The weapons found in East Boston last week [2] are just the latest seized this year, Mayor Tom Menino and Police Commissioner Ed Davis say in a plea for tougher federal action on guns.
"Let's make it tougher for felons, domestic abusers and other dangerous criminals to get guns," Davis said in a statement [3]. "We need federal legislation that would require gun buyers to pass criminal background checks and prohibit any private citizen from owning military style high capacity firearms. It is clear these types of weapons have one purpose, to kill large numbers of people quickly, and it is essential we get these guns off our streets."
Menino and Davis said 60% of the illegal guns seized in Boston arrived from out of state. They also pointed to an October raid in Roslindale [4] that netted "seven high powered weapons and more than a thousand rounds of ammunition."