appealing to gullible people with sympathy and simplistic conversation ; all lies in order to gain support.
A buddy of mine who is a veteran and lives in Newton applied for an LTC and it was given to him with a one year restriction for only target shooting. He questioned the licensing officer who said all new LTC’s come with this restriction. Total bullshit and a bullshit town. In Mass you’re better off being a felon with an illegal firearm than a legal responsible gun owner. They break our balls more than the criminals. Can’t wait to get out of this shitty state.
Dude said:
“Or here’s a crazy idea. Talk to them without putting them down by calling them names.”
Calling them idiots and morons is being truthful and honest.
No one but a liberal insane person would agree that lying is the proper thing to do.
I call them as I see them, and most liberals that I know, even some from my own family, are such idiots and morons that it’s hard to describe.
For example, who in their right mind would vote for a certifiable 78 years dementia patient, who can barely walk, think, or speak lucidly, for the most powerful position in the world???
All those people definitely qualify as idiots and morons.
Bucephalus said: ”
Sam Adams would be ashamed of what his state has become….”
When I watched 10,000 troops invade Boston to find a weaponless teenager terrorist really shone the spotlight for me as to what Boston has turned into.
I watched videos of young women with babies in their arms being thrown out of their own homes by the cops, and other videos where people had to walk out of their homes with their hands up, while cops and soldiers had their own guns pointed right at them…
I saw pictures of soldiers in armored vehicle pointing 50cals right at windows where people were looking down.
And yet, after all this happened, most people there were fine with it.
Outside of a well oiled criminal machine, most Bostonians are craven cowards and buffoons.
The same as ALL liberal demoncrat cities.
City hall officials are now trying to introduce a slate of zoning changes.
That would seem to be an ex post facto ruling, prohibited by the Constitution.