Cold Dead Hands ping......what next?
Having the requirement that a member of a group whose stated policies adamantly demand the disarmament of private citizens be a member of any commission finding fact or guilt is the equivalent of requiring that an equivalent number of members of any jury trying blacks be a white supremacist with a record of stating that all negroes are guilty and should be imprisioned, or a self professed anti-semitics on a jury trying a Jewish person with a similarly outspoken hatred for Jews.
Surely the requirement that one member be required to be a member of a group which has publicly and officially stated such bias and advocated policies hostile to private firearm ownership, (and those owners themselves en masse), flies in the face of any concept of judicial fairness or equal rprotection under the law.
The hostility toward gun owners and private firearms ownership conveyed by this group is a matter of record.
The requirement of maintaining such prejudice on the panel alone indicates that the Commonwealth has a predisposition toward finding any accused person guilty.
In addition, holding the owner liable for the criminal acts of another, prior to any such act having been committed, and requiring the owner to post bond against the commission of such acts should they occur, should be an unlawful taking in and of itself.
If this tactic is successful, who is next?
Will Bar owners have to carry additional liability in case someone breaks into their stockroom, steals liquor, gets drunk and drives, plowing into a family and killing them?
Will pharmacists and corner drug stores have to carry insurance against someone making illicit drugs from over-the-counter remedies and selling those drugs to a third pary who ODs?
The attempted extension of the chain of liability to those who commit no criminal act is part of the real danger here as well. While there will be insurance companies and brokers who will, for obvious reasons, not oppose this legislation, here is a chance for those in Mass. to find out who their friends are in the insurance business, and take the opportunity to patronize those businesses who speak out adamantly against this proposed legislation as well as deprive those who will not of their business.