Jim Mathes is a 58-year-old deer hunter who owns three guns and proudly displays his mounted trophy heads. He also stars in a recently posted YouTube video in which he sounds off on Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to limit gun purchases.
“Restrict[ing] gun purchases to one gun a month seems very reasonable to me,” Mathes says in the video.
It’s relatively rare to hear of Second Amendment supporters like Mathes getting behind plans to control weapons.
But some gun owners, along with Jamaica Plain-based group Citizens for Safety, said the video represents an opinion in the state and country that is often drowned out by the noise of the extreme ends of the debate over gun ownership.
“The gun violence issue has been polarized by extremes on both sides and it really doesn’t represent where most in Massachusetts stand on the issue, which is in favor of the Second Amendment but also for safe streets,” said Nancy Robinson, the group’s executive director.
Mathes said his reason for supporting the bill is that it would help prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands.
“A year from now I could have 12 new guns fully legally,” he said. “It’s not an onerous restriction on me, particularly in the context of the gun violence taking place in our cities.”
