Billboard calls for gun control as victims heal

Message hits home after night of multiple shootings in Boston

Less than 24 hours after a 4-year-old was struck by a stray bullet on the streets of Boston, a giant billboard was unveiled over the Mass. Pike, shedding light on the ease with which criminals can get their hands on guns in Massachusetts.

The 252-foot sign a block from Fenway Park takes a stab at the “gun show loophole” in federal gun laws, with a mock neon sign drawing in customers for no-questions-asked gun sales. Currently, private sellers at some 5,000 gun shows each year are able to dole out firearms without IDs or background checks, officials said.

“Cities and towns across the nation work diligently to get illegal guns off the streets, but the gun show loophole makes it harder to guarantee that weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands,” said Mayor Thomas Menino.

That may have been the case Monday, when three separate incidents sent six victims to area hospitals, including the 4-year-old and an older cousin. All victims are expected to survive, according to Boston Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. No arrests have been made.

The events began around 7:40 p.m. when the young boy was shot in the chest and his 17-year-old cousin struck in the elbow while on a porch in Roxbury. A suspect was taken into custody but later released, Driscoll said.

Just minutes later a victim was shot multiple times on Hamilton Street in Dorchester, and three more victims were found around 9:30 after shots rang out less than a mile away on Harvard Street.