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By Suzanne Smalley, Globe Staff
MacArthur Williams was shot in Roxbury as he changed a tire on his Hyundai so he could go to work the next day. The man who shot him on that September night in 1989 was looking for revenge in a gang dispute, Williams said.
The gunshot paralyzed Williams, now a father of four living in Dorchester. Wednesday, he was among advocates and paralysis patients who urged state legislators to impose a $25 surcharge on all handgun purchases in Massachusetts to fund spinal cord injury research, so that one day he might walk again.
"It’s a privilege to own a gun," Williams said in an interview. "The surcharge, if you know it’s going toward research for a problem caused by gun violence, most people wouldn’t have a problem."
A man paralyzed in a motorcycle accident while serving as a Boston police cadet in 1995 and other advocates also appeared in their wheelchairs before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing to emphasize how critical it is to raise more money for spinal cord research.
Dr. Eric Ruby, a Taunton pediatrician who is leading the effort, said that despite world-class medical talent, Massachusetts lags far behind some other states in funding for such research.
A committee member asked Williams whether legal gun owners, who would pay the fee, are the same people who are shooting others on Boston streets.
Williams said that’s beside the point. ‘"t’s still violence from guns, and they got the guns from somewhere," the 39-year-old answered.
He and other advocates are backing legislation introduced by Representative James H. Fagan, a Democrat from Taunton and a friend of Ruby’s. One proposal would charge gun owners, excluding law enforcement officers, $25 every time they buy a handgun. The other would charge builders $50 for any construction costing more than $25,000.:banghead:
MacArthur Williams was shot in Roxbury as he changed a tire on his Hyundai so he could go to work the next day. The man who shot him on that September night in 1989 was looking for revenge in a gang dispute, Williams said.
The gunshot paralyzed Williams, now a father of four living in Dorchester. Wednesday, he was among advocates and paralysis patients who urged state legislators to impose a $25 surcharge on all handgun purchases in Massachusetts to fund spinal cord injury research, so that one day he might walk again.
"It’s a privilege to own a gun," Williams said in an interview. "The surcharge, if you know it’s going toward research for a problem caused by gun violence, most people wouldn’t have a problem."
A man paralyzed in a motorcycle accident while serving as a Boston police cadet in 1995 and other advocates also appeared in their wheelchairs before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing to emphasize how critical it is to raise more money for spinal cord research.
Dr. Eric Ruby, a Taunton pediatrician who is leading the effort, said that despite world-class medical talent, Massachusetts lags far behind some other states in funding for such research.
A committee member asked Williams whether legal gun owners, who would pay the fee, are the same people who are shooting others on Boston streets.
Williams said that’s beside the point. ‘"t’s still violence from guns, and they got the guns from somewhere," the 39-year-old answered.
He and other advocates are backing legislation introduced by Representative James H. Fagan, a Democrat from Taunton and a friend of Ruby’s. One proposal would charge gun owners, excluding law enforcement officers, $25 every time they buy a handgun. The other would charge builders $50 for any construction costing more than $25,000.:banghead: