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Stamford Advocate - April 17, 2008
A call for gun control - Protest marks anniversary
of Va. Tech shootings
By Zach Lowe, Staff Writer
STAMFORD - At 9, Peter Pillari knows Virginia
Tech played his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees,
during spring training, but he is starting to understand the
school's role in the gun control debate.
"I know you can go to a gun show and buy one,"
Peter said yesterday after he and 39 other protesters laid
on the ground outside state Superior Court to commemorate
the first anniversary of the shootings. "And some bad guy
can just go and buy a gun and kill people."
It was one of nearly 80 "lie-ins" nationwide
in which protesters, many wearing ribbons in Virginia Tech's
maroon and orange, laid on the ground for three minutes -
the length of time it took gunman Seung-Hui Cho to purchase
the firearms he used to kill 32 people and then himself.
The protests were organized by ProtestEasyGuns.com,
an organization Virginia resident Abby Spangler formed after
the shootings. A similar event was held in New Haven, and
members of the victims' rights group Survivors of Homicide
gathered in Hartford to recognize National Crime Victims week.
The Virginia Tech shootings triggered calls
for tougher gun laws and more oversight of mental health outpatients
in Virginia and around the United States.
"I thought it was really important for him
to see a protest on this kind of issue," said Peter's mother,
Abby Pillari, who also brought his younger brother, Matthew,
7.
The debate has extended to Connecticut, where
legislators and the gun lobby are discussing a bill that would
require all new semi-automatic pistols sold in the state to
have technology that marks each bullet cartridge with an alphanumeric
code unique to the gun.
Gun control advocates, including many present
yesterday, have called for Connecticut to eliminate a rule
that allows customers at gun shows to buy long guns, such
as rifles and shotguns, without a background check.
Proponents of microstamping, including the Southport-based
Connecticut Against Gun Violence, have pushed the technology
as the equivalent of a fingerprint.
But opponents in the legislature and the gun
lobby have said the technology is unreliable because the code,
which is on the gun's firing pin, may deteriorate with frequent
use.
State Rep. Arthur O'Neill, R-Southbury, has
said he is concerned that criminals could steal guns from
innocent owners and use them at crime scenes to pin shootings
on someone else.
"They make it sound like this is the equivalent
of a fingerprint," O'Neill said last month. "It certainly
is not that."
Lisa Labella, co-executive director of Connecticut
Against Gun Violence, said police could easily sort through
the evidence and separate the innocent from the guilty.
"The code is a piece of evidence that can start
police on the right trail," she said.
California is the only state that has mandatory
micro-stamping, leading to concerns that enacting the law
in Connecticut would be meaningless with so few other states
on board.
New York legislators are discussing micro-stamping,
and Connecticut supporters say passing the law here could
create momentum nationwide.
Erin Conway, a Darien resident and friend of
Spangler who organized yesterday's demonstration in Stamford,
said she would support what she termed "common sense" gun
laws.
"This isn't about being anti-gun," Conway said.
"It's about common sense."
Copyright (c) 2008, Southern Connecticut Newspapers,
Inc.
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