Letter: It's Time To Strengthen Gun Laws

To the Editor:

The time is long overdue for gun control, as is practiced in England and other progressive peace loving countries. To quote Cheryl Wheeler in her song responding to the Jonesboro Schoolyard Shooting incident: …”but I know one thing. If it were up to me, I’d take away the guns.”

In 1920, Britain passed a law requiring civilians to obtain a certificate from their district police chief in order to purchase or possess any firearm except a shotgun. To obtain this certificate, the applicant had to pay a fee, and the chief of police had to be “satisfied” that the applicant had “good reason for requiring such a certificate” and did not pose a “danger to the public safety or to the peace.” The certificate had to specify the types and quantities of firearms and ammunition that the applicant could purchase and keep. http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp

We need brave politicians who have common sense, to propose a legal structure that will outlaw the sale and possession of automatic weapons and hand guns, automatic rifles, and other firing weapons like grenade launchers, etc. The crisis of gun violence is on us, and I think that creative efforts are required immediately. Thank you.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/u-s-jews-support-gun-control-but-the-political-debate-ignores-it.premium-1.453018

Besides banning handguns and all automatic weapons, the gun manufacturers should be taxed to create a fund that will be used to remove guns from all neighborhoods in Mass. We need to make our communities safe for everyone. The idea of a militia is a domestic wartime concept. We have not had a domestic war since the Civil war, so a militia is meaningless and useless and anachronistic.

David Fillingham
Belmont