By Lorri Helfand, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Mayor Pat Gerard has received a flurry of e-mails this month urging her to break her ties with the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition.

The spate of correspondence was spurred by a National Rifle Association campaign, which asked members to get their mayors to quit the "anti-gun group."

Gerard wasn't convinced by the dozens of pleas urging her to withdraw from the group.

"I have no intention of quitting," she said.

Gerard said the NRA seemed to have distorted the positions of the coalition.

The mayors' coalition, founded in 2006, says its mission is to "support the Second Amendment and keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals."

"Certainly, I support people's rights to own guns," Gerard said. "I'd like to keep our police officers safe while keeping guns out of the hands of the bad guys."

NRA spokeswoman Vickie Cieplak said the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action began sending out postcards to members Sept. 4 because of the coalition's "anti-gun" legislative efforts.

"If the issue was really about illegal guns, the NRA would back it 100 percent," she said.

Among its efforts, the mayor's coalition, co-chaired by Mayors Michael Bloomberg of New York and Thomas Menino of Boston, worked to defeat federal legislation this year that would have allowed people who have a concealed weapons permit in one state to use it in other states that allow concealed weapons.

Cieplak says the legislation protected law-abiding gun owners.

Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said the NRA's mailers made at least two claims that were not true: that the coalition is antigun and that it wants to make gun shows illegal.

Post said the coalition has more than 450 members and most have not been swayed by the NRA.

"Mayors from throughout the country have resisted the misinformation from the NRA," Post said.

Gerard is among other Florida mayors targeted by the NRA effort.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has received at least 150 letters and e-mails from coalition opponents.

Gerard said she joined shortly after becoming mayor in 2006. She did so after she received an e-mail from the group and researched its Web site, she said.

So far, Gerard's secretary has logged more than 40 letters and e-mails opposing Gerard's membership in the coalition and thinks there are at least 20 or 30 more in the mayor's in-box.

Most of the correspondence had a respectful tone. But a couple were threatening. One warned if she doesn't disassociate with the group, her "political career is at an end."