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Sudbury prides itself in being a healthy, family-centered town. The presence of a gun store that is in high visibility and blending in with the general retail activity in our community will only have negative consequences.
This will normalize the access to firearms making them seem like ordinary sporting goods when in fact they are designed to be instruments of great mortal harm. This encourages average people to imagine they should be armed, that gun use is normal, which leads to an increase in guns to be in the home and motor vehicle, thus ever more accessible. This will desensitize youngsters and encourage violent fantasization. Those experiencing suicidal ideation may be further fueled by seeing that a gun is readily available. Guns are the first choice among those attempting suicide because they know they will succeed. More than half of all suicides in the United States are by firearms and the rate of suicides has increased every year, particularly among our youth and adolescents.
Ready access to guns encourages guns to be the instant solution to personal problems and conflicts. Gun violence in entertainment media is given a pathway to personal realization. To desensitize people to the presence of guns will only expand the use of and harm by firearms.
Guns in a community increases crime in a community. It prompts break-ins of homes and automobiles. The proliferation of gun stores facilitates straw purchases, guns acquired illegally and used in criminal activity elsewhere.
If a community is to be offered legal access to guns, it should not be a public display. Better yet, that source of supply should be nowhere near our home and community. Sudbury, with its excellent school system, is valued as a community that prioritizes the education, health and safety of its children, making it a very desirable town for young families to buy a home in. Having one, and possibly two, gun shops on Rt. 20 at Sudbury’s gateway from Wayland, with only a 250-foot setback from sensitive areas, would degrade Sudbury as a valued residential community.
We should have no gun stores in Sudbury. Town Meeting Article 16 is ill-conceived and, in its present form, should be voted down. Come to Town Meeting on May 6 and take citizen action for a safe Sudbury.
Frank Riepe & Marilyn Unger-Riepe
Sudbury, MA