Suffolk DA pushes for stricter gun regs
Six arrested on weapons charges in last week
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden is pushing for stricter gun buying regulations in the hopes of stopping the flow of illegal guns from other states into Massachusetts, citing six firearm arraignments in Suffolk County in the last week.
Illegal firearms from states with lax purchase rules are flowing into states with tighter buying regulations, such as the Bay State.
Six people, including a murder suspect and a teenager, were arraigned last week in Suffolk County on separate gun possession charges — some involving firearms with magazines capable of holding 15 or more bullets.
“The standard arguments against stricter national purchasing regulations reflect the extreme ideology of unrestrained buying ability and disregard the reality of that ability in one state having dramatic consequences in another state,” Hayden said in a statement on Sunday.
“Our patchwork approach to gun purchasing regulations — which differs so broadly from the unified approach in other industrialized nations — needs serious revision, because it is damaging neighborhoods and destroying lives,” he added.
Hayden’s office last year released data showing that most illegal guns seized in Suffolk County in 2021 came from Maine, New Hampshire, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Guns were also traced to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio.
Of the 441 traceable guns seized in Boston that year, 271 guns, or 61%, originated in those nine states; 67 guns, or 15%, originated in other states; and 103 guns, or 23%, originated in Massachusetts.
Hayden praised President Biden’s executive order last week that could increase the number of people “engaged in the business” of selling firearms to register as gun sellers, which would require them to conduct background checks before completing gun sales. But significant change requires Congressional action, Hayden said.
Hayden also cited the 100-plus mass shootings so far this year in his call for national action on uniform gun purchasing regulations.
“I pray that members of both parties recognize the urgency and the benefits of a coherent, rational approach that preserves purchasing rights but addresses the patchwork policies that affect firearm inflow states like Massachusetts,” Hayden said. “I realize the 2nd Amendment has divergent interpretations, but there’s no arguing about the fact that it includes the words ‘well-regulated.’”