By Dakota Antelman, Contributing Writer
Stephen Mashell and Carol Haagensen stand with their signs and wave to passersby during the rally.
Northborough – Nearly 40 residents gathered in Northborough Oct. 14 at the site of the future Town Common to show their support for the existing Mass. assault weapons ban. The rally came nine days after many of the participants attended a talk by U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D – MA 2) at the Northborough Library as part of an event organized by the political advocacy group, Indivisible Boroughs.
The rally lasted roughly two hours. Though police set up barricades around the area and lingered nearby once the event began, there were no notable counter protests.
“It’s up to us to be sensible and take into consideration the public safety,” said Arlene Marshall, citing Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s decision in the 2009 DC v Heller case as basis for her claim. “That’s it. We can ban assault rifles. We can ban high capacity magazines, and we can take care of our population.”
The participants cited they were inspired to organize the rally after listening to McGovern talk about the problem of growing gun violence across the country.
“When he spoke about Las Vegas and other such massacres that have been occurring so frequently in this country, many of us felt a call to action,” said Linda Corbin, one of the organizers of the Oct. 14 event.
In addition to the McGovern event, the rally came as an opposition to a recent lawsuit filed by the Northborough-based Gun Owners Action League challenging Attorney General Maura Healey’s 2016 Enforcement Notice banning assault weapons in Massachusetts.
Carol Fisher came to the event opposed to the assault weapons Healey banned, but not opposed to gun ownership entirely. She noted how her cousins, who live in South Texas, own and use guns in a way she supports.
“My cousin loves guns, he must have 20 of them but not one of them is automatic,” she said. “There is never a need for an automatic rifle. It is not what you use to hunt and it is not what you use to protect yourself.”
As McGovern and other politicians debate how to regulate assault weapons, residents at the Oct. 14 event hope they can prompt bipartisan conversation in suburban American towns like Northborough about the same issue.
“I think Northborough is diverse and the way that people coexist is that they’re just silent and they just avoid it,” said Cathy Duchesneau, later adding, “People are in difficult circumstances and they don’t want to rock the boat, so they just avoid it. I think the opposite is where we need to be.”
Photos/Video /Dakota Antelman
Cathy Duchesneau makes a sign early in the event.
Jeanne Cahill holds her sign.
Dianna DiLeo (center) smiles and talks to her fellow rally participants during the event.