BOSTON (WHDH) — A group gathered at the State House Thursday to support a gun control bill related to mental health.
The bill, called an Extreme Risk Protective Order, would temporarily take away guns from those who are mentally ill. State Rep. David Linsky (D-Natick) sponsored the bill.
“The police need to have the authority to go to a court, get an order to take that person’s firearms away.”
Attending the rally was Lynnette Alamaddine, whose 20-year-old son Ross was killed in the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. She said when she heard about the school shooting in Florida, she cried thinking of the victims and their families.
“The solution would be to have Congress get their act together and do something about it,” said Alamaddine.
Greg Gibson, whose son was killed in a school shooting in western Massachusetts in 1992, said he also supports the bill.
“That one act of violence ripples out, covers a hundred, covers a thousand. So this is a community that’s been shot, not a series of individuals,” said Gibson.
Members of the Gun Owners Action League criticized the bill, saying it does not do anything to treat mental illness.
“It’s going to make a bad situation even more dangerous because you’ve exacerbated their mental health problems and then set them loose,” said Jim Wallace.
Five states have already legalized the Extreme Risk Protective Order, including Connecticut.
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