Some good news for gun control:

Dismissing a lawsuit filed by gun retailers and the Gun Owners' Action League of Massachusetts, which sought to challenge the constitutionality of the state's 20-year-old law, U.S. District Judge William Young wrote (pdf) in a 47-page ruling, "The AR-15 and its analogs, along with large capacity magazines, are simply not weapons within the original meaning of the individual constitutional right to 'bear Arms.'"

"In the absence of federal legislation, Massachusetts is free to ban these weapons and large-capacity magazines. Other states are equally free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens.

What appears to a common sense decision for any rational person is a radical step forward considering our current judicial and political climate.

Protect children not guns. Foster peaceful communities.

"Strong gun laws save lives, and we will not be intimidated by the gun lobby in our efforts to end the sale of assault weapons and protect our communities and schools."

The rising tide of protest is getting results. Nonviolent tactics do work and are working:

The decision comes amid marches, town halls, and walkouts across the country to pressure policymakers to enact tougher restrictions on firearms, including bans similar to Massachusetts' law.

Upholding Assault Weapons Ban, Federal Judge Says Constitution Has Nothing To Say About Restricting the AR-15

Switching gears to a Counterpunch article, the real message is that Nonviolence works:

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral; begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

This is a battle for hearts and minds. A quest for inner peace that replaces hatred with compassion:

“Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in the smoke of confabulation. There can be no peace on earth without the kind of inner change that brings man back to his “right mind.”

—Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolent protest and demonstrations are the only way forward. Violent political and social forces are empowered by and crave a violent response:

This is why non-violence must be embraced as a principle. As long as violence can be used, it will be used by the wrong people for the wrong ends. This is a practical truth that must counter the idealism of militants who believe that they can defeat force through force.

Violence never solves any problem:

One can bomb a terrorist, but as long as people remain hungry and desperate, a new terrorist will rise. These assumptions too assume that the authorities who use such tactics are acting in the interests of society, rather than the interests of power. This is rarely the case.

The only way to stop violence is to embrace non-violence. It is through this discipline that a new society may emerge. Without such a discipline the victims of violence will continue to be mostly innocent.

Violence begets violence and plays into the hands of the powerful oppressive forces we are fighting:

It is only through the creation of a society that has no interest in using violence to solve its problems that justice will be achieved. As long as violence exists, it will be used by the wrong hands for the wrong ends. We will continue to react, rather than transform. It should be the way we act, not the way we react, that dictates the world we live in. Violence exists as a force that acts on abstract principles. As long as it remains it will be used by various actors for various ends.

It's good to have goals. Is a nonviolent society an achievable goal?
Well nobody said it was gonna be easy.
We have a long, hard road ahead of us. It is vital to remind ourselves that compassion conquers violence. Nonviolence and compassion are transformational forces.

Non-violence on the other hand is a refusal of violence that can be applied to any situation. It need not rely on anything. In an unjust and unfair world, it is the only act that gives us order. It is the only act that creates a possibility for fairness, justice and peace. If we let it guide us we can transform. If we fall to the whims of violence, our lives are out of our hands.

Nonviolence As A Principle