To the editor:
We have all been shocked at the horror of gun violence in America, shocked again at the refusal of Congress to enact responsible common sense gun safety regulations, and shocked a third time at the immoral resistance of the NRA leadership and the gun manufacturer’s lobby to any suggestion of more appropriate gun safety regulation even in the face of the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Warrant article 36 (see pg. 69 in the warrant) at the March 19 Town Meeting, which seeks support for “A Petition to the U S. Congress to Adopt a Uniform National Gun Safety Law Applying Equally to All States,” encourages our federal elected officials to pursue uniform national regulations to finally establish a more humane standard for gun safety applying equally to all states.
There is currently very little uniformity to state-by-state gun safety laws. Some states like Massachusetts have strong laws while many others seem to have no laws at all. For instance, of the 889 guns used in crimes in Massachusetts in 2014, 486 were brought here from other states with weak gun laws including 231 from New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Arizona and Nevada with their weak or nonexistent gun safety laws are the source of many crime guns used in California, which is struggling to strengthen its gun safety laws. Traffickers also buy guns by the dozens in Arizona and smuggle them to Mexico. Many crime guns used in Chicago are purchased a short drive away in Indiana.
The number of privately owned firearms and the number of fatalities and injuries in the U.S. far exceeds that of any other industrialized country in the world. There are more guns than people in the U.S. In 2013, there were over 33,000 firearm deaths in the U.S., of which a little over 11,000 were homicides and over 21,000 were suicides.
While many states have regulations requiring background checks for sales at gun shows, swap meets, pawn shops, on the internet, and private sales, regulatory agencies don’t have the manpower to enforce existing regulations. So while the NRA and gun lobby say that existing laws should be enforced before any new regulation, they lobby Congress to cut funding. While public health agencies like the CDC have tried to conduct research into the aspects of gun violence like other public health epidemics, the NRA and gun lobby likewise coerce Congress to eliminate funding.
The pervasive argument against any regulation is that they would violate provisions of the Second Amendment. However, the Supreme Court in their District of Columbia v. Heller decision found that possession of a handgun in the home by “law-abiding and responsible citizens” for self-defense was constitutional. However, aspects of that same decision, rarely quoted by the NRA, indicated that right was “not unlimited” and the examples of valid regulations listed in the decision were “not exhaustive.”
After Sandy Hook, the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York passed strengthened gun safety regulations. Last October, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals found the Connecticut and New York laws were, in fact constitutional. Massachusetts law has not been challenged. Those laws provide a model for a uniform national gun safety law, all citizens need now is to exhibit the motivation, moral conviction and assertiveness. The approval of warrant article 36 at Town Meeting will convey to our federal officials the resolve of our citizens to achieve a new era of responsible gun safety. Please attend the Town Meeting and vote to approve this petition.
Sincerely,
Gary Davis
20R Indian Camp Lane
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.
We already have laws on the books, my previous post states they are NOT prosecuting those laws. So what would adding more laws do?
And as for this article there are flaws in it. If someone was to buy a gun over the internet and have it shipped to another State that would need to done through a Federal firearms dealer. Who would do a background check. So there is already a law on the books for internet sales.
And you think closing the phantom ” gun show loophole” will prevent terrorists from getting guns. Yet you fail to mention the San Bernadino terrorist got his weapons by someone who DID have a background check then illegally completed a straw purchase. So your article would not prevent this.
And I love how you claim self defense use have been exxagerated by 98% when all you hear on the news are victim shootings, you dont hear about self defense use because the user did not have to fire in most cases PREVENTING injury.
Massachusetts updated law has not been challenged because gun owners and groups like The Gun Owners Action League got involved and had a voice in the legislation.
And as for bill 4376, some of your listed similarities were already laws prior to 2014. Like limited # of bullets in a magazine. Yet you do NOT even mention in your article the fact that MA residents can STILL own magazines with MORE than 10 bullet capacity if they were manufactured before 1994.
How bad does it have to get before we have laws on the books to enable us to prosecute those who flagrantly break laws meant to protect innocent people, especially our children and young adults until the people ultimately decide to make the resources available to make that happen? Most other developed nations of the world are not as stupid as we are about letting gun lobbies like the NRA run their countries.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/11/justice-department-rarely-prosecutes-straw-buyers-/
“Mr. Jones acknowledged in questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, that of 48,321 cases involving straw buyers, the Justice Department prosecuted only 44 of them — saying that “hard decisions” to prosecute were made based on “limited resources.” He also acknowledged that as the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, he never prosecuted anyone accused of being a straw buyer.”
So there are limited resources in prosecuting current laws and we want to add more? This is why people are not for more laws. The current ones on the book can not be enforced so adding more would not solve anything.
a Chicago Sun-Times article found felons who illegally possess a gun in Chicago typically receive sentences on the low end of state sentencing guidelines. The group also said federal weapons convictions have declined nearly 35% in the past 10 years.