Date: 5/5/2016
On Dec. 14, 2012, Newtown, CT, did not have a big gun violence problem. Until it did.
The AR-15, military-style, assault weapon used to gun down the 20 kids at Sandy Hook Elementary School was purchased legally. That firearm and several others resided in a well-kept suburban house in Newtown. Adam Lanza turned one of those guns on the owner of the firearms, his mother, Nancy Lanza.
On Dec. 14, 2012, Connecticut law allowed assault weapons and large capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Had Newtown or the state of Connecticut outlawed those weapons, all indications are that Nancy Lanza would have complied. After the Sandy Hook massacre, Connecticut passed an assault weapon ban.
That assault weapon ban was recently upheld by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal court just one step below the U.S. Supreme Court. The court noted that “these weapons are disproportionately used in crime, and particularly in criminal mass shootings like the attack in Newtown. They are also disproportionately used to kill law enforcement officers ...” A ban of these weapons, a decision so full of legal sense and common sense, came too late for the six and seven year olds whose short lives are but memories in the minds of their parents.
Let’s not act too late. Longmeadow, facing a surge in gun licenses in the wake of Sandy Hook, can try to prevent a tragedy from happening here. Let us keep guns out of the day care center at Greenwood. Let us keep assault weapons out of town entirely. Let us register guns in town, at the time of license renewal, so police can keep track of firearms that are lost, stolen, or transferred.
The chairman of the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association has said that without a registration system, “when we have a case where we’re trying to trace a gun back, very often we find these guns were sold or transferred years ago and there’s no history and no way of tracking it back.” He also said that such a registration system would benefit law enforcement greatly. So why shouldn’t we take common sense steps, like the ones in the proposed Longmeadow gun bylaws, to reduce the risk of mass shootings and ordinary shootings?
If the proposed gun bylaws are not the answer, then what is the alternative? The “No” vote has nothing to say about that. The bodies stack up in the morgue from killings at places like Virginia Tech, Columbine, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, and all the “No” vote offers is a shrug of the shoulders and lockdown drills for our kids. And hope. There’s hope that the bell that tolled for Newtown will not toll for Longmeadow.
We can do better than that. After Newtown, we should say, “Never again.” Let us say, “Yes,” to a safer community. Let us serve as an example to other communities who will also have the courage to say, “Never again.”
Alex J. Grant
Longmeadow
