O’Malley calls for ‘comprehensive gun safety laws.' [View all]
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is calling for “comprehensive gun safety laws to save lives” in the wake of a series of public shooting over the past month.
“During the first 204 days of 2015, there have been 204 mass shootings: a mass shooting for every day of the year. These tragedies aren’t isolated incidents or even ‘accidents’ as some have called them — they’re part of a full-blown epidemic,” the Democratic presidential hopeful writes in an op-ed in the Boston Globe published Friday, http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/07/24/martin-malley-congress-needs-act-gun-reform/VHwtYH6qor1wVsy4u1n2mJ/story.html one day after a gunman killed two people in a Louisiana movie theater.
“We cannot let this become the new normal. As we mourn for the lives cut short — for the victims and the loved ones they leave behind — we can’t just sit by and wait for another tragedy to happen again.”
The former Maryland governor also notes last week’s shooting at military installations in Chattanooga, Tenn., as well as last month’s shooting in a historically black church in Charleston, S.C.
His plan calls for limiting all gun sales to “tightly regulated, licensed dealers,” which includes closing a loophole that allows gun sales at gun shows without a background check.
He also wants an assault weapon ban, a national gun registry to “help law enforcement track down dangerous criminals” and a requirement that guns are secured in private homes.
O’Malley also touts his efforts in Maryland, where he helped shepherd through gun control reforms that include a slew of the ideas he wants to extend nationally.
“Our goal in Maryland, as it should be for the nation, was to reduce mass shootings and keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” he writes.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/dem-primaries/249178-omalley-calls-for-comprehensive-gun-safety-laws
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