Mass. AG Maura Healey says she's ruled out a run for higher office

BOSTON — Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey says she's ruling out a run for higher office.

She faced backlash recently when she announced a crackdown on gun laws in the state and the move sparked questions about her political future.

FOX25's political reporter Sharman Sacchetti spoke with Attorney General Maura Healey in her first sit down interview since making a controversial announcement cracking down on sales of 'copycat assault rifles.'

"This is a matter of public safety. This is a matter of my responsibility. My authority as attorney general," Healey said of the crackdown. "We have seen too many mass shootings. Last year alone, Sharman, [there were] more mass shootings than calendar days."

Healey told FOX25 despite a ban on so-called assault rifles, Massachusetts gun dealers sold 10,000 of what she calls copycat assault rifles last year. They're weapons with slight alterations.

"The good news is police have been very supportive of our enforcement initiative," Healey said.

So she issued a notice to gun dealers.

"This is a matter of enforcing existing law," she said.

The move infuriated gun rights advocates, one of whom has threatened to sue. Others have accused her of working to prop up her political future.

"[That] Couldn't be further from the truth," she said. "I'm trying to do my job."

But some may argue that's the job of the legislature. FOX25 asked Healey why she just didn't go through lawmakers.

"There was no need," she said. "This is the existing law."

Gun dealers sold more than 2,000 rifles in the days after her announcement. But she says now, those sales have dropped off.

Healey says she's not looking to arrest any law-abiding gun owners who bought a copycat before her announcement. And she says she believes she is on firm legal ground.

So what about those accusations it's a political ploy? FOX25's Sharman Sachetti asks Healey about her political future and she said she has "absolutely" ruled out a run for a higher office.

But when asked if she would run for re-election, she said, "I love what I'm doing. I'm hoping to do it to the best of my ability every day."

Cox Media Group