Posted on 04/09/2009 12:04:29 AM PDT by neverdem
America's mayors are alarmed by the string of mass shootings that have occurred in recent weeks in cities across the nation. This epidemic serves as a stark reminder that the easy availability of guns often turns domestic and personal disputes into acts of murder. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families, their neighbors, and their communities in:
-- Samson, AL, where 10 people were killed on March 10;
-- Oakland, CA, where four police officers were killed on March 21;
-- Carthage, NC - eight nursing home residents were killed on March 29;
-- Santa Clara, CA, where five family members were killed March 29;
-- Binghamton, NY, where 13 people were killed April 3;
-- Graham, WA, where five children were killed April 4;
-- Pittsburgh, PA, where three police officers were killed April 4; and-- Miami, FL - my city, where in the last few weeks 12 members of three families have been killed in three separate incidents.
In most of these incidents the shooters lives were also taken, in four cases by their own hand, in one by police. And these are the dramatic shootings that garner considerable public attention. We haven't heard as much about the 84 deaths involving firearms, including 34 homicides, which occur on an average day in our nation.
The Conference of Mayors has advocated for strong gun safety policy for more than 40 years. Late last year we made gun safety a key element in our National Action Agenda on Crime for the Next President of the United States. There are six points in the agenda, which mayors and police chiefs are calling for:
1. A strengthened, effective ban on military-style assault weapons, such as
AK-47s, and their component parts must be reinstated.
2. Common sense gun legislation, such as that advocated by Mayors Against
Illegal Guns, should be enacted. Such legislation should close the gun
show loophole; keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, and no longer
permit gun dealers whose licenses are revoked to conduct fire sales.
3. Legislation should be enacted which would limit the number of guns a
person may purchase in a single transaction or in a month or other
specified period of time.
4. Law enforcement agencies' access to gun trace data should not be
limited in any way by either state or federal law - for example, by any
version of the so-called Tiahrt amendment.
5. Anyone purchasing a firearm in the United States should be required to go
through a background check. Full funding should be provided for the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System and states should be
required to submit records, including those involving persons with
serious mental health problems, to the NICS.6. The Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) should be expanded to include ballistic images for all new guns, not just those involved in crimes. The federal government should support the development of new technologies, such as micro stamping, which can help solve crimes.
This latest epidemic of shootings has left all of us asking: How many more gun-related acts of violence must we experience before the nation's leaders will decide that it is time to act? We urge quick action on these proposals by Congress and the Administration.
SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors
We have a problem. And guns are it.
We have a problem. And people are it.
We have no problem.
I think there are some freepers who take number three. I dont see any way you can ignore this problem, despite various reasons as to why the phenomonen occurs. The common ground of everyone, at the very leat, realizing this is a major problem in our society would be a good starting point.
http://www.usmayors.org/about/overview.asp
http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/about/members.shtml
Transcript of Binghamton Shooter's Letter
In Recession, Some Cities Printing Own Cash
COPS: 98 SHOTS FIRED DURING BINGHAMTON SHOOTING SPREE some more info
Proposed gun measure still in holster (Rats in Albany Co., NY want to register ammunition sales.)
and how about committing the emotional disturbed and schizophrenic patient into the proper hospitals and institutions instead of having them walking the streets listening to little voices telling them to shoot people and pushing people in front of oncoming subways.
I believe the word for their mentality is: “BAAA!”
U.S. Traitors do what? Get strung up?
SSDD. Same old gun grabber agenda.
68,000,000 lawful gun owners didn’t kill anybody since the first of the year.
More polidiot control is what we need......bunch of friggin seditious assholes need to be ruining their own lives versus real Americans who adhere to self reliance and take responsibility for their own lives !
Let America evolve versus what Democrat control freaks are doing to us .
Stay safe !
I don’t see why we don’t just outlaw murder.
Right, because terrorists won't be able to get firearms if such legislation is passed, right? Freaking morons.
Be Ever Vigilant!
Europe, 1933-1945. 14 million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, unionists disarmed and them murdered.
Vietnam/Cambodia, 1973-1976. 3.5 million people disarmed and then hanged, disemboweled, suffocated, skinned alive, etc.
Register minorities, not guns.
How many more threats to our constitutional rights and liberty are we going to experience before free people decide that it is time to act?
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