Does Chelmsford's Proximity to New Hampshire Impact Local Opinions on Gun Control?

Do Chelmsford residents believe assault weapons and large ammunition clips need to be banned again elsewhere in the country, and does Chelmsford's proximity to the Granite State impact that opinion?

According to the Boston Globe, 212 of 1,020 guns recovered in Massachusetts by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that were traced by to their state of origin came from either New Hampshire or Maine.

Advocates of expanding gun laws in Massachusetts, including some top law enforcement officials, spoke on the subject Thursday in Boston, according to the Boston Herald.

Those who spoke at the Art Institute Boston included the State Public Safety Secretary, a State Police Major, Boston's Police Commissioner and the chairman of Stop Handgun Violence, a nonprofit that supports further gun control, according to the Herald. They asked Sen. Scott Brown and others in congress to end their opposition to a ban of assault rifles and high volume ammunition clips.

A spokesmen for Brown told the Boston Globe that the Senator believes such control should be up to states. In 2004, then-Governor Mitt Romney approved a permanent ban on assault weapons in Massachusetts. A federal assault weapon ban passed in 1994 expired in 2004 and hasn't since been renewed.

The Brady Campaign, a gun control advocacy group, ranked Massachusetts as having the third-strongest gun control laws in the country in 2011, trailing California and New Jersey.