How to Become a Felon in Five Months

If this article doesn't exemplify how completely fucked up Massachusetts' firearms laws are, nothing will.

Man shoots would-be robber; is arrested on gun charges

A would-be robber became a victim of his own crime last week after he was shot in the stomach by a Brighton man he was trying to rob, police said.

Police arrested Sean E. Roisten, 29, of 833 Jette Court, and charged him with unlawful possession of a firearm and assault and battery with a deadly weapon on a robber who was holding Roisten's wife at gunpoint.

Defending his family against an armed intruder? What was this guy thinking? In the "progressive" enclave of Boston, Massachusetts, this is called felony assault. I am seriously close to being unable to type anything at this moment, I am so pissed off.

But, wait, it's gets worse.

Roisten told police he was upstairs in his apartment with his wife and 5-year-old daughter waiting for his friend to return from the store with food when he heard a someone at the front door. Roisten called out, but was met with silence, and his wife went downstairs to see who was at the door, police said. When Roisten's wife opened the door, she was greeted by two men in ski masks and one man forced her back up the stairs at gunpoint, police said.

"He's got a gun!" Roisten told police he heard his wife scream as she was pushed up the stairs. Roisten told police he ran up to the third floor, retrieved his silver Smith and Wesson .40 caliber handgun and took cover behind a kitchen wall. When Roisten peeked around the hallway corner, he saw the robber emerge from the stairs holding his wife in a choke hold and pointing a black handgun at her head, police said.

[snip]

Police found that Roisten's license to carry a gun expired last August and arrested him. Police took custody of Roisten's gun and the black Colt .45 handgun that Roisten claimed he took from the suspect.

Yes, you read that right - his government-issued permission slip had expired. Five months ago, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts declared that he was competent and trustworthy enough to own a firearm for the purpose of defending his family from violent criminals.

But since he neglected to cough up the $100 required by the state to renew that right privilege, he's now considered a dangerous criminal facing felony charges.

No word on whether the masked gunman's firearms license had expired. [\sarcasm]

Thanks to Massachusetts' "common-sense" gun control laws, this individual is now looking at the very real possibility of having contact with his daughter only when she comes to visit him in prison, solely because he took whatever action was necessary to defend his family and to ensure that a trip to the cemetery wouldn't be his daughter's only contact with her mother.

If anyone wants to discuss this further, I'll be at the range. See you there.