This State Journal editorial ran on April 17, 1974:
The proposal to ban the sale of handguns in the city of Madison will probably stir up as much controversy as the question of where to build an auditorium.
The city proposal, backed by an unlikely alliance of Mayor Paul Soglin and Ald. Jay Wexler, if passed will do little to further the cause of those who think gun possession and use should be more strictly regulated.
For any gun control law to work well, it would have to be imposed on a national basis. As Wexler conceded, a city ordinance banning gun sales would be only symbolic.
While no serious person contends that a city ban on the sale of guns would significantly reduce violent crimes in Madison, such a symbolic ordinance could set a tone to at least point up the problem of gun traffic and help trigger a nationwide effort to match the well-financed efforts of the gun lobby to the contrary.
People are also reading…
The need for gun regulation is obvious.
Though political assassinations and attempted assassinations dramatize the danger of unregulated gun ownership, they represent only a tiny percentage of the tragedies associated with guns in this country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reported that on a yearly basis more than 11,000 Americans are murdered by gunfire. More than 65% of all murders are by gunfire. Guns are used in 63% of all robberies and 24% of all aggravated assaults. ...
More stringent gun control is of the utmost importance. The Soglin-Wexler proposal is a tiny, symbolic step in the right direction, but a step nevertheless.