House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Rep. Marjorie Decker of Cambridge hosted a rally of sorts at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School on Wednesday where they pledged to push for passage of legislation that would allow a family member, roommate, or law enforcement official to petition a court to bar someone from owning a firearm […]
Guns
Posted inOpinion
Arming doctors with a tool to save lives
“It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation” – Rudolf Virchow, MD OVER THE COURSE of 1,000 days spanning 2014 to 2016, our state was home to 618 shootings. During that period, 19 children were shot. Worse, not a single perpetrator was arrested in any […]
Posted inGuns
Stun guns, tasers protected by 2d Amendment
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE POSSESSION OF stun guns and tasers is protected by the Second Amendment, the Supreme Judicial Court concluded on Tuesday, “reluctantly” scrapping the state law banning civilians from possessing those weapons. The decision written by Chief Justice Ralph Gants was a reversal from an earlier SJC ruling upholding the conviction of […]
Posted inGun ownership
Judge upholds assault weapons ban
STATE HOUSE NEWS A federal judge ruled the state’s 1998 assault weapons ban did not violate the Second Amendment and also upheld Attorney General Maura Healey’s 2016 decision to notify gun owners that “copycat” assault weapons were also subject to the ban. In his 47-page order, US District Court Judge William Young said the AR-15 “and its […]
Posted inThe Download
And the young shall lead
When little movement occurred to change gun laws following the 2012 slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it was easy to become cynical about the idea that the country would ever budge from its strong pro-gun posture. If the murder of 20 six- and seven-year-olds doesn’t shake the country’s conscience, went the thinking, nothing will. […]
Posted inThe Download
The kids are all right
It’s always hard to know a particular moment in time is the turning point in a debate. In hindsight, marking the point is easy but in the midst of a change, it’s not always clear when the momentum shifts. But what Harvey Weinstein and the #metoo movement have done for bringing awareness to sexual harassment […]
Posted inGun ownership
House bans ‘bump stock’ devices
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE HOUSE LAWMAKERS on Wednesday moved rapidly, and some critics said rashly, to ban any device that could be used to increase the rate of discharge of a firearm. The bill’s passage came 10 days after a shooter in Las Vegas is believed to have used a “bump stock” device to rain […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Guns, State House News Service
Feds crack down on Lawrence drug network
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THIRTY PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED Tuesday on gun, drug, and immigration charges in a sweep that brought down a Lawrence-based network that Acting US Attorney William Weinreb described as “one of the largest fentanyl trafficking organizations ever seen in Massachusetts.” Approximately 250 law enforcement officers were involved in the sweep, seizing several […]
Posted inGuns
Healey cracks down on more gun sales
ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY continued her crackdown on the sale of illegal guns in the state by forcing a Worcester gun dealer to stop selling illegal handguns and pay $35,000 in costs and penalties. Healey, in her latest display of imposing Massachusetts regulations long on the books but rarely enforced, charged that The Gun Parlor […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Guns
Crime and punishment
Photographs by Mark Ostow DIANE MCMANUS SAYS her youngest child, Timothy, is “no street kid.” He was “raised in the church,” she says, a respectful son who minded the rules she set down, even as a teenager growing up in a rough patch of Dorchester off Blue Hill Avenue. But while Diane McManus was out […]