Print

Mail

wiki links

US mayors call for new gun control measures

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, listens to J. P. Suarez, senior vice president of Wal-Mart, at a national summit of mayors in Washington on Monday. PHOTO: AFP

Dozens of mayors of US cities gathered in Washington on Monday to propose “common sense” measures to better control gun sales across the country, one year after the deadliest school shooting in the country’s history.

Through the “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” initiative, which brings together some 300 Democratic, Republican and independent mayors, the city leaders blasted the timidity of local and national lawmakers who refuse to strengthen legislation.

“There are 34 people murdered every single day. That’s two more than Virginia Tech,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, referring to last April’s shootings at a campus in the state of Virginia.

The group aims to broadcast a public service announcement calling for an end to the so-called “gun-show loophole,” which excludes merchants at gun shows from having to conduct federally mandated background checks on buyers. Closing the loophole is supported by all three main candidates for the US presidency this year.

“You can walk into a gun show, having a criminal record a mile long, and just walk up to a counter and buy 20 guns and walk out the door with no checks and no federal restrictions whatsoever,” Bloomberg said. “It is just craziness.”

John Peyton, the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, stressed the need for a “common-sense approach to really trying to get illegal guns off the streets.”

“It’s not about ideology, it’s really about public safety,” he said.

The mayors also proposed a code of behavior for gun dealers, which would require video surveillance at sales counters, a computerized alert network, identity checks for buyers, and the power of employees to refuse a sale if they believe the buyer poses a danger.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, unveiled plans on Monday to film its gun sales in the US and create a computerized log of purchases in a bid to stop guns falling into the wrong hands.

Wal-Mart, which is the largest seller of firearms in the US, agreed to a 10-point code, which also includes rigid inventory controls, with the group of mayors.

The retailer said it would develop a first-of-its-kind computerized crime gun trace log that will flag purchases by customers who have previously bought guns later recovered in crimes.

“Wal-Mart currently uses a strong point of sale system,” said J.P. Suarez, senior vice president and chief compliance officer of Wal-Mart. “This code is a way for us to fine-tune the things we’re already doing and further strengthen our standards. We hope other retailers will join us.”

The Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership is designed to strengthen the points in the gun purchasing system that criminals have exploited in the past, Wal-Mart and Mayors Against Illegal Guns said.

According to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 46 percent of its criminal gun trafficking investigations involved cases in which someone who is not legally allowed to purchase a firearm does so through the use of a proxy, known as a straw buyer.

Last April 16, a 23-year-old university student went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech that killed 32 students and staff and wounded dozens of others. He then shot and killed himself.
This story has been viewed 987 times.