-State Senator Cheryl Jacques (promoting her gun ban on "assault weapons")

"I'm not sure what she is talking about. I have been actively engaged in the business of statistics and training for the agency for over a quarter century and no such results have ever been shown.

-BATF AGENT: (responding to above assertation at Criminal Justice Committee hearing May 14, 1997)

"I feel strongly that the more guns we can get out of people's hands, the less likely we are to have some of these tragedies we have all been recoiling from...These are not things our society needs."

-State Representative Ellen Story (Daily Hampshire Gazette, June 11, 1998)

"I will continue to oppose any legislation which will threaten the rights of sportsmen and legitimate gun owners. I believe that enforcing the laws that are already on the books with regard to gun control will do more to help stop criminal use of firearms."

-State Senator Robert Durand (Letter, September 15, 1997)

"This bill is a showpiece for the anti-gun contigent of the Commonwealth. They know that this bill will have no impact on crime or removing illegally possessed guns from our streets. If passed, law abiding gun owners will feel the full brunt of this ban."

"We as legislators, have a duty to act forthrightly with the citizens of the Commonwealth by addressing the source of a problem and working to solve it. The General Court should be passing measures that aid in reducing crime, instead of restricting the rights of the citizens we were sent to represent."

-State Senator Michael R. Knapik (Letter, September 8, 1998)

"How we enforce our laws, I think, has a lot more to do with controlling crime."

-State Representative Nancy Flavin (Daily Hampshire Gazette, June 11, 1998)

"This is a good bill. This is a good compromise between those who would like to eliminate all guns from the face of the earth and those who don't want to have their right to bear arms infringed."

-State Representative Paul Caron (speaking on WHYN radio Dan York show, June 25, 1998)

"I had not realized that this was such a watershed issue with people."

"I feel so strongly about this...To me, it's just common sense that we should have the fewest number of guns available in society as possible."

-State Representative Ellen Story (Daily Hampshire Gazette,June 25, 1998)

"My approach to opposing this bill in large measure is on matters of civil liberty." "I don't think you should brand people as criminals if they haven't done anything wrong."

-State Representative Stephen Kulik (Daily Hampshire Gazette June 25, 1998)

"Those people (law-abiding gun owners) legitimately felt they were being attacked by this, that they were literally being singled out and treated as criminals and that's a very legitimate viewpoint."

-State Representative Nancy Flavin (Daily Hampshire Gazette, June 25, 1998)

"The true sportsmen I represent who shoot deer and rabbit don't need high powered semiautomatic guns."

-State Representative Christopher Hodgkins (Daily Hampshire Gazette June 24, 1998)

"It's an emotional issue." It will do nothing to prevent crime. It's simply a feel good piece of legislation."

-State Representative David Peters (Daily Hampshire Gazette June 24, 1998)

"This bill does nothing to take the guns away from criminals."

-State Representative David Peters (Worcester Telegran and Gazette June 24, 1998)

"You really haven't included people who are knowledgeable in the sport of shooting." "We have put too much burden on the law-abiding citizens and gun owners of the Commonwealth."

-State Representative Ronald W. Gauch (Worcester Telegram and Gazette June 24, 1998)

"I, too, believe that legislation banning firearms would be ineffective in limiting violent crimes and should not be passed by the legislature. For this reason, I continue to urge my colleagues to support my opposition to these bills and protect the rights of law abiding gun owners."

-State Senator Stephen M. Brewer, letter, June 29, 1998

"In most developed societies, health care is a right and gun ownership is a privilege. We in the United States have somehow got those priorities reversed."

-State Senate President Thomas Birmingham (Boston AP, July 17, 1998)

"Much of what is said in support of this bill will not come to pass." "What will come to pass is significant bureaucracy, overregulation, red tape, confusion, and the amount of crime we have now will at least continue."

-State Senator Richard Moore (Boston AP,July 17, 1998)

"This legislation will give Massachusetts the toughest gun control law in the country."

-State Senator Cheryl Jacques (Boston AP, July 21, 1998)

"The majority of this legislation is more onerous on law-abiding citizens of the Commonwealth than on its criminals." (also called the bill a "bag job" and said those who wrote it know nothing about guns)

-State Representative Ronald W. Gauch (Boston AP, July 21,1998)