BOSTON — If you let the Bay State serve as an example, the answer to gun violence may be stricter controls on who can keep and carry firearms, according to the head of a statewide law enforcement group.
“Here in Mass., obviously we have some of the most strict gun laws in the country. We also have a great track record when it comes to school shootings,” Mark Leahy, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, told the Herald. “One is too many, but when you compare us to some states that haven’t been as lucky, there is a big difference.”
His comments come in the wake of the massacre of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, where the 18-year-old gunman apparently purchased hundreds of rounds of ammunition and several semiautomatic weapons just days after his birthday.
According to Leahy, now retired from the Northboro Police Department, laws in Massachusetts have thus far coincided with a very low rate of gun deaths among the state’s youth.
“Since Columbine we’ve had two kids killed in school shootings in Massachusetts,” he said. “Do strict gun laws work? Yeah, I would say they do.”
The state has at least some training requirements before people can possess a weapon, he said. According to state law, residents must demonstrate they have passed a firearms safety course before applying for their license to carry a firearm of any kind.
A hunter can receive a firearm identification card as young as age 15 with parental consent. A 15- to 17-year-old can carry but not purchase rifles, shotguns or ammunition, but those 18 to 20 can buy.
Bay Staters must be 21 to possess a handgun or semiautomatic weapon capable of carrying more than 10 rounds, such as an AR-15-style rifle, though magazine size is restricted to 10 rounds.
Concealed carry licenses and firearm ID cards are generally issued by local police departments via a process designed by the chief, and residents must notify the state when they purchase or transfer a firearm — so local police are kept abreast of who is licensed to carry and who has recently bought a gun.
The state also has red flag laws, Leahy said, meaning a judge can order that guns are taken away from a person who is showing signs he or she may be a danger.
“We have the extreme risk protection orders, when we have people we are concerned about and we know they have guns we can actually do something. So that’s another layer of protection for people in the commonwealth,” he said.
Still, Leahy noted the laws in Massachusetts don’t prevent people who shouldn’t have guns from bringing them in.
“The gun laws in this country are like a checkerboard square. All you gotta do is leave Massachusetts and go to Vermont, or New Hampshire, or Maine … it’s a whole different world when it comes to gun laws,” he said.
Leahy did note that all three New England states to the north, despite having much less restrictive gun laws, also showed very little gun violence in schools.
“Those states have great track records also — the only New England state with a blemish is Connecticut because of Sandy Hook. Hard to say why all of New England, with all the different laws, has so few incidents. I can’t explain it,” he said.
There may lie the solution, he said.
Leahy said, “Would it be easier if all 50 states had the same gun laws? It probably would.”
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