Plenty of interest groups and advocates hold lobby days and discussion panels at the State House trying to pressure lawmakers into action on gun violence prevention, but few have the kind of hands-on experience with the issue like the state's surgeons.
At the advocacy day for the state chapter of the American College of Surgeons, doctors and policymakers pushed the idea of coordinating a patchwork of local gun buyback programs into regional or even statewide efforts to get firearms off the streets.
Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian moderated the gun violence panel and told WGBH News he wants to coordinate with programs like Worcester's gun buyback, which has taken thousands of firearms off the streets, in state or national efforts.
"When so many are doing them, there are synergies that are created, we connect with people that didn't know about them and we can make an easier place to turn weapons in even if they don't have something on that day in their hometown," Koutoujian said.
According to Koutoujian, Middlesex county's gun buyback programs have taken 450 firearms off the streets. Koutoujian is now urging state leaders to expand beyond local programs to create regional buybacks that can reach the entire state.
"The total cost ... for doing gun buybacks, for the last 14 years, of $149,000 is less than taking care of four gunshot wound victims in our hospital system," pediatric surgeon Dr. Michael Hirsh told the State house News Service.
Surgeons aren't known for wasting time, so their morning on Beacon Hill cut straight to the point with discussion titles like "The Surgical Experience in Response to Firearm Violence" and "Are We Ready? Preparing for the Next Mass Casualty Incident."
A mass shooting like the kind the surgeons are preparing for, the June attack at an Orlando nightclub that left 49 dead, failed to move Congress to pass further federal gun control bills. The Massachusetts Legislature passed their own gun safety measure in 2014, but have far less authority to alter gun laws without a federal law.
"I am hopeful that although the individual states may be taking steps in the right direction, we must implore our legislative leaders, especially in Washington, to take action," House Speaker Robert DeLeo said to the surgeons Tuesday.
While the medical community tries to work with policymakers on ways to stem gun violence, Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans says we're moving in the right direction.
"I think we got one of the safest cities in this country," Evans said on WGBH News' Boston Public Radio Tuesday during his monthly "Ask the Commissioner" segment. Evans reported that crime in the city is down six percent year to date from 2015.
"Our shootings last year are at an all-time low over the last 16 to 20 years," Evans said, adding the decrease in crime is also accompanied by a 25 percent decrease in the number of arrests made.
"A lot of communities like Chicago and Milwaukee are experiencing major, major increases in violent crime and we're going in the opposite direction," Evans said on BPR.
The year's not over yet, but Boston's dropping crime stat may end up beating the trend nationwide. Violent crime in the nation's 30 largest cities is expected to rise this year, according to a study by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice.
The study is heavily affected by a spike in violent crime and homicides in Chicago, the only city of the 30 largest to see an increase.
"It's definitely too early to tell what's happening in these cities and whether this is a long-term trend we should be concerned about or whether this is a year-to-year fluctuation," Brennan Center at New York University School of Law justice program director Inimai Chettiar told NPR News this week.
