AMHERST — The Board of Health has asked the Select Board to take a stand against national gun violence by signing a statement of principals in solidarity with other communities working to prevent it.
In the letter to the Select Board, health board members ask the select board to enroll with "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" to have access to information and resources that it develops or makes available.
Without a mayor, the Select Board is the highest elected town office and can enroll in the program.
Areas of concert for the board, according the letter, include the "role of guns in accidental shootings by young children having access to improperly stored guns, guns and domestic violence and intentional and unintentional self-inflicted gun wounds by troubled adults."
"Amherst is a very safe community," said Board of Health member Julie Marcus, but she said it's imperative that all communities take a stand for responsible gun ownership.
It has to be "a bottom up activity. There's never going to be a top down" movement, she said.
The National Rifle Association is too powerful a lobby, she said.
The board's purview is public health, and this is another means to take care of the public's health, she said.
While mass shootings draw headlines, 35,000 die from guns every year, Marcus said. "Most are unrecognized," she said, noting the numbers include victims of domestic violence, accidents or suicides and that there are suicides in Amherst.
Marcus said it's incumbent on everyone to take a stand on the issue of gun safety. "We're treating it as harm reduction," she said.
Marcus said taking a stand "is certainly within our purview" because gun-related deaths are one of the leading killers in the U.S.
The letter is in the Select Board packet for the meeting Monday night at the Amherst Regional Middle School.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/05/amherst_health_board_wants_sel.html#incart_river_home
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Here we go...
Looks like this is just the beginning of the attack on the 2a as it will be fought out in Amherst.
In the letter to the Select Board, health board members ask the select board to enroll with "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" to have access to information and resources that it develops or makes available.
Without a mayor, the Select Board is the highest elected town office and can enroll in the program.
Areas of concert for the board, according the letter, include the "role of guns in accidental shootings by young children having access to improperly stored guns, guns and domestic violence and intentional and unintentional self-inflicted gun wounds by troubled adults."
"Amherst is a very safe community," said Board of Health member Julie Marcus, but she said it's imperative that all communities take a stand for responsible gun ownership.
It has to be "a bottom up activity. There's never going to be a top down" movement, she said.
The National Rifle Association is too powerful a lobby, she said.
The board's purview is public health, and this is another means to take care of the public's health, she said.
While mass shootings draw headlines, 35,000 die from guns every year, Marcus said. "Most are unrecognized," she said, noting the numbers include victims of domestic violence, accidents or suicides and that there are suicides in Amherst.
Marcus said it's incumbent on everyone to take a stand on the issue of gun safety. "We're treating it as harm reduction," she said.
Marcus said taking a stand "is certainly within our purview" because gun-related deaths are one of the leading killers in the U.S.
The letter is in the Select Board packet for the meeting Monday night at the Amherst Regional Middle School.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/05/amherst_health_board_wants_sel.html#incart_river_home
-----------
Here we go...
Looks like this is just the beginning of the attack on the 2a as it will be fought out in Amherst.
![[rolleyes]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/042.gif "Roll Eyes [rolleyes]")
