Police Chief: Foxborough Has Seen ‘Tremendous Increase’ in Gun License Applications Since 2010

Editor’s note: This is Part II of an ongoing series that examines the issue of gun violence in Massachusetts and the United States and how it relates to Representative David Linsky’s proposed bill to further regulate firearm licensing, sale and possession.

Foxborough, as well as Massachusetts, has seen a “rapid escalation” in gun licenses and applications since 2010, according to Foxborough Police Chief Edward O’Leary.

The correlation? Mass shootings.

Since 2010, there have been eight mass shootings in the United States, including most recently, .

“I think everybody sees how scared, nervous and anxious people are as a result of several shootings that have occurred across the country,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said since 2010, Foxborough has seen a “tremendous increase in the number of individuals” applying for firearm licenses.

“As an example, back in 2010 we only processed 148 licenses to carry and FID cards,” O’Leary said. “It jumped a little bit up to 178 in 2011 and in 2012 we had 249 processed applications.”

O’Leary said over 100 of those license requests in 2012 were from new applicants.

“[That] is a significant increase, many of those since September,” O’Leary said.

To date in 2013, O’Leary said Foxborough has received 80 gun license applications and that he’s not alone in the high demand.

“Across the Commonwealth, almost every community is seeing a rapid escalation in the number of individuals that are coming forward to obtain firearm licenses, which is the law,” O’Leary said. “People can come in, apply for a license, be dealt with fairly and have them processed.”

State Representative Jay Barrows (R-Mansfield) concurred that gun licenses are up across the state.

“If anybody has taken a stroll through my favorite sporting goods store, Bass Pro Shops here in Foxborough, you will find not a single handgun,” Barrows said. “Maybe eight or 10 Wild West-type revolvers. They don’t exist. Smith & Weston is building up to 325 handguns a day and they’ve never seen orders higher.”

And while the right to bear arms is the law, O’Leary says that should not stop lawmakers from reviewing firearm regulations “and more importantly [reviewing] what changes can be made to try and make our communities safer.”

“Firearm laws are complex,” O’Leary said. “We can all read a law and make our own interpretation of what it says and what it means. But then we have to look at what court cases say about the law’ application to provide us guidance.”

O’Leary believes discussions like the one on gun violence sponsored by the Foxborough Democratic Town Committee on Monday night provides legislators with and law enforcement officials with civil input that hopefully leads to “decisions that are beneficial to all people.”

“I am very fortunate that [Foxborough] belongs to the Mass. Chiefs Association,” O’Leary said. They have sub-committees that work on drafting better sets of regulations and laws that benefit all of our citizenry to make everyone safer.”

O’Leary said those groups will be tasked with reviewing State Representative David Linsky’s (D-Natick) proposal, which became a focal point of Monday night’s discussion at the McGinty Room of the Foxborough Public Safety Building.

To read more about Linsky’s proposal, which calls for “further regulation of the licensing, sale and possession of firearms and increasing the tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition in an act to reduce gun violence and to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth,” click here.

O’Leary, through his experience as a licenser of firearm permits, said one of his greatest concerns with the current licensing process is there is no way to “obtain information about a person’s various mental illnesses that could affect their behaviors, whether they are medicated or not.”

“It concerns me greatly,” O’Leary said.

One of Linsky’s provisions in his bill, H 3253, calls for “all applicants for gun licenses and FID cards to sign a waiver of mental health records for review to be destroyed after decision.”

O’Leary believes these mental health records would allow police chiefs throughout the Commonwealth to have better “conversations with potential gun licensers.”

Since a series of changes to firearm laws took effect in 1998, O’Leary said he has been able to meet the people of Foxborough applying for gun licenses, which has helped improve the process locally.

“Those people live day-to-day in our community,” O’Leary said. “I can see the real Foxborough individuals in our town and have a conversation about what things I think are critical to keep people safe in our community and to also make an assessment about the individual that is in front of me. Like in most communities, most people coming in for firearm licenses have valid reasons because they are concerned and we want to make sure they have the information to own and use firearms legally within our community.”

O’Leary said he believes Foxborough’s gun licensing process is no different than other communities around the state and recognizes residents applying for firearm licenses are “law-abiding citizens.”

“We don’t have somebody coming in that would give me pause because of previous behaviors,” said O’Leary.

But that doesn’t mean the police chief doesn’t have concerns when it comes to gun licensing.

“The Boston Globe recently did an article about shootings and the shocking part of the article wasn’t the number of murders that occurred [in a year] but more importantly, over 19,000 suicides had occurred,” said O’Leary.

That is a number Linsky hopes to reduce through the mental health provision of his bill. O’Leary believes it is something that needs to be looked at closely.

“I believe the ability to have a person suffering from some type of mental disability to possess a firearm facilitates the immediate action without further thought,” O’Leary said. “I think it is something we really have to look at so people with licenses do have the capacity to control themselves and use of that weapon.”

Furthermore, O’Leary stressed the importance of requiring gun owners to beconfident and comfortable with their weapons before they receive an all-access license in Foxborough.

“I know sometimes people are unhappy because very often for the novice shooter I don’t give them an all-access license right out of the box because I have some concerns if people don’t have experience in training with firearms,” O’Leary said. “I will very often put for a new shooter a hunting and target restriction so they can learn certain firearms skills, take additional training courses and have an ability to develop a confidence.”

A confidence that is paramount to the safety of the individual gun owner and community at large.

“I think the worst thing we can have in our communities is if the person doesn’t have confidence and has a firearm, they are not going to be confident in a critical situation [with that firearm],” O’Leary said.

O’Leary participated in Monday’s gun violence discussion to learn more about the proposals of Linsky and State Representative Paul Heroux (D-Attleboro) so he could assess them with the understanding that change to Massachusetts firearm regulations appears likely.

“As a result of some incidents that have happened across the country we have got to anticipate there are going to be changes [to firearm regulations],” said O’Leary. “We might not agree with all of them but we have to come to a consensus, both as a Commonwealth and a community that sometimes changes are needed.”

Related Content

• To read Part I of this series, “Area Legislators, Gun Owners Debate Bill Calling for More Firearm Regulations,” click here. 

• To read more on Linsky’s bill, “An Act to Reduce Gun Violence and to Protect the Citizens of the Commonwealth,” click here.