AG Holder Addresses UMass Law Students About Gun Violence

DARTMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has told an audience at the University of Massachusetts Law School in Dartmouth that they share in a "critical responsibility" to address gun violence.

Holder spoke Friday to law students, faculty and members of the state's law enforcement community.

The attorney general said in prepared remarks that an epidemic of gun violence "is one of the defining issues of our time," whose urgencny has come into focus since the December school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

Holder said the Obama Administration has proposed legislation and taken executive actions, but none alone will solve the problem.

He said citizens need to join the national discussion and speak out for meaningful changes to help keep communities safe.

He said his audience, as "stewards of the justice system," has a special responsibility for the future.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.