Imagine purchasing a firearm as easy as a click of a mouse from your personal computer in the comfort of your own home.

Now, a coalition of Mayors is proposing to put an end to unscrupulous online gun sales and close the loopholes that give criminals easy access to such deadly weapons.

According to the website, FixGunChecks.org, a project of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bi-partisan coalition of more than 550 Mayors across the country have joined together to form a common bond around what they call one simple concept: respect the rights of responsible law-abiding citizens and keep guns out of the hands of criminals, gang members, drug abusers, or anyone who just may be dangerous.

The coalition is co-founded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston, and more than forty New Jersey Mayors from around the Garden State have joined the petition to crackdown on illegal gun sales from Newark to Camden.

The latest murder of New York City Police Officer Peter Figoski, who was shot in the head after responding to a 911 call about a home invasion, sparked law enforcement officials to beef-up efforts to thwart criminals from buying illegal weapons over the internet.

Figoski, a 22-year veteran of the force was killed in the line of duty on Dec. 12th with an illegal Ruger P95 9 millimeter that was purchased online. He leaves behind a wife and four daughters.

An undercover NYPD investigation entitled “Point, Click and Fire” unveiled unlicensed online sellers willing to sell firearms to people they know could not pass a background check, which is a felony under federal law.

Law enforcement officials say the investigation into internet gun sales found a vast and largely unregulated market for illegal guns, with 62 percent of sellers willing to commit a felony by selling firearms to people who likely could not pass the background check.

The city hired licensed private investigators who recorded audio of telephone calls with private sellers who advertise on websites, and used concealed cameras during in-person interactions.

The states in which sellers agreed to sell illegally included Louisiana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio and Colorado.

Some of those illegal guns from down south and out west have made their way into New Jersey where the gun laws are among the strictest in the nation.

Governor Christie has gone on the record as an advocate for the passage of what he calls “common sense gun control” legislation.

In a 2009 interview with Fox News, the Governor admitted that he favors gun control saying, “We have a densely-populated state, and there's a big handgun problem in New Jersey.”

Christie added, “I think on guns, certain gun control issues, looking at it from a law-enforcement perspective, seeing how many police officers were killed, we have an illegal gun problem in New Jersey.”

New Jersey already requires gun owners to get a license to purchase rifles, shotguns and pistols. In order to get one, you have to take an application test and submit to multiple background checks. The purchase license expires in 90 days, at which point, if you want to buy again, you start the process over. This is already a bit more restrictive than most states’ gun licensing laws, since few states require purchase permits for anything other than handguns.

In that same Fox News interview, Christie went on to say, “At the end of the day, what I support are common sense laws that will allow people to protect themselves, but I also am very concerned about the safety of our police officers on the streets, very concerned. And I want to make sure that we don't have an abundance of guns out there.”

Local New Jersey police sources says black market guns can readily be obtained in high crime related urban areas such as Camden, Newark, Paterson, Irvington and Jersey City where a new gun can be sold on the street for as much as a thousand dollars while a used gun can run anywhere between $400 and $600.

Some New Jersey law enforcement officials believe there are minimal online sales of illegal weapons in the state causing many local police departments to concentrate their efforts on other gun trafficking activities.

Joseph Occhipinti, Founder and Executive Director of the National Police Defense Foundation (NPDF), a nonprofit law enforcement advocacy organization in Morganville says, “The majority of guns seized by New Jersey police mainly come from down south and Pennsylvania.”

The usual time it takes to legally obtain a gun license in the Garden State is about two to four weeks. Occhipinti says, “It’s virtually impossible in New Jersey to get a carry permit. They are more apt to issue a license to keep the weapon at home.”

On the black market, anything goes and if purchased online, it could take up to three days for delivery by mail, or even over-night, if sent by UPS.

The New Jersey State Police declined to comment on this story citing, “operational issues.”

However, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms believes the sale of guns online has increasingly become an issue.

According to Special Agent Chris Bombardiere, the ATF does conduct investigations into online sales and says, “It is our belief that online gun sales will beat flea market and gun show sales in the near future.”

For years, cities have been suing the gun industry and anti-gun organizations have sought access to confidential law enforcement data on firearms traces. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) compiles these records when it traces firearms in response to requests from law enforcement agencies.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Newark Field Division Special Agent in Charge, Matthew G. Horace, believes the Tiahrt Amendment makes it especially difficult for ATF officials to give out gun dealer information.

Every year since 2003, Congress has passed increasingly strong language to keep gun dealer information confidential. The legislation, a series of "riders" to the appropriations bill that funds BATFE, is widely known as the "Tiahrt Amendment," after its sponsor, Congressman Todd Tiahrt, (R) of Kansas.

According to the ATF’s latest figures in calendar year 2010, the total number of firearms recovered and traced were 3,607 as compared to New York’s 8,853 in that same year.

In 2010, Newark led the Garden State’s most populated cities with the most illegal guns confiscated on the street at 569. Camden followed with 278 and Jersey City with 233.

There is a sharp divide between gun rights proponents and those who favor gun control which often leads to intense debate over the effectiveness of firearm regulation.

Nonetheless, a clear majority of private sellers, 77 of the 125 gun dealers New York police examined, failed the integrity test by agreeing to sell to a purchaser who could not pass a background check.

The NYPD’s $290,000 investigation probed ten websites that had 25,000 guns available for purchase. Investigators contacted 125 unlicensed online gun sellers located in 14 states and included sellers on Craigslist, which prohibits the sale of firearms in its site, according to its posted policies.

Investigators found the seller who listed on Craigslist agreed 82 percent of the time to an illegal sale.

There are more than 4,000 websites that offer guns for sale according to the Department of Justice. Many sites offer forums for both federally licensed dealers and unlicensed private sellers to advertise side by side, creating a lucrative new market for firearms.

The law states that all licensed dealers are required to conduct background checks on prospective buyers, but private sellers are not, a gap in federal law often called the "private sale loophole."

Private sellers may not, however, sell guns to people they believe could not pass a background check, a law many of the investigative targets intended to violate.

“We shop online, we do business online and unfortunately gun sales happen online,” John Feinblatt, the chief policy advisor to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, told TIME. “It can be a problem because it’s a place where one can do it pretty anonymously.”

Federal law mandates that retail firearm sales be conducted in person by licensed gun sellers, much like a transaction at a gun shop where a background check can be done. A seller may sell to someone in another state, but must first transfer the weapon to a licensed dealer.

However, classified online sales are considered private, meaning they are done by people who are considered collectors or hobbyists, and need no background check, leaving “a loophole you can drive a Mack truck through,” says Feinblatt.

Private transactions account for 40 percent of the nation’s gun sales, according to the investigation of illegal online gun sales report.

The history of gun control dates back generations.

The turmoil of the 1960s unleashed a wave of demand for new gun control legislation. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, prompted the country to focus on the regulation of firearms. The urban riots in 1964 and the 1968 assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy fueled much of the outrage that demanded congressional action.

In the wake of these acts of violence, the U.S. Congress enacted the Gun Control Act President Lyndon B. Johnson signed in 1968.

Although the Gun Control Act did not contain the owner licensing and gun registration provisions that President Johnson desired, the act, along with the Safe Streets and Crime Control Act passed by Congress months earlier, contained the most significant restrictions on firearms since Congress enacted the National Firearms Act (NFA) in 1934.

Since the deaths of Robert Kennedy and Dr. King in 1968, there have been more than 400,000 people killed with illegal guns as reported by CBS News, more than were killed in World War II.