STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER DEADLY MASS shootings in Texas and Ohio over the weekend, Democratic US Senate candidate Shannon Liss-Riordan went beyond the usual demands for gun control on Tuesday to call for the repeal of the Second Amendment. The Brookline labor attorney suggested that anything less than abolishing the Constitutional right to own […]
Guns
Posted inGuns
Boston doctors seek different approach to gun violence
DOCTORS AT MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL launched the new Center for Gun Violence Prevention on Monday, with a slew of Massachusetts elected officials on hand to support the effort. Clinicians will use the center, funded with $1.2 million from MGH and $200,000 from Harvard Medical School, to address the gun violence problem through a public health […]
Posted inGuns
Does attention to shooting miss the mark?
YESTERDAY’S DAYTIME FATAL SHOOTING of a taxi driver near the Prudential Center in Boston was the top story among local media outlets throughout the day and it’s the lead front-page story in both Boston daily newspapers this morning. The argument for the flood-the-zone coverage, of course, is that the more out of the ordinary an […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Guns
Holding Steven close
RONALD ODOM TALKS about his son’s death like it was yesterday because, for the soft-spoken retired letter carrier, it still feels that way. But this fall will mark 12 years since Steven Odom was cut down by a bullet just blocks from his Dorchester home, with the shooter apparently mistaking someone he was walking with […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Guns
Police-worn body cameras not panning out
AS MORE AND MORE POLICE DEPARTMENTS adopt policies to have officers wear body cameras to record interactions with the public, the research evidence continues to build on the effects of the technology — and it’s not yielding the sort of findings many had expected. The latest report, a review of 70 studies conducted by researchers […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Mass. should embrace 21st century gun control measures
MASSACHUSETTS HAS BEEN a progressive leader in common-sense gun control. The Commonwealth requires permits for gun purchases, maintains an assault weapons ban, restricts magazine capacity, and mandates universal background checks for the private sale of firearms. On top of these measures, applicants for gun licenses have to take a gun safety course, and the licensing […]
Posted inGuns
Students interrupt WBUR gun violence event
“I APPRECIATE EVERY LEGISLATOR and law enforcement in the room, but none of you dodge bullets for a living.” That was said by a parent at WBUR’s CitySpace on Monday evening when a group of student activists interrupted a high-profile forum touting the strides Massachusetts has made in gun policy. High school students from Dorchester […]
Posted inPolitics
Teacher union backing of Weymouth Republican riles new super PAC
A SCHISM WITHIN the Democratic Party that has long divided teachers unions and education reform advocates is playing out in unusual fashion this fall in a state Senate race — with a Republican incumbent at the center of the storm. Patrick O’Connor, a Republican elected in a special election two-and-a-half years ago to a Weymouth-based […]
Posted inOpinion
Baker is bystander, not leader, on gun legislation
VOTERS NEED TO KNOW Charlie Baker is not a gun violence prevention leader. Everytown for Gun Safety recently endorsed Baker in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race, calling Baker a leader on gun violence prevention. We, student organizers from March For Our Lives: Boston, strongly disagree. After the Parkland shooting, many lawmakers spoke out in favor of Extreme […]
Posted inGuns
Senate passes ‘extreme risk’ gun bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE BOTH BRANCHES OF THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE have now signed off on bills that would create a new judicial process designed to temporarily take guns away from dangerous individuals. The bill (H 4539), which the Senate approved on a voice vote Thursday, would allow family or household members to petition the courts […]