Major Parties Urged to Include Mandatory Gun Registration in Platform

The Republican and Democratic parties were urged today to commit themselves to legislation that would make mandatory the registration of “every single firearm in this country.” The plea was made by Morris B. Abram. president-elect of Brandeis University, before a gathering of State Trial Judges at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association here. In calling for such commitments to be incorporated into the political platforms of both major parties, Mr. Abram declared that “we, as a nation, cannot sustain the casual or premeditated slaughter invited by the unregulated presence of guns everywhere.”

Mr. Abram, a New York attorney and co-author of the monograph “How to Stop Violence in Your Community,” cited the use of guns in assassinations and homicide. He noted that since President Lincoln was assassinated, “seven out of 20 presidents have been attacked and four have been mortally wounded. In the same period, no chief of state of any other Western democracy has died at the hands of an assassin.” He referred to studies at Brandeis University’s Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence that showed America’s homicide rate to be the highest of any Western nation. “Last year in Great Britain there were 12 murders by gunshot. In the United States there were 5,000.” Mr. Abram said.