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Boston's Morning Newsletter
What's next for gun reform in Massachusetts
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
It’s Tuesday. Hope you had a better holiday weekend than the Red Sox assistant coaches. Let’s get to the news.
A go on gun reform: Of all Beacon Hill’s top post-tax bill priorities, it seems gun reform is at the top of the House’s list. The chamber is holding a hearing today on the new gun reform bill unveiled last week by top House Democrats. The bill — which comes after a Supreme Court ruling last year forced Massachusetts to loosen its concealed carry laws — looks at a range of ways to shore up the state’s otherwise relatively tight gun laws. That includes new registration rules for gun parts aimed at tracing “ghost guns,” clarifications to the state’s assault weapons ban, a prohibition on carrying firearms in schools and other government buildings, and a more streamlined license application process with a new requirement for live firearm training.
- The backdrop: According to the gun safety advocacy group Everytown, the gun death rate in Massachusetts increased 16% between 2010 and 2019, about the same as the increase nationally.
- What’s next: House Speaker Ron Mariano, who supports the bill, is planning a vote later this month. (Expect it to pass.) The big issue is how the bill will be reconciled with whatever the Senate puts forward. Senate President Karen Spilka said on Radio Boston last week that the upper chamber is separately writing its own gun bill. But she expressed confidence the two chambers — which have clashed over past versions of the gun bill — will reach a compromise, even if the process runs well into next year. “I do believe we will have something on the governor’s desk, definitely before the session is over [next summer],” Spilka said on Radio Boston.
- Go deeper: Mariano and state Rep. Michael Day argue Massachusetts’ relative success on gun safety is “not cause for complacency” in this new Cognoscenti opinion piece.
The Israel-Gaza conflict hits home: The daughter and son-in-law of a Brandeis University professor were among the hundreds killed over the weekend in the attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. Ilan Troen, a professor of Israel studies at the Waltham university, told NBC Boston that he was on the phone with his daughter Deborah and her husband Shlomi when the shooting began. “The next we heard was from her son [who survived], saying … they’re dead,” Troen said.
- Gov. Maura Healey and other local leaders rallied Monday on Boston Common to show their support for Israel. WBUR’s Arielle Grey reports the group forcefully condemned the attacks, while affirming their support for Israel and Boston’s Jewish community.
- The latest: NPR reports this morning that the Israeli military has largely regained control of areas in the south that had been attacked, as it continues its heavy bombing of the Gaza Strip.
In related news: Massachusetts Reps. Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss are hammering their alma mater, Harvard University, for not denouncing a letter signed by over 30 student groups blaming Israel’s “apartheid regime” for Hamas’ attacks. “Terrorism is never justified nor someone else’s fault,” Moulton said in a statement. (The Salem Democrat will also be on Radio Boston today at 11 a.m.)
- Harvard’s leadership did release a lengthy statement reiterating their “commitment to fostering an environment of dialogue and empathy” during such a time of “unimaginable loss and sorrow.” But to Auchincloss, the response amounted to “word salad.” On Twitter, he wrote: “I am ashamed of my alma mater.”
- Meanwhile, Auchincloss, who represents the state’s largest Jewish community, also rebuked fellow Massachusetts delegation member Sen. Ed Markey — on Twitter and IRL — for calling for “a de-escalation of the current violence” on both sides during yesterday’s rally on the Common.
It’s voting day today in parts of Worcester and Hampshire counties (these parts, specifically). The state is holding a primary for the special election to fill the former state Sen. Anne Gobi’s seat, after she took a post in Healey’s administration in June. Today’s election will determine which Republican — state Rep. Peter Durant or Fitchburg State lecturer/limo driver Bruce Chester — will face off against Democratic state Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik in the Nov. 7 finale.
P.S.— If you weren’t at last week’s Murrow Society gala discussion at CitySpace with former Boston Globe and Washington Post editor Marty Baron and former New York Times editor Dean Baquet, there’s good news. It’s now on YouTube. The two discussed Baron’s new book, ever-thorny questions about Donald Trump coverage and took questions from attendees. Watch here.
