STOP Handgun Violence!

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A Boston Globe Editorial: Short fuse, February 15, 2009

"Guns: Virginia's senseless exception"

Earlier this month, the Virginia Senate rejected Governor Tim Kaine's legislation to require background checks for firearms sales at gun shows. Kaine has pushed to tighten Virginia's gun laws since the massacre at Virginia Tech in April 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho, a student with a history of mental illness, killed 32 people. Although Cho didn't buy his firearms at a gun show, there are no restrictions on a mentally disturbed person buying weapons there. We'd like to say common sense is in uniquely short supply in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But according to John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, 31 other states do not require background checks for private gun sales. And that's a chilling thought.

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"Guns: Assault rifles on the streets"
SHORT FUSE - A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL - August 2, 2009

Assault rifles are showing up with increasing frequency on Boston’s streets. As Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said last week, they present a special danger because their bullets can go through cars or utility poles. Davis spoke after gunfire in Dorchester in which at least one weapon was an AK-47. A 12-year-old girl watching TV at home received a leg wound during the shooting. A ban on such rifles, which are ill-suited for legal uses such as hunting or home protection, expired in 2004. Congress should restore the ban. But sadly, the gun lobby has a stranglehold on even a Congress with Democratic majorities.

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