PETER URBAN Newsroom@ctpost.com

WASHINGTON - Bridgeport, Conn., Mayor Bill Finch joined mayors from across the nation Monday in calling for stricter national regulations they claim will help prevent gun violence.

"We are not talking about infringing on the Second Amendment but keeping people from getting shot," Finch said. "We are talking about the illegal use of guns and these are four pragmatic things that can be done."

Finch and other members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns are urging Congress to adopt laws that would:

? Prohibit gun purchases by people on the Justice Departments' terrorist watch list.

? Close a "gun show loophole" that now allows some guns to be purchased without a background check.

? Close a "dealer loophole" that allows dealers who have had their license revoked to sell off their remaining inventory without performing background checks.

? And, require gun dealers to perform criminal background checks on employees.

Beyond these goals, the bipartisan coalition announced Monday that Wal-Mart, the nation's largest gun retailer, has signed on to a 10-point code to help ensure that the guns it sells do not fall into the wrong hands.

"We are proud to be part of this partnership to help keep our streets and neighborhoods safe," said J.P. Suarez, senior vice president and chief compliance officer at Wal-Mart.

Suarez said that the code would help the retailer strengthen its sales practices to keep guns out of the hands of criminals including expanding background checks, increasing inventory controls and retaining videotapes of gun sales that could later be made available to law enforcement.

Finch said that securing a partnership with Wal-Mart should help establish a national standard for responsible gun sales.

Finch was attending an annual summit of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group that was organized in 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to reduce gun violence in America. It now boasts a membership of more than 300 mayors from 40 states.

Bloomberg said that the public mood has shifted from the days when they viewed any restrictions on guns as an assault on the Second Amendment. Polls conducted by the group found that a vast majority of Americans support the common sense proposals advocated by the mayors.

"More than 80 percent support the four reforms we are talking about here," Bloomberg said. "The public wants to stop the craziness of letting people who are criminals get guns."

The mayors pointed to federal reports that link "loopholes" in the federal background check system with illegal gun use. A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives study indicated that 30 percent of guns involved in its illegal trafficking investigations were connected to gun shows. A report by the General Accountability Office found that people on a terrorist watch list had tried to buy guns 58 times and succeeded 47 times over a nine-month period in 2004.

And, in 2005 federal officials revoked the license of a gun dealer in Maryland who in a four-year period had 483 suspicious crime gun traces. The dealer went on to sell his remaining inventory of more than 700 guns as a "private" seller with no background checks performed.