Are you one of the 90% of Americans who support common-sense, comprehensive background checks on all gun sales?

If you are, how about taking a minute to sign a petition to let your representatives and senators know where you stand?

Our legislators make the journey back to Washington, D.C., for the first day of the Fall session on September 9. Before they get there, Mayors Against Illegal Guns wants to deliver seven backpacks to the doorsteps of every local congressional and senate office across the country.

Are you asking yourself why seven backpacks?  Every day thirty-three Americans lose their lives to gun violence.  Among them are seven innocent children. Each one of those backpacks will be filled with signatures calling for comprehensive background checks that should help to make sure that every child will be around to start the school year.  The backpacks will also be a graphic reminder to those who have voted time and again against background checks of their abandonment of their first and most solemn duty—to protect the children.

Seven is a sickening number. Today as you read this post: Seven more dead.  Tomorrow and the day after and the day after. Seven plus seven plus seven. Add up the lost lives.  The math certainly isn’t difficult.

Isn’t it time we ask ourselves how many more sevens we’re going to turn away from? Go to this website, and click on “Sign the Petition.”

It’s the least we can do.

2011, Mayors Against Illegal Guns

The post The seven-backpack solution: Sign the background-check petition appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Yes, Virginia, there can be a conversation about gun control. Think Progress has identified five regulations that NRA members have said they support. According to Think Progress, new research released in July by Republican pollster Frank Luntz for Mayors against Illegal Guns, finds that gun advocates overwhelmingly support common-sense measures typically described as “gun control.”  Here’s a summary:

1. Requiring criminal background checks on gun owners and gun shop employees. 87 percent of non-NRA gun-owners and 74 percent of NRA gun owners support the former, and 80 percent and 79 percent, respectively, endorse the latter.

2. Prohibiting terrorist watch list members from acquiring guns. Support ranges from 80 percent among non-NRA gun-owners to 71 percent among NRA members.

3. Mandating that gun-owners tell the police when their gun is stolen. 71 percent non-NRA gun-owners support this measure, as do 64 percent of NRA members.

4. Concealed carry permits should only be restricted to individuals who have completed a safety training course and are 21 and older. 84 percent of non-NRA and 74 percent of NRA member gun-owners support the safety training restriction, and the numbers are 74 percent and 63 percent for the age restriction.

5. Concealed carry permits shouldn’t be given to perpetrators of violent misdemeanors or individuals arrested for domestic violence. The NRA/non-NRA gun-owner split on these issues is 81 percent and 75 percent in favor of the violent misdemeanors provision and 78 percent/68 percent in favor of the domestic violence restriction.

So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get a federal law with these policies through Congress immediately. Even the hardest-line, NRA-funded Congresspeople would have a tough time opposing it, given the overwhelming public support for these provisions–particularly among NRA members. It would be an excellent  way to break apart Congressional gridlock, demonstrate a good faith effort to do something positive, and start a shamefully overdue conversation about gun violence in America. Enough hand-wringing, praying, hiding behind the gun lobby’s interpretation of the Second Amendment,  and symbolic lowering of flags to half-mast. Let’s get to work. If Congress can’t pass this one, after what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, they might as well turn off the lights and go home.

The post 5 gun regulations that even NRA members support appeared first on Occasional Planet.

The coalition of 550 Mayors Against Illegal Guns is on the road to your community. The Democratic and Republican mayors who hail from states across the country have gone into high gear to publicize their campaign to keep guns out of the hands of individuals prohibited from buying firearms.

It’s a high-profile road trip. A specially outfitted mobile truck with an in-your-face billboard clock displays the number of Americans murdered with guns since the Tucson tragedy.  And the number of lives lost since January 8th? A mind-numbing, gut-wrenching 1,565.

The billboard truck made its debut on February 16, 2011, in New York City’s Times Square. It has now hit the road to visit more than 25 states across the country over the next two months.  As of the writing of this post, the campaign is making stops in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus, Ohio. At every destination the awareness campaign will be meeting with local mayors, law-enforcement officials, religious leaders, victims of gun violence, and sportsmen. Their goal is to highlight the groundswell of support for taking measures to ensure that guns do not end up in the hands of felons, the mentally ill, or individuals on the terrorist watch list.

Send the records. Close the gaps.

The mayors’ goals may be summed up in two, easy-to-remember prescriptions: “send the records” and “close the gaps.” The mayors hope that the tour will personalize the issue by publicizing the stories of people touched by gun violence across the country.  They hope, too, to build political pressure on states to fulfill their legal obligations under the 2007 National Instant Check System Improvement Act.

You may follow the tour’s progress and check if the road trip will be visiting your community by visiting the online campaign at www.fixgunchecks.org.

Scorecard

Lending credence to the focus of the mayors’ cross-country campaign is a report released on February 17, 2011, by the Associated Press detailing the dismal record of some states to comply with the 2007 National Instant Check System. According to writer Greg Bluestein:

More than half the states are not complying with a post-Virginia Tech law that requires them to share the names of mentally ill people with the national background-check system to prevent them from buying guns, an Associated Press review has found.

The deadline for complying with the three-year-old law was last month. But nine states haven’t supplied any names to the database.  Seventeen others have sent in fewer than 25, meaning gun dealers around the U.S. could be running names of would-be buyers against a woefully incomplete list.

Eleven states have provided more than 1,000 records apiece to the federal database, yet gun-control groups have estimated more than 1 million files are missing nationwide. New York has submitted more than 100,000 records.

Congress has doled out only a fraction of the $1.3 billion it promised between 2009 and 2013 to help states and courts cover the costs of the 2008 law.

For some states, the amount of federal grant money they could be penalized for not complying is less than what it would cost them to get their records-sharing systems up to speed.

…California has shared records of more than 250,000 people, Virginia more than 100,000, according to records AP obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request in late 2010.

The states that have failed to submit any mental health records are:  Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota.

Seventeen states submitted very few records: Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.…Several states have also struggled to amend their privacy laws that restrict the release of health information, and others have had to create an appeals process for those who say they have been wrongly barred for mental health reasons from buying a gun.

A commonsense approach

Momentum to take effective action gathered steam last week at the federal level when, on February 14, 2011, a public comment period expired for a measure under consideration by the Obama administration.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has requested that the White House direct the agency to exercise their authority to require that licensed gun dealers report when a buyer purchases multiple assault weapons, such as AK-47s, along the U.S. Mexico border.  Currently, gun dealers are required only to report multiple sales of handguns.

Why are bulk sales of deadly assault weapons exempt from the reporting requirement? This is more than just an academic question.  The AK-47 is the weapon of choice of the Mexican drug cartels responsible for a wave of violence in Mexico that is spreading across the American border.

The statistics are staggering: 90% of guns recovered and traced in Mexico are purchased from gun dealers in the U.S.  This month alone, the ATF charged 34 individuals with purchasing 700 guns that ended up in Mexico.  One buyer in Phoenix, Arizona, purchased more than 100 AK-47s in a single month.

On February 23, 2011, Senator Chuck Schumer announced legislation that would

• Get all names of people who should be prohibited from buying guns into the NICS.
• Require background checks for every gun sale in the U.S.

The post Campaign against illegal guns goes on the road appeared first on Occasional Planet.

I just got this video from Mayors Against Illegal Guns. It’s the  most effective advocacy I’ve ever seen. “Every day, 34 American families say goodbye to a parent, child, or sibling murdered with guns,” says  the explanatory copy that accompanies the video.   “In this moving video, family members from across the country remember the loved ones they’ve lost and speak out about the real cost of gun violence. Unfortunately, the political debate about guns has gotten so loud that the voices of those closest to the issue can’t always be heard.”

The post A video the gun lobby doesn’t want you to see appeared first on Occasional Planet.

With polling numbers showing that a majority of Americans support sensible, effective measures like those proposed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, why is it so hard to enact policies that protect the public?  Here is a partial list of the obstacles:

Campaign contributions and lobbying

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in the 2010 election cycle, the Institute for Legislative Action, the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association, gave contributions to candidates totaling $1,200,910. Two-thirds of that total went to Republicans in the House and Senate. The NRA has 4 million members. Its stated lobbying mission is “to defeat restrictive gun-control legislation, pass pro-gun reform legislation, and to educate the public about the facts concerning the many facets of firearms ownership.” The organization’s annual lobbying budget for 2010 was $2,045,000.

Vacancy at the top of ATF

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is the federal agency tasked with combating illegal gun trafficking. In 2006, during the Bush administration, Congress gave the Senate the power to confirm the director of the agency. Since that year, the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director.  In those four years, while the agency’s officially confirmed directorship has gone unfilled, 50,000 more Americans have been killed by firearms.

Continuing the saga of the headless agency, on November 17, 2010, President Obama nominated as his choice for director Andrew Traver, a 23-year veteran of the ATF and chief of ATF’s Chicago office.  Traver’s nomination was supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Gun Violence Reduction Project, a national program supported by police chiefs. The nomination, however, received strong opposition from the NRA, due primarily to Traver’s advocacy for banning the sale of assault weapons. The Senate Judiciary Committee, during the lame-duck Congress, did not take up the nomination, which means that President Obama is required to resubmit Traver’s nomination during the new Congress.

Blocked research

On January 25, 2011, journalist Michael Luo published a story entitled, “N.R.A. Stymies Firearms Research, Scientists Say” in the New York Times. Luo interviewed scientists who reported suppression of data gathering at the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention.  He writes:

In the wake of the shootings in Tucson, the familiar questions inevitably resurfaced:  Are communities where more people carry guns safer or less safe?  Does the availability of high-capacity magazines increase deaths?  Do more rigorous background checks make a difference?

The reality is that even these and other basic questions cannot be fully answered, because not enough research has been done.  And there is a reason for that.  Scientists in the field and former officials with the government agency that used to finance the great bulk of this research say the influence of the National Rifle Association has all but choked off money for such work…

…The amount of money available today for studying the impact of firearms is a fraction of what it was in the mid-1990s, and the number of scientists toiling in the field has dwindled to just a handful as a result, researchers say. . . . The dearth of money can be traced in large measure to a clash between public health scientists and the NRA in the mid-1990s.  At the time, Dr. Rosenberg and others at the CDC were becoming increasingly assertive about the importance of studying gun-related injuries and deaths as a public health phenomenon, financing studies that found, for example, having a gun in the house, rather than conferring protection, significantly increased the risk of homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance.

Initially, pro-gun lawmakers sought to eliminate the injury center completely, arguing that its work was “redundant” and reflected a political agenda.  When they failed they turned to the appropriations process.

Proliferation of illegal guns and the crisis of deadly crime that their availability fosters are not inevitable. Obstacles to fixing the problem, such as effective leadership, data gathering, and limiting the influence of special interests are identifiable and actionable with enough political will. If polling numbers are accurate, contrary to popular political narrative, the majority of gun owners and non-gun owners agree on the need to control illegal guns. Federal laws already on the books could be highly effective.  Currently, twenty out of twenty-two of those laws are not aggressively enforced.  As Mayors Against Illegal Guns points out, laws are passed to satisfy public outcry, but the necessary funding to put them into effect is not. Fixing that one piece of the puzzle would be a beginning.

The post Why can’t we get real about illegal guns? appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Another senseless mass killing has put the issue of gun control and illegal guns front and center in the public debate.  Sadly, we’ve been here before. Tucson. Columbine. Fort Hood. Virginia Tech. West Nickel Mines Amish School. After every tragedy Americans seem to have a bout of national soul searching that evaporates with the next headlined crisis.

Still, taking a moment to consider the statistics should make all of us weep: (Sources:  The Children’s Defense Fund and the National Center for Health Statistics)

• 1 child killed by gunfire every 3 hours.8 children killed by gunfire every day
• 50 children killed by gunfire every week
• 34 adults and children killed by gunfire every day
• 511 police officers killed by gunfire over the past decade
• 3,012 children and teens killed by gunfire in a single year
• 90,000 children and teens killed by gunfire between 1979 and 2001
• 400,000 Americans killed by gunfire since 1968.

Now, 500 mayors representing red and blue states across this country want to move beyond weeping.  They are working to change the conversation and challenge  lawmakers to go beyond symbolic mourning and take effective action to protect the citizenry. Even before the most recent headline-grabbing tragedy in Tucson, the mayors had joined together in the fight to save the lives of our children and loved ones from the scourge of crimes using illegal guns.

Putting to rest the notion that crimes with illegal guns are centered solely in mega-urban areas or in one region alone, the mayors hail from cities large and small as well as small towns in thirty-eight states.  (States not represented are Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.)

They call themselves Mayors Against Illegal Guns.  The organization was founded in 2006 by Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, and Thomas Menino, mayor of Boston, who serve as chair and co-chair, respectively.  The founding group consisted of fifteen mayors.   Today the organization is committed to “supporting the Second Amendment and the rights of citizens to own guns” while calling for stricter enforcement of existing laws.

The mayors’ coalition—unique in that its members are elected officials who are on the frontlines of enforcement — is the newest advocate on the block among leading organizations calling for stricter enforcement of existing laws and more strict gun-control legislation:  The Violence Policy Center, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the Brady Campaign, Americans United for Safe Streets, and The Joyce Foundation.

Since the tragic shooting in Tucson, the coalition has raised the volume on its public calls for action with an open letter published in The Washington Post on January 25, 2010, challenging President Obama and Congress to “fix the broken background check system by taking two important steps:  Ensure the names of all people who should be prohibited from buying a gun are in the system and close the loopholes in the background check system by requiring a background check for every gun sale.” Increased media appearances by Mayor Bloomberg and the release of an online undercover video, entitled “Gun Show Undercover Arizona,” videotaped by New York City undercover investigators at a gun show in Phoenix two weeks after the Tucson shooting, highlight the  background-check loopholes at gun shows.

The Statement of Principles signed by every mayor in the coalition could not be more sensible:

Whereas:  30,000 Americans across the country are killed every year as a result of gun violence, destroying families and communities in big cities and small towns; and

Whereas:  As Mayors, we are duty-bound to do everything in our power to protect our residents, especially our children, from harm and there is no greater threat to public safety than the threat of illegal guns;

Now, therefore, we resolve to work together to find innovative new ways to advance the following principles:

Punish–to the maximum extent of the law–criminals who possess, use, and traffic in illegal guns.

Target and hold accountable irresponsible gun dealers who break the law by knowingly selling guns to straw purchasers.

Oppose all federal efforts to restrict cities’ right to access, use, and share trace data that is so essential to effective enforcement, or to interfere with the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to combat illegal gun trafficking.

Work to develop and use technologies that aid in the detection and tracing of illegal guns.

Support all local state and federal legislation that targets illegal guns; coordinate legislative, enforcement, and litigation strategies; and share information and best practices.

Invite other cities to join us in this new national effort.

[Editor’s note: To see if your mayor is a member, check Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ roster here.]

On January 18, 2010, Mayors Against Illegal Guns released the results of a poll sponsored by the group. To demonstrate that the consensus opinion crosses party lines, the poll was conducted by two pollsters:  Momentum Analysis who focused on Democratic clients and American Viewpoint who focused on Republican clients.  The results demonstrate a broad consensus, even among gun owners, that supports tougher laws to keep guns out of the hands of felons, the mentally ill, drug abusers, and individuals on the terrorist watch list.

• 86% of Americans support background checks on all gun sales.
• 81% of gun owners support background checks on all gun sales.
• 90% of Americans, including gun owners, support fixing gaps in the government’s database that is intended to prevent the mentally ill, drug abusers, felons, and individuals on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns.

The mayors have developed a commonsense approach that includes:

Closing the Terror Gap: Under federal law as it stands on the books today, individuals on the terrorist watch list may legally purchase firearms and explosives.

 

Closing the Loophole: Currently, individuals may purchase firearms at gun shows without a background check.  Instituting background checks at gun shows is supported by 85% of gun owners.

Providing a Blueprint for Federal Action:

 

1. Improving background checks.
2. Policing problematic gun shows.
3. ATF resources and structure.
4. More effective crime gun tracing.
5. More effective partnering among government, law enforcement, community groups, and responsible gun industry representatives.
6. Enforcement of existing laws on especially dangerous firearms.

Mayor Bloomberg and the other 499 mayors of Mayors Against Illegal Guns seem to be working with renewed dedication to use the media’s focus, following the latest tragedy, to create momentum to guide the body politic toward a more sensible, commonsense approach to gun safety.  In a recent interview on the Rachel Maddow Show, Bloomberg shared his hopes—and perhaps the hopes of many—when he said, “One of these days the public is going to say ‘enough’.”

The post Mayors vs. illegal guns appeared first on Occasional Planet.