Manedwolf
member
This really, really annoyed me. Anyone who can write into their editorials, please do so. Ask them WHY, if NH and VT are the source of all the "illegal guns" on the streets of MA, why NH and VT DO NOT have the violent crime problem that MA has? (Hint, CCW in NH and VT is easy, near-impossible in MA. Hm!)
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Live free and die
By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist | November 30, 2005
WEST LEBANON, N.H. -- In the manic environment of the first shopping weekend after Thanksgiving, the competition was fierce. We hesitated and lost out on a lovely, slightly used grenade launcher, bargain priced in tax-free New Hampshire at $190.
Not to worry. The dozens of dealers at the Fireside Inn gun show came well armed. Andrew Heggie, a Randolph police officer, spotted a Bushmaster, similar to the rifle he carried in two tours of duty in Afghanistan. And he found an AK-47, the same gun the enemy carried. There were military sniper rifles and an M-16-type ''machine pistol" capable of firing off 100 rounds before reloading -- the kind of gun only an angry high school student could love. Saturday night specials were cheap and plentiful.
In the end, we settled on a .38-caliber revolver, a trashy little thing popular with thugs in cities like Boston. Made by Connecticut's Charter 2000 Inc. in New England's ''Gun Valley," the revolver retails for $349, but my fellow New Hampshire shopper, Walter Belair, picked it up, cash and carry, for just $240. It took Belair, a former prison guard, less than 20 minutes to fill out the federal forms and get approved over the phone. It took me longer to buy a refrigerator at Sears a few weeks ago.
But this is New Hampshire, the ''Live Free or Die" state, where no gun license is required, and there is no limit on what a resident can buy.
''I can buy all the guns I want," Belair says. And he could sell his new .38 down the street, too, no questions asked.
Massachusetts has the toughest gun laws in the nation, but the streets of Boston haven't felt this dangerous in years. Increasingly, say police, guns are coming from Northern New England, where the gun laws are weaker. Gun shows, a billion-dollar business, are one source of guns: There are an estimated 5,000 gun shows like this one around the country every year, and many of them, unlike the one here, include so-called private sellers that require no background checks at all.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that gun shows rank second, after corrupt firearms distributors, in the number of illegally trafficked guns that turn up in its investigations, according to a 2000 report. The National Rifle Association has suggested that ''hundreds of thousands of guns" are sold at gun shows with no background checks. The weapons used in the Columbine High School massacre, which left 14 dead, came from gun shows.
Dramatically reducing the flow of illegal guns would be a relatively straightforward matter if it were not for the lunatic gun lobby and its political enablers. What is needed is uniform national gun laws that require background checks for all gun purchases whether from licensed dealers or from private individuals. In addition, we need to limit gun purchases for individuals to one per month, a policy that has proven effective in Virginia. Question: How many legitimate buyers need more than a dozen guns a year?
Thirty thousand people a year -- 82 a day -- are killed by guns every year in this country. Every two years more Americans die of firearms than all the American soldiers killed in eight years in Vietnam. And yet there is more accountability for dog owners than gun owners; at least dog owners have to have a license. ''If there were white kids in the suburbs dying, we would end gun trafficking," says Heggie, the Randolph cop.
Nationally there are 45 gun shows scheduled for next weekend alone, according to the Big Show Journal, a trade magazine. If you missed last weekend's show in West Lebanon, you'll have another chance before Christmas on Dec. 17 and 18 at the Rockingham Race Park in Salem. And there are four more New Hampshire shows before spring ends. Children under 12 are admitted free.
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Live free and die
By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist | November 30, 2005
WEST LEBANON, N.H. -- In the manic environment of the first shopping weekend after Thanksgiving, the competition was fierce. We hesitated and lost out on a lovely, slightly used grenade launcher, bargain priced in tax-free New Hampshire at $190.
Not to worry. The dozens of dealers at the Fireside Inn gun show came well armed. Andrew Heggie, a Randolph police officer, spotted a Bushmaster, similar to the rifle he carried in two tours of duty in Afghanistan. And he found an AK-47, the same gun the enemy carried. There were military sniper rifles and an M-16-type ''machine pistol" capable of firing off 100 rounds before reloading -- the kind of gun only an angry high school student could love. Saturday night specials were cheap and plentiful.
In the end, we settled on a .38-caliber revolver, a trashy little thing popular with thugs in cities like Boston. Made by Connecticut's Charter 2000 Inc. in New England's ''Gun Valley," the revolver retails for $349, but my fellow New Hampshire shopper, Walter Belair, picked it up, cash and carry, for just $240. It took Belair, a former prison guard, less than 20 minutes to fill out the federal forms and get approved over the phone. It took me longer to buy a refrigerator at Sears a few weeks ago.
But this is New Hampshire, the ''Live Free or Die" state, where no gun license is required, and there is no limit on what a resident can buy.
''I can buy all the guns I want," Belair says. And he could sell his new .38 down the street, too, no questions asked.
Massachusetts has the toughest gun laws in the nation, but the streets of Boston haven't felt this dangerous in years. Increasingly, say police, guns are coming from Northern New England, where the gun laws are weaker. Gun shows, a billion-dollar business, are one source of guns: There are an estimated 5,000 gun shows like this one around the country every year, and many of them, unlike the one here, include so-called private sellers that require no background checks at all.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that gun shows rank second, after corrupt firearms distributors, in the number of illegally trafficked guns that turn up in its investigations, according to a 2000 report. The National Rifle Association has suggested that ''hundreds of thousands of guns" are sold at gun shows with no background checks. The weapons used in the Columbine High School massacre, which left 14 dead, came from gun shows.
Dramatically reducing the flow of illegal guns would be a relatively straightforward matter if it were not for the lunatic gun lobby and its political enablers. What is needed is uniform national gun laws that require background checks for all gun purchases whether from licensed dealers or from private individuals. In addition, we need to limit gun purchases for individuals to one per month, a policy that has proven effective in Virginia. Question: How many legitimate buyers need more than a dozen guns a year?
Thirty thousand people a year -- 82 a day -- are killed by guns every year in this country. Every two years more Americans die of firearms than all the American soldiers killed in eight years in Vietnam. And yet there is more accountability for dog owners than gun owners; at least dog owners have to have a license. ''If there were white kids in the suburbs dying, we would end gun trafficking," says Heggie, the Randolph cop.
Nationally there are 45 gun shows scheduled for next weekend alone, according to the Big Show Journal, a trade magazine. If you missed last weekend's show in West Lebanon, you'll have another chance before Christmas on Dec. 17 and 18 at the Rockingham Race Park in Salem. And there are four more New Hampshire shows before spring ends. Children under 12 are admitted free.
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
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