5 days ago
‘Everybody on our street owns a weapon': A whole swath of Mass. has a different relationship to guns than Boston
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'Everybody on our street owns a weapon,' said Dave Drosehn, a 65-year-old retired machine tender and Peru resident.
The politics around firearms and gun control remain bitterly divisive, both nationally and locally, but even in
blue Massachusetts, which
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The Peru Free Library sits along Route 143 in the center of Peru, Mass., a rural Berkshire County town of about 850 residents. The small brick building houses a library that still boasts a robust DVD collection and serves a community that has the highest per capita rate of licenses-to-carry firearms in Massachusetts, according to a Globe analysis.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Places where rural culture and gun culture are inextricably linked. Places, residents say, that people in Boston just don't understand.
To find them, all you have to do is head west.
Inside Ozzie's Steak and Eggs, a greasy spoon in Hinsdale, a town over from Peru, Drosehn was about to tuck into a turkey wrap on a recent day. He has hunted all his life, he said. There is a camaraderie in the sport, particularly hunting deer.
Like many in rural Berkshire County, guns are a part of his life and he has opinions about firearms: He looks down on hunters that use big automatic weapons — 'Those guns are for law enforcement,' he said — and he's not a big fan of handguns, either.
He owns four guns: a 12-gauge, a .22 rifle, and two muzzleloaders.
Indeed, hunting is the oft-cited explanation for the gun ownership rate in this part of the state, and perhaps the most obvious.
Peru has 286 licenses to carry, or LTCs, according to state data, meaning about a third of its residents have that permit.
Compare that with Boston, where there are under 16,000 LTCs, meaning about 2 percent of its residents have such a permit. It has the third-lowest rate in Massachusetts, after Amherst and Somerville.
Towns like Peru represent something of a hunter's paradise.
There is plenty of wildlife and large swaths of untamed forest crowd the backroads. There are sun-dappled valleys, green-canopied mountains, and rivers that cut through nature's tableau.
Peru Police Chief Bruce Cullett pushed back on the notion of a gun culture locally, saying it would be more accurate to say that rural culture
here has a firearms component. Simply having a license to carry, he said, does not necessarily make someone a gun person or a firearms enthusiast, or even indicate that the person actively owns a gun.
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'The majority of LTC holders in Peru view firearms as practical tools used for hunting, protecting their family/pets/livestock, and for recreation … the same way they have been used for generations," he said.
The environs around here teem with game.
'This is a hunting culture,' Bob Lamb, 71, of Cheshire, said of the area. 'Lots of great places to hunt.'
The stock of the gun he had been working on, was 'ratty' when he received it, he said. That part is currently wedged into a vice attached to his workbench, which has a vast array of tools. Nearby, rifles in a row stand up against a table, atop which a collection of handguns sit. Elsewhere in the shop were more rifles — there were dozens of firearms here — as well as machinery to make gun parts.
Gunsmith Bob Lamb, 71, worked on refurbishing a Stevens visible .22 rifle dating back to 1928 in his shop at B&W Firearms in Cheshire.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Dozens of rifles rested inside B&W Firearms. Lamb receives gun refurbishing jobs from around the country, working on firearms that range from decades old to more than a century old in his garage-based shop.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Guns, he said, 'are very safe.' It's the hands that handle the weapons that bring with them questions of morality and criminality.
One town over from Cheshire, in Dalton, Jim Smith, 68, agreed with that sentiment.
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'I wouldn't fear guns, I would fear people who get guns illegally, that's who I would fear,' said Smith, who grew up hunting in Savoy, where his family homestead is located. 'Regular gun ownership, by law-abiding citizens, they have nothing to fear at all.'
Like any community, none of these rural towns are political monoliths, and to dismiss this corner of the state as MAGA country would be inaccurate.
Despite high rates of gun ownership and a prevalent hunting culture, Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president,
Dotted throughout the Berkshire hill towns are the occasional political signs. Some express support for Trump, others the opposite. Some extol the need to protect the Second Amendment. Some encourage people to contact their state representative to voice their opposition to
Among some gun owners out here, there is an underlying distrust of Beacon Hill. The state Legislature, some said, does not understand their way of life. The real power brokers tend not to be from places like Peru, and too many of those in Boston-centric circles of state power think Massachusetts 'ends at Worcester,' said Lamb, the gunsmith.
'They don't know what goes on out here,' he said. 'They just don't get it.'
Out this way, Governor Maura Healey is the butt of much criticism from gun owners. Healey, said Wally Fritz, a 74-year-old from Worthington, is 'probably the worst thing for us.'
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'If she had her way, there'd be no guns,' he said.
A Healey spokesperson said in a statement the governor supports the Second Amendment.
'She also supports the strong gun laws that have made Massachusetts the safest state in the nation, including banning ghost guns, strengthening ERPO to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others, and investing in violence prevention programs,' said Karissa Hand, the spokesperson.
Out here, reported instances of violent crime are almost unheard of. For instance, Savoy's police chief, Jordan Koch, said there has not been a shooting or homicide in town during the past 20 years.
Wally Fritz, 74, sat in the basement of his Worthington home surrounded by hunting trophies including mounted deer heads and multiple turkey beards hanging from the wall.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Deer antler racks filled recycling containers in the basement of Fritz's Worthington home.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff
In Worthington, Fritz said he never locks the door to his home, where, in the basement, there are trophies from a lifetime of hunting. Seven deer heads are mounted on one wall. Multiple turkey beards hang from one beam, a few bear pelts from another. A Trump hat also hangs among camouflaged hunting gear. In two recycling containers on the floor are piled an untold number of antler racks. Fritz estimates he owns about 20 guns.
'If I can't hunt and have my guns, buddy,' he said, his voice trailing off. He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts, and then said he wouldn't give up his firearms without a struggle.
Fritz spoke about what his hometown used to be like, lamenting that some newer residents don't wave when they see you out and about.
'Everyone hunted, everyone had a gun, and everyone knew there was a gun,' he said. 'I think that's one of the reasons we had no crime. If you know there's a gun in there, you ain't going in there.'
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In Savoy, Wayne Haskins, 66, has maybe a half-dozen guns. Several are hand-me-downs from his father.
'The people that have guns, let them have them,' he said. 'If they're not doing
anything wrong with them, let them have them.'
The last time he shot a gun was about 10 years ago to kill a raccoon that had broken into his chicken coop and was slaughtering his birds. Many people use guns to protect their animals, he said.
He knows other gun owners are driven by a fear of the unknown. In recent years, his wife bought a pistol for protection: 'Just in case,' he said.
But, most of the time, he said, 'The guns just sit there and collect dust.'
Danny McDonald can be reached at
