Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden is pushing for stricter gun shopping for rules within the hopes of stopping the move of unlawful weapons from different states into Massachusetts, citing six firearm arraignments in Suffolk County within the final week.
Illegal firearms from states with lax buy guidelines are flowing into states with tighter shopping for rules, such because the Bay State.
Six folks, together with a homicide suspect and a youngster, have been arraigned final week in Suffolk County on separate gun possession expenses — some involving firearms with magazines able to holding 15 or extra bullets.
“The standard arguments against stricter national purchasing regulations reflect the extreme ideology of unrestrained buying ability and disregard the reality of that ability in one state having dramatic consequences in another state,” Hayden stated in a press release on Sunday.
“Our patchwork approach to gun purchasing regulations — which differs so broadly from the unified approach in other industrialized nations — needs serious revision, because it is damaging neighborhoods and destroying lives,” he added.
Hayden’s workplace final yr launched knowledge exhibiting that almost all unlawful weapons seized in Suffolk County in 2021 got here from Maine, New Hampshire, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Guns have been additionally traced to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio.
Of the 441 traceable weapons seized in Boston that yr, 271 weapons, or 61%, originated in these 9 states; 67 weapons, or 15%, originated in different states; and 103 weapons, or 23%, originated in Massachusetts.
Hayden praised President Biden’s government order final week that might improve the variety of folks “engaged in the business” of promoting firearms to register as gun sellers, which might require them to conduct background checks earlier than finishing gun gross sales. But important change requires Congressional motion, Hayden stated.
Hayden additionally cited the 100-plus mass shootings to this point this yr in his name for nationwide motion on uniform gun buying rules.
“I pray that members of both parties recognize the urgency and the benefits of a coherent, rational approach that preserves purchasing rights but addresses the patchwork policies that affect firearm inflow states like Massachusetts,” Hayden stated. “I realize the 2nd Amendment has divergent interpretations, but there’s no arguing about the fact that it includes the words ‘well-regulated.’ ”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”