To the Editor:
I am a physician trained in pediatrics, a father of a young son and a concerned resident of Watertown. I am writing to urge your readers to support Warren Tolman for attorney general because he supports common-sense gun reform. The recent untimely death of James Brady, killed many years later by an assassin’s bullet, makes the subject of gun reform more poignant than ever.
According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2010, 4,698 children aged 1-14 senselessly died by gunfire, and another 7,500 children are hospitalized each year for the same reason.
Warren knows that a solution to many of these deaths and injuries is literally at our fingertips. Technology currently exists that would allow fingerprint readers to unlock the firing mechanism of guns. If such a system were mandated, no child would ever be able to have an accident with a smart gun that did not belong to him or her. It would drastically reduce the number of child deaths and injuries due to gunfire.
And the reassuring part of this idea is that no new legislation is needed in Massachusetts. The attorney general can mandate smart guns under his or her authority to enforce consumer protection laws. Now, the NRA is hopping mad about this idea and hates Warren for it, but being hated by the NRA is a bit like praise from Caesar.
Please help me by supporting Warren Tolman for attorney general.
Sincerely yours,
Guido Guidotti, MD
Marshall Street