Police chiefs are joining with gun safety activists to press lawmakers to give them discretion over issuing firearms identification cards needed to buy rifles or shotguns.

 

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and Oak Bluffs Police Chief Erik Blake _ president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association _ are planning to rally at the Statehouse Tuesday morning.

 

The police chiefs and activists including John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, are criticizing the Massachusetts Senate for stripping the FID provision out of the House version of the bill.

 

Gun rights activists _ including the National Rifle Association and Massachusetts Gun Owners Action League _ praised the Senate action.

 

It's up to a six-member House and Senate conference committee to hammer out a single, compromise bill.