Skip to content
Apply
Stories

State committee’s report calls for stricter gun laws

The state’s Com­mittee to Reduce Firearm Vio­lence, chaired by crim­i­nol­o­gist Jack McDe­vitt, asso­ciate dean of research for the Col­lege of Social Sci­ences & Human­i­ties, on Monday after­noon released a report out­lining strate­gies to bol­ster Mass­a­chu­setts’ already strong gun laws.

In the wake of deadly school shoot­ings in New­town, Conn., Mass­a­chu­setts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, SSH’72, last year charged the advi­sory com­mittee with reviewing newly filed gun safety leg­is­la­tion and deter­mining how to fur­ther reduce gun vio­lence in the com­mon­wealth. The committee’s final report, which included 44 rec­om­men­da­tions, was released during a press con­fer­ence at North­eastern University’s Snell Library attended by all but one of the eight com­mittee members.

The rec­om­men­da­tions include cre­ating stan­dards as deter­mined by the Mass­a­chu­setts Chiefs of Police Asso­ci­a­tion that would pre­vent “unsuit­able per­sons” from acquiring firearms, improving firearm safety and training courses in part by making the firing of weapons a require­ment, and investing in com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions to help reduce urban violence.

The com­mittee also rec­om­mended elim­i­nating Class B gun licenses, one of two gun licenses avail­able in Mass­a­chu­setts. Class B licenses allow people to carry an uncon­cealed though non-​​large capacity firearm. In its report, the com­mittee said Mass­a­chu­setts gun owners do not usu­ally carry their weapons out in the open and there­fore few Class B licenses are actu­ally issued.

“Our goal as we started this process was to find some ways to make the system safer in Mass­a­chu­setts,” McDe­vitt explained in his opening remarks. “We believe that leg­is­la­tion filed to deal with these recommendations will take us a long way to saving lives.”

The com­mittee mem­bers included a range of pro­fes­sions, including edu­ca­tors, public safety per­sonnel, and mental health experts. They expressed varying opin­ions on gun con­trol, but McDe­vitt stressed the com­mittee unan­i­mously agreed on every single rec­om­men­da­tion. Its rec­om­men­da­tions are expected to inform gun safety leg­is­la­tion law­makers will take up later this year.

“I want to thank the speaker for bringing all these people together,” McDe­vitt said. “The back­grounds, atti­tudes, and expe­ri­ences of this group made our report so much richer and deeper. One of the things we as a com­mittee found was we can have a thoughtful and respectful dis­cus­sion around these issues.”

In addi­tion to reviewing gun safety leg­is­la­tion, McDe­vitt said it was impor­tant the com­mittee met with groups involved in the gun safety debate. Over a nine-​​month period, the com­mittee heard tes­ti­mony from 10 sep­a­rate groups including police chiefs, gun owners, school super­in­ten­dents, gun-​​control advo­cates, and mental health professionals.

Also present at the press event was Jim Wal­lace, exec­u­tive director of the Gun Owners Action League, the offi­cial firearms asso­ci­a­tion in Mass­a­chu­setts. Wal­lace said he was dis­ap­pointed with many of the rec­om­men­da­tions and wished his orga­ni­za­tion had been included more in the committee’s process.

“In gen­eral I don’t think our mem­bers are going to be happy with this,” Wal­lace told mem­bers of the media.

– By Joe O’Connell

More Stories

Photo of the Capitol Building at night

High stakes for politics, SCOTUS in 2018

01.04.2018
Photo of the crashed truck that was used in the October 31st attack in Manhattan.

Weaponizing Language: How the meaning of “allahu akbar” has been distorted

11.08.2017
Northeastern logo

Why I love studying Spanish

05.29.20
Uncategorized