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Bloomberg <em>Really</em> Wants Congress To Fix Gun Background Checks
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 24, 2011
Modified Jan 24, 2011
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 24, 2011
Modified Jan 24, 2011
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Earlier this month, Mayor Bloomberg blasted current gun laws that allowed Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of attempting to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to buy a gun. Now, with his Mayors Against Illegal Guns group, he has started a new crusade to reform the background checks on gun purchases. According to the campaign, Bloomberg, other lawmakers, and victims of gun violence want Congress to do two things: "1) fulfill the letter of the historic 1968 gun law and ensure that all names of people prohibited from buying a gun are in the background check system; and 2) fulfill the intent of the historic 1968 gun law by subjecting every gun sale to a background check."
Bloomberg said, "The time has clearly come to finally fulfill the intent of the common sense gun law passed after the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, by creating a loophole-free background check system for the sale of firearms. Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns - and most of them are purchased or possessed illegally." And Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino said, "There are those who fail to truly read the 2nd amendment. They ignore the need for a common sense approach to guns in our communities. The best way to respond to the heinous acts of violence we have seen in our nation's history is to prevent them from ever happening again. Lax screening in response to these tragic shootings is no virtue."
The Brady Bill, which went into effect in 1994, was supposed to create a national background check system, but the NY Times reports that Mayors Against Illegal Guns believes it's "flawed because it does not have records on millions of people who should be disqualified from buying or possessing guns. Ten states have not submitted any mental health records to the background check system, and 18 states have provided fewer than 100 mental health records," according to the group.
Martin Luther King III lent his support to the push, as did relatives and friends of victims from the LIRR, Virginia Tech, Columbine and Tuscon shootings. Vada Vasquez, the Bronx teen who was shot in the head from stray gunfire, was also there; she was shot in the same part of the brain as Rep. Giffords and she told the Daily News that she thinks Giffords can make it.
The group launched a new advocacy website, Fix Gun Checks. Bloomberg started Mayors Against Illegal Guns in 2006.
Tagged
2nd amendment
gabrielle giffords
gun background check
gun control
gun purchase
gun violence
guns
mayor bloomberg
mayors against illegal guns
second amendment
tucson shooting
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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