Local gun dealers say they are hit hard by assault weapons crackdown


By Brad Avery

Posted Jul. 21, 2016 at 12:52 PM
Updated at 8:17 AM

NATICK - When Greg Malany walked in to work Wednesday, he had no idea the rude awakening that awaited him behind the door of his small Summer Street gun shop.
Malany, owner of GFA ArmsTec, is a licensed firearms dealer who has been in business in Natick for more than a decade. But on Wednesday he was racing to meet demand when he was flooded with customers after Attorney General Maura Healey announced a crackdown on certain assault weapons.

"There was no warning," Malany said. "It came completely out of left field. Just look at the stampede we had."

Malany said he found out about the ban around the same time his customers did and he was almost immediately swarmed as dozens of people lined up outside the shop to make final purchases before the crackdown went into effect at midnight. Some people were in line for up to five hours, he said.

"We didn't get any kind of notice," he said. "It was decided unbeknownst to anybody. ... As a result, everybody putting off their purchases or who wanted to have one of these firearms had to buy them while they still could. Unfortunately what seems to be lacking in the Attorney General's Office is either common sense or respect for gun dealers and owners."

"It's pretty scary that someone can come in and unilaterally change the rules overnight," Wallace told State House News Service. "The firearm retailers, under the enforcement of the Executive Office of Public Safety, have been operating under a set of rules for 18 years, so to come in and unilaterally say 'We don't agree with this, this is what we say' - of course that's a change. How can that not be a change?"

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