It’s not easy to own a gun in Massachusetts, at least not legally. If you don’t mind breaking the law, though, it’s absurdly simple: steal a gun, buy a gun on the black market, have someone else buy a gun for you, or build your own, to name a few options.
Authorities still haven’t said how 46-year-old Tyler Brown got ahold of the gun he used to randomly fire at motorists on Cambridge’s busy Memorial Drive on Monday afternoon, but he did in clear violation of Massachusetts gun laws… and was aided by one of the state’s soft-on-crime judges.
Five years ago, Brown copped a plea deal after he engaged in a similar random shooting spree, firing more than a dozen rounds at responding officers. Brown was already on probation for a 2014 assault and batter with a dangerous weapon charge, and ended up pleading guilty to a number of charges for the 2020 shooting; including armed assault with intent to murder.
Despite his violent past and present, a judge sentenced Brown to just five-to-six years in prison. That’s about half the time prosecutors were asking for.
One of the officers involved in that 2020 attack wrote in a victim impact statement saying: “I am a firm believer that when Mr. Tyler Brown gets out, he will hurt, or worse, kill someone,” the officer said. “Probation apparently means nothing to Mr. Tyler Brown, nor does the value of life.”
Brown was still on probation when he opened fire at motorists on Monday, leading drivers to ditch their vehicles as they ran to find cover.
Gunman Tyler Brown allegedly fired 50 to 60 rounds indiscriminately from an assault-style rifle as he erratically walked down Memorial Drive in Cambridge around 1:20 p.m., Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said during a press conference.
At 1:06 p.m., Cambridge police received a 911 call from Boston police, who said an individual acting erratically and in possession of a rifle was in Cambridge, Ryan said.
Massachusetts State Police and Cambridge police arrived as Brown was actively firing down the road at stopped cars, authorities said.
According to Ryan, a Massachusetts State Police trooper was the first law enforcement officer to respond, and he was aided by an armed citizen; a yet-to-be-identified Marine who the D.A. says was licensed to carry a gun. The pair engaged Brown, who had already shot two people by that point, and were able to stop his attack with multiple shots of their own.
That’s right. None of the state’s draconian gun laws prevented this crime, but an armed citizen was able to stop it thanks to the fact that they were exercising their right to carry.
This should be a wakeup call to Massachusetts residents, if not the Democrat lawmakers who have complete control over the state legislature. Voters were promised that the state’s recent overhaul of its gun laws (which include brand new restrictions on “assault weapons,” new training mandates for would-be gun owners, and a host of restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms) would prevent incidents like this from ever taking place. Instead, we saw just how impotent those laws are when it comes to violent offenders… and the importance of being able to shoot back when a murderous madman is intent on gunning down innocent victims.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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