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Bay State sanity (Brian McGrory column)

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Excellent column – reality-based.

Bay State sanity

By Brian McGrory

Globe Columnist / January 12, 2011

Not often enough does anyone say this around these parts, but thank God for Massachusetts. Thank God for our elected leaders. Thank God they have the will and the wisdom to stand up to the National Rifle Association and impose some sane restrictions on gun ownership in this state.

Anyone need look only at the profoundly disturbing photograph of Jared Loughner on the front page of every major newspaper in America yesterday, with those thin lips curled into a demonic smile, to know that no way, no how should that man ever hold the business end of any kind of gun.

In Massachusetts, he wouldn’t have, not legally. In Massachusetts, he wouldn’t have been able to buy the high-capacity magazine that allowed him to fire 33 bullets from his Glock 19 in one swoop, because it is illegal, unlike in Arizona.

In Massachusetts, he wouldn’t have been able to walk into a store, flash an ID, and buy a gun, as he did in Arizona, no permit required.

The rest at: http://www.boston.com/news/loc…

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Comments

  1. but this statement

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    p>

    Anyone need look only at the profoundly disturbing photograph of Jared Loughner on the front page of every major newspaper in America yesterday, with those thin lips curled into a demonic smile, to know that no way, no how should that man ever hold the business end of any kind of gun.

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    p>deserves ridicule.  Felony record?  Mental instability?  On the business end of a restraining order?  Dishonorable discharge or other military problem?  Suicidal tendencies?  There are lots of good reasons to prohibit an individual from owning a gun, but looking like a creep is decidedly not one of them.

    • As merely a practical matter, can’t the guy behind the gun counter refuse the sale because a person looks like they are batshit crazy?

  2. …and we deserve credit as a state, when compared to the rest of the country. But it is disappointing that we were unable to pass the one-gun-a-month bill proposed last year — a law that apparently is in place in three other states, and has been highly effective in Virginia (Warning: PDF).

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    p>http://www.lcav.org/statistics…

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    p>

    As a result of Virginia’s law restricting multiple sales, the odds of tracing a gun originally acquired in the Southeast to a Virginia gun dealer (as opposed to a dealer in a different southeastern state) dropped by 71% for guns recovered in New York, 72% for guns recovered in Massachusetts, and 66% for guns recovered in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts combined.

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    p>There’s work to do.

  3. Sure, good old Massachusetts, where gun control is effective. Except that a paroled lifer somehow got a gun and killed a Woburn cop. Except that a father (and a doctor, too!) takes his two sons, then aged  8 and 12 to a gun show where the youngest shoots himself in the head with a “mini Uzi.” Except that Scott Brown’s election to the U.S. Senate was hailed by the gun folks as a victory. Yep Massachusetts sure is safe from the gun nuts.  

    • We all know that there are already tons of guns already in the state and that there is no way to prevent people from importing guns from other states with much more lax laws. Given that, any state’s gun control laws have limited affect on whether criminals can get their hands on guns.

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      p>In any case, I don’t know what you are trying to convey by your sarcasm. Do you think the laws do not go far enough? If so, what else do you think should be done? Or are you suggesting that because gun control laws do not stop all gun deaths that they are pointless? If the latter, couldn’t you make the same point about most laws?

    • Bad stuff happens.  Everywhere.  Bad stuff happens less often here.

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      p>Einstein said that only death can save us from mistakes, I suppose we’ll find out some time.

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