Jim Wallace, director of the Gun Owners Action League, joined “Herald Drive” to talk about Attorney General Maura Healey’s ?expanded ban on military-looking rifles:

Q: Can you educate our listeners on Maura Healey’s new gun grab, a new rule she’s put into place?

A: Back in 1994, the federal government ?adopted a so-called assault weapons ban which really had nothing to do with what firearms owners know as assault weapons.

It was just about semi-automatic guns that had certain features to them. … If you had a semi-automatic gun that could take a detachable magazine and had two of those features, it was considered an assault weapon.

It was always kind of bizarre to us who came up with this so-called “standard” and at that time, the term “assault weapon” for civilian firearms was brand-new. Nobody ever used it in the firearms industry before.

It was kind of invented to scare the general public about a certain type of firearm. … In 1998, the state of Massachusetts adopted those laws into Massachusetts law.

In 2004, when the federal laws were going to sunset, the state permanently adopted the federal definitions to the Massachusetts law. Then, in 2014, when there was another big gun bill that actually turned out to be pretty good for us, the Legislature looked at the so-called Massachusetts assault weapons law, said, “Nope, we don’t need to make any changes here.”

So, for 22 years now, first on the federal level and then on the state level, everybody understands the rules. … Suddenly, on July 20, without warning, the attorney general holds a press conference and unilaterally changes the rules overnight and redefines what an ?assault weapon is and instantly makes hundreds of thousands of people felons in waiting — as we’re calling it now — because a violation of the law that she just reinterpreted is no joke. The first offense is 10 years in prison and then it gets worse from there.

Q: With such potential high penalties, it seems unfair. … Were you disappointed that Charlie Baker supported (the attorney general’s) new ban?

A: … I was very disappointed, but in the last 30 years, every time gun owners in Massachusetts have faced something like this, there’s been a Republican in the corner office …

Q: Do you believe that Hillary Clinton wants to repeal the Second Amendment?

A: … It’s not that they would repeal it, it’s that they would chip away at it to the point where no one could exercise it. They would slowly make us all criminals …