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
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