New England leaders address gun safety, seek to reduce violence

In light of the recent nationwide increase in gun violence, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh met with leaders from across New England Thursday to discuss gun safety strategies.

“Our goal is to strengthen the regional approach to reducing gun violence in our communities,” Walsh said in a Thursday press release. “We are all committed. We have newly elected Mayors across Massachusetts and New England, creating a unique opportunity to build upon existing coalitions and bring fresh ideas to the table about combating gun violence and the illegal use of firearms in our region.”

Mayors and police chiefs were present at second annual New England Regional Gun Violence Summit, along with representatives from Arms with Ethics, the Center for American Progress and Everytown for Gun Safety. Experts discussed the best practices to decrease gun violence, such as information sharing and law enforcement, the release stated.

Tim Daly, the Center for American Progress’ director of campaigns for guns and crime, explained some of the strategies that the mayors discussed at the summit.

“One of which was how they can do a better job of sharing information, and what is that information?” Daly said. “How can they do a better job of tracing a crime gun and how to do a better job of understanding, mutually, how they can stop crime guns from being trafficked in the first place? Also they’ve been trying to find ways to pull resources so that they can better prioritize prosecuting of gun crimes.”

Gun crime is a regional problem, Daly said, greatly due to gun trafficking and must be addressed on a regional level.

“Even if the Massachusetts legislature took something up, this is a regional issue where gun violence doesn’t really have borders,” Daly said. “Guns are being trafficked from Maine or New Hampshire into Massachusetts, or from Rhode Island and Connecticut.”

No legislative proposal was made at the summit, the release stated, but an agreement was made to formalize a partnership between several New England cities.

Gun trafficking, in addition to inactivity on the part of the U.S. Congress to implement gun control laws, is why gun crimes must be examined from a local level, Daly said.

“There’s definitely a stagnation of Congress considering any legislation and also state legislators in picking up legislation on guns and gun violence prevention,” Daly said. “Who knows how long federal action is going to take?”

Daniel Medwed, a professor at the Northeastern University School of Law, said looking toward local government to decrease gun violence is the best way to see results.

“Collaboration at the local level is essential to thwarting gun violence,” Medwed wrote in an email. “Federal action is important too, but having mayors working together to implement an effective community-based plan might reap the greatest rewards.”

Jack Beermann, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, said the need for local governments to act against gun violence is due to the local nature of the issue.

“It’s very important for mayors to work together because this is more of a local problem than a federal problem,” Beermann wrote in an email. “Local governments have a much better understanding of the problems in their own local areas.”

Several residents support the idea of gun regulations and cooperation within the New England region.

Sam Rosen, 26, of the North End, said she is pleased that the City is attempting to curb gun violence.

“Any big city is going to suffer from some violence,” she said. “That’s what happens in cities. I’m just impressed that the mayor is trying to lead a charge to reduce gun violence.”

Colin Campbell, 21, of Fenway, said city officials should be careful about making sure their measures to reduce gun violence are effective.

“It depends on what gun violence it is. Automatic weapons are obviously not good,” Campbell, a senior in BU’s College of Arts and Sciences, said. “At the same time Chicago tried to ban handguns and so did [Washington] D.C. and it wasn’t effective. So we need better police relations with the community instead of banning things. They’ll create a black market for guns, which is worse. Good idea in principle just depends on their goals.”

Matthew Truss, 34, of East Boston, said regulating the sale and purchase of guns can help protect residents.

“I’m sure a lot of gun violence that takes place is a result of the illegal trade, so I’m glad that something is being done to address that,” he said. “There need to be rules and regulations in place to make sure that guns don’t get in the hands of the wrong people.”