(MA)Gun control advocates bring cause to Back Bay

[USP45]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/guns10032000.htm

Gun control advocates bring cause to Back Bay
by Edwin Molina

Tuesday, October 3, 2000

In a disturbing reminder of all the children killed by guns, nearly 4,000 pairs of
children's sneakers and shoes were placed on the steps of Trinity Church
yesterday as part of a national campaign for tougher gun control in the United
States.

Later dozens of activists - including relatives of those slain by firearms - gathered
outside the State House to push their cause.

``In the past six years, I have become three years older than my older sister, and
Congress has done nothing to pass stricter gun laws,'' said Liam Lowney, whose
sister, Shannon, was killed by John C. Salvi III in a Brookline abortion clinic six
years ago.

``I can't begin to tell you how offensive that is to me.''

Among those pushing for more gun control were U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry
(D-Mass.), former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, veterans of the Million
Mom March organization and students.

``Why is it that a piece of metal and plastic that can kill people is not regulated like
any other product?'' state Rep. Marie St. Fleur (D-Dorchester) asked the crowd.

Speakers urged the general public to vote for candidates in November who are in
favor of gun control.

Members of the Citizens for Truth in Politics, a grassroots group of Massachusetts
gun owners, protested the event and engaged in a shouting match with gun control
advocates.

``We want to stress that these people's hearts are in the right place but they are
totally misguided,'' said Larry Savage, organizer of the pro-gun protesters. ``We
favor education over fear. We need to teach our children what to do if they find a
gun.''

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~USP

"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998

 

[USP45]

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/276/region/Rallies_kick_off_national_gun_:.shtml

Rallies kick off national gun
control campaign

By John Mcelhenny, Associated Press, 10/2/2000 23:20

BOSTON (AP) It's been six years since abortion clinic
gunman John Salvi killed Liam Lowney's sister, Shannon, and
Lowney's still waiting for Congress to do something about it.

''In the past six years, I have become three years older than
my older sister, and Congress has done nothing to pass stricter
gun laws,'' Lowney said Monday. ''I can't begin to tell you
how offensive that is to me.''

Lowney joined other victims, lawmakers and activists in a call
for stricter gun control laws and an end to gun violence at a
Statehouse rally. It was one of 350 such events planned
nationwide to mark First Monday 2000, the start of a two-year
anti-gun violence campaign.

In Baltimore, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno called on gun
makers to better control the distribution of firearms as part of a
six-point plan she outlined to end the ''culture of violence'' in
America.

''Americans have been plagued by violence on the threat of
violence for a long, long time now,'' Reno said. ''We can end it
if we as individuals and as a nation stop condoning and stop
remaining passive in its face.''

Reno said the gun industry should be encouraged to work with
forces trying to curb the more than 30,000 handgun deaths
each year in America. Firearm manufacturers can better
police distributors to ensure that guns are sold only to those
how to handle them safely, she said.

She also called on Congress to seal gun-show ''loopholes''
that allow criminals and young people to illegally acquire
handguns. Legislation is also needed, Reno said, to ban on
high-capacity ammunition clips and bar juveniles with criminal
records from possessing guns.

The attorney general also stressed the need for prevention
programs for children, said high-tech tools should be used to
investigate gun crimes and urged prosecutors to continue
aggressive enforcement of gun laws. Community involvement,
she said, is the last piece of the puzzle.

''Each one of us can make a difference,'' she said. ''It's time
we stood up and were counted.''

In Baton Rouge, La., about 200 students at the Louisiana State
University campus erected 60 wooden crosses draped with
children's clothing as a symbol of the 60 children killed across
the country every week with guns.

Professor Richard Haymaker and his wife, Dr. Holly Galland
Haymaker, spoke to LSU students about the death of Yoshi
Hattori, a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student who was
living with them. He was shot to death in 1992 when he went to
the wrong house for a Halloween party.

Yoshi apparently didn't understand when the homeowner
opened the door with a gun in hand and told him to freeze.

''I was trying to get across to them that this happens to people
just like them,'' Holly Haymaker said after speaking to the
students. ''It can happen to anyone when you have too many
firearms in a culture.''

In Albany, N.Y., Robin Ringler, the nurse who cared for Ronald
Reagan after John Hinckley shot him in 1981, said the nation is
in mourning.

''We are mourning the 10 children who die from gun violence
every day, the more than 30,000 people who die from gun
violence each year,'' Ringler said during a news conference.

Richard Wooding, of Delanson, N.Y., also spoke there of his
10-year-old son Roarke, who was killed two years ago by a
friend after the boys found a gun in the woods.

''One question that ... I think about a lot was what was in
Roarke's mind when he heard the gun, the flash of the muzzle,
when he felt the bullet strike and the life start to leave him,''
Wooding said.

In Boston, gun control activists jostled with gun rights
supporters at the Statehouse, and several gun rights supporters
yelled pro-gun rights slogans while gun control activists spoke.
State police moved in to maintain order. No arrests were made.

Then, organizers set 3,792 pairs of shoes on the steps of a
church one pair for each teen-ager and child killed by guns in
one year.

The First Monday campaign is so-dubbed because it coincides
with the first Monday of the U.S. Supreme Court's new term.
The campaign is an annual initiative highlighting a different
justice issue each year.

In the past, organizers have focused on immigration, the death
penalty and affordable housing.

A centerpiece of this year's anti-gun violence campaign is a
short documentary film featuring actor Martin Sheen that
profiles three families who lost children to gun violence.

Gun rights supporter Lawrence Savage was among the
counterprotesters in Boston. He said 5,000 people across the
country are saved every day by the defensive use of a gun.

In 98 percent of those cases, the gun is never fired, he said.

''The key to violence is in the hearts and minds of those who
commit violent acts,'' Savage said. ''As long as the gun control
crowd focuses on guns, the problem will never get better, it'll
get worse.''

Savage said what's needed is better enforcement of existing
laws, not new laws.

But Bonnie Wilson, a 30-year-old mother from Maynard,
wasn't so sure.

''It's hard to be a mother and believe that owning a gun would
make my child safer,'' she said, holding 18-month-old Grace
in her arms.


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~USP

"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998