When John Gaskey decided to run for representative of the 2nd Plymouth District, he did so with an eye toward the legislature’s recent decisions.

“I’ve been very upset with a lot of the legislation that has come out in the last cycle,” said Gaskey. “The more I look at things, the more disturbed I feel about things, and [about] the lack of presence that our representatives have on Beacon Hill.

Gaskey said he’s “disgusted” with the latest gun-control bill that has come out of the legislature, saying it’s “really disturbing that they are infringing on our civil rights like this.”

“I consider myself a 2A absolutist, [and] a firm believer in civil rights, the constitutional civil rights that were guaranteed to us through the federal constitution,” said Gaskey. He also said he’s “staunchly pro-life,” and believes sincerely in the right to life.

According to Gaskey, immigration is the number one issue he’s heard about from people on the campaign trail.

He said he opposes the state’s budget decisions around providing shelter to migrants, and how the state has provided for the “illegals in the shelter system ahead of veterans and our own citizens.”

Gaskey said he has first-hand experience with the issues involved in migration. He grew up in El Paso, Texas, and is a 23-year veteran of the Coast Guard where he worked with mass migrations from Cuba and Haiti.

He saw “the horrors that these people were being subjected to to get here,” he said, with people having their money and belongings stolen on the journey. He said he has a “personal vision” of how the government bodies’ immigration policy hurts “the people they’re allowing in.”

Since retiring from the Coast Guard, Gaskey has worked in the medical device field, and has gotten to see the issues with how hospitals have functioned. Changes to the healthcare system that have happened over time, especially during the Covid pandemic, “devastated a lot of things,” and caused a lot of corruption within the medical system, he said.

Besides immigration, Gaskey said the “transgender stuff” is another issue he’s heard about from constituents. He said he wants to “do my best to get the state and the legislature to step back from the transgender, progressive direction that they’re going.”