JOHN RUCH
JACKSON SQ.—Gov. Deval Patrick announced a proposal for tougher gun laws last week at an event at Academy Homes I, a housing development plagued by gun violence last year.
Patrick’s proposal came in response to a recent state Supreme Judicial Court decision that defendants charged only with illegal gun possession cannot be held without bail as “dangerous.” Patrick’s legislation would reverse that decision; limit gun purchases to one per person per month; and reclassify some misde-meanor crimes as felonies if they involve gun use, among other provisions.
Mayor Thomas Menino and Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley joined Patrick at the May 6 announce-ment, which followed one of the regular Citizens for Safety gun-trafficking information workshops
“Through this tough approach, we address where the [illegal] guns come from and make it harder for crimi-nals with guns to suffer only misdemeanor charges,” Menino said at the announcement.
Gun violence in Jackson Square’s Academy Homes and Bromley-Heath housing developments last year included two killings and the wounding of three children. At least two people have been wounded by gunfire on the Jamaica Plain side of Jackson Square this year, including a shooting outside the T station last month. [See related article.]