AT NATIONAL SUMMIT, MAYORS AGAINST ILLEGAL GUNS ANNOUNCES FOUR COMMON SENSE STEPS TO FIX THE BROKEN FEDERAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM

Nationwide Ad Buy Calls on Presidential Candidates to Close Gun Show Loophole

Polling Data Shows Overwhelming Support - Including Among Gun Owners - For Common Sense Steps to Fix Background Check System

Ranks of Bi-Partisan Coalition of Mayors Continue to Expand: 322 Members

Father of Fallen Virginia Tech Student & ATF Director Address Body of Mayors

The bi-partisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns today held its second annual National summit in Washington, DC, with 60 coalition cities participating. At its meeting, the coalition, committed to respecting the rights of gun owners while keeping illegal guns out of the hands of criminals, unveiled a plan to repair problems in the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The plan, four common sense steps to fix the background check system, details measures that will help deter and prevent guns from falling into the hands of criminals, particularly closing the gun show loophole. That loophole, which allows prohibited purchasers to avoid background checks by buying firearms at gun shows, is the subject of a new Mayors Against Illegal Guns television advertisement unveiled today. Video of prior statements of the three candidates for president in favor of closing the gun show loophole is shown in the ad, which will begin airing across the country on Wednesday April 16. Also at the summit, held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. the two-year old coalition announced that its membership has grown to 322.

"Politicians shouldn't be afraid of the illegal gun issue - Americans are in favor of common sense policies that will help prevent criminals from arming themselves," said New York City Mayor and coalition co-chair Michael R. Bloomberg. "We have put forward four simple solutions that our group of mayors is calling on the three candidates for president - and the rest of Congress - to enact them to make Americans safer."

"Across the country we have seen, too often, the tragic loss of life caused by gun violence," said Boston Mayor and coalition co-chair Thomas Menino. "It is time to say 'enough is enough' and start changing the laws that make it easier for criminals to get guns. Together, with our federal partners, we can make our streets, schools and communities safer."

The four common sense steps to fix the background check system are:

• Close the gun show loophole;
• Require gun dealers to perform criminal background checks on all gun-handling employees;
• Close the fire sale loophole that allows dealers whose licenses have been revoked to continue to sell their inventory; and
• Close the Terror Gap that leaves those on the terrorist no-fly list off the list of prohibited purchasers of firearms.

Common-Sense Proposal: Close the Gun Show Loophole
The gun show loophole is a gap in federal law that allows so-called "occasional sellers" of firearms, who often operate at gun shows, to sell firearms without performing background checks or keeping records of their sales. The loophole provides criminals with easy access to firearms. Because they concentrate at gun shows, it is easy for felons and other prohibited possessors to find someone who will sell to them without a background check. An example of the problem the gun show loophole poses is the Columbine High School shooting, where all four guns used in the massacre were bought at gun shows without background checks. A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) study indicated that 30 percent of guns involved in its illegal trafficking investigations were connected to gun shows.

The Mayors Against Illegal Guns television advertisement will begin running nationwide, including in New York, Arizona, Illinois, Baltimore, Boston, Jacksonville, and in cities across Pennsylvania, on Wednesday April 16. The ad features the coalition's co-chairs Mayors Bloomberg and Menino along with coalition members John Peyton, Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida and Sheila Dixon, Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. Mayors Menino, Peyton and Dixon are supporters of Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama respectively. The ad can be viewed at http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/tvad08.

"Gun violence takes a huge toll on cities throughout the nation - and Jacksonville is no exception," said Mayor Peyton. "Stemming the flow of illegal guns into the hands of criminals, including by closing the gun show loophole, will help turn back the tide of violent crime. That's a goal I strongly support and one every public servant should share."

Common-Sense Proposal: Closing the Terror Gap
Current federal law prohibits nine categories of dangerous persons from purchasing or possessing firearms, but remarkably, persons on the terror watch lists are not among these prohibited purchasers. 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 (February - October 2004). Bills to close the terror gap are pending in both houses of Congress. The Lautenberg - King bill (S. 1237 / H.R. 2074) gives the Department of Justice the discretion to block sales to persons identified as terror suspects.

Common-Sense Proposal: Require Gun Dealers to Perform Criminal Background Checks on All Gun-Handling Employees
While Federal law prohibits some individuals, like convicted felons, from possessing a firearm, gun dealers are not required to check employees to see if employees who handle firearms are prohibited from possessing them. While employees of ATF-licensed sellers of explosives must undergo ATF-administered background checks, the same does not hold for gun dealer employees. ATF accesses National Instant Criminal Background Check System to implement the explosives employee background check. This common sense measure would be easy to implement, since all gun dealers have the ability to run employee names through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, just as they do with customers.

"The scourge of illegal guns is a federal plague that requires a federal cure," said Jersey City, New Jersey Mayor Jerramiah Healy. "Although we have asked Washington to take four common sense steps, including employees of gun dealers undergo the same background check that gun buyers do, Mayors Against Illegal Guns will continue to work on a local level with initiatives and law enforcement efforts to get dangerous, illegal guns off of the streets of our cities."

Common-Sense Proposal: Close the Fire Sale Loophole that Allows Dealers Whose Licenses Have Been Revoked to Continue to Sell Their Inventory
When the ATF revokes a gun dealer's license for chronic non-compliance with federal law, it has allowed dealers to sell their remaining guns without recordkeeping or background checks - by transferring hundreds guns from their "business inventory" into their "personal collections." All sales made from the business inventory of a gun dealer must include a background check made with the NICS system. But under the fire sale loophole, these requirements do not apply once ATF has revoked someone's license, since they are technically no longer a dealer.

For example, in 2005 federal officials revoked the license of Valley Gun Shop in Parkville, Maryland. Valley Gun had 483 suspicious crime gun traces between 1996 and 2000, tying it for 37th among the 120 worst dealers in the country. Using the fire sale loophole, the dealer was allowed to sell his remaining inventory of over 700 guns as a "private" seller, with no background checks performed.

"The fire sale loophole must be closed," said Baltimore Mayor Shelia Dixon. "Once a gun dealer's license is revoked, he should no longer be able to sell guns. Dealers like Valley Gun aren't protecting anyone's rights, they aren't selling guns to recreational shooters. When the police catch a murderer, they don't let him fire off the last few rounds in the gun, and when we catch a murder weapon dealer, we shouldn't let him distribute the last few guns in his arsenal."

Remembering Virginia Tech
Two days before the anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting, Joe Samaha - father of fallen Virginia Tech student Reema Samaha -addressed the Summit audience. In the wake of the tragedy, Mr. Samaha founded the Angel Fund, in order to educate and advocate for common sense gun legislation.

"In its lengthy report, the Virginia Tech panel unanimously recommended that background checks be required of private sellers," said Mr. Samaha. "By doing so, we can be proactive in preventing another tragedy like we saw at Virginia Tech and hopefully prevent other families from suffering as all of us did who lost a loved one on April 16th."

Law Enforcement Action on Illegal Guns
Also during the summit, the mayors heard presentations on enforcement efforts from Michael Sullivan, Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department; and Scott Knight, Chief of the Chaska Police Department and Chair, Firearms Committee, International Association of Chiefs of Police.

"With Mayor Bloomberg's support, the New York City Police Department has won many battles against the illegal gun traffickers," said Commissioner Kelly. "But we will never win the war without a powerful consensus to shut down the interstate pipelines that funnel deadly weapons on to our streets. This is a national crisis that demands national solutions. In the meantime, mayors and police chiefs across the country must continue to do everything we can to protect our cities from the scourge of gun violence."

State and Local Best Practices Presentation from Mayors
During the Summit, the mayors from Baltimore, Reading, Omaha, Newark and Providence presented "best practices" from their respective cities, offering an opportunity for the mayors to exchange ideas and discuss what strategies have been successful for them. The Mayor of Baltimore, Sheila Dixon, gave a presentation and discussed regional data sharing. In February, Mayor Dixon and Mayor Bloomberg launched a regional gun data-sharing system that will eventually be a clearinghouse of criminal evidence for police departments up and down I-95's so-called "Iron Pipeline" to tap into.

Thomas McMahon, Mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania, also addressed the Summit on the integration of mental health records and mental health data into federal background check system. After the Virginia Tech school shooting, the federal government passed a law that calls for improvements in state reporting of the mentally ill and other prohibited purchasers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Omaha, Nebraska Mayor Mike Fahey discussed the issue of lost and stolen guns, which are used in thousands of crimes each year. Newark, New Jersey Mayor Corey Booker discussed gun offender registration, which requires individuals convicted of criminal possession of a weapon to register their current addresses and personally report to police. New York City and Baltimore have recently created gun offender registries. The last presentation was from Providence, Rhode Island Mayor David Cicilline on the topic of ballistics identification technology, including microstamping, a technology that imprints ballistic information that is useful to law enforcement on the shell casings fired by semiautomatic pistols. California has passed legislation mandating microstamping, and it is being considered by legislatures in other states.

In addition to the presentations, the assembled group of Mayors heard remarks from Douglas H. Palmer, the Mayor of Trenton, New Jersey and the President of the US Conference of Mayors. Mayor Palmer introduced Manuel A. Diaz, Mayor of Miami, Florida and the incoming president of the US Conference of Mayors, who also spoke at the Summit.

National Poll Finds Support for Common Sense Measures to Stop Illegal Guns
A survey completed this month showed that Americans see stopping gun violence as one of their most important goals. The poll found that 71 percent of Americans believe that stopping gun violence is a "very important" goal. This is the same proportion of people who believe that making sure all Americans have health care is very important (70 percent), and only slightly behind the 75 percent who believe that reducing the price of gas is very important. The poll also revealed that at least 80 percent of Americans support each of the four common sense proposals endorsed by the coalition. Moreover, the poll, conducted from March 31 to April 3, showed support for the four proposals from at least 80 percent of supporters of Senator McCain, at least 80 percent of supporters of the Democratic candidates, and even 80 percent of gun-owners. The survey, performed on behalf of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was conducted jointly by the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which primarily works with Democratic clients, and the Tarrance Group, which primarily works with Republican clients. The poll, conducted from March 31 to April 3, surveyed 800 Americans and has margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent.

About the Mayors Against Illegal Guns
The Mayors Against Illegal Guns, created in April 2006, has grown to become twenty times larger than it was when it was created. The mayors coalition has also led to the creation of other groups that share similar goals: State Legislators Against Illegal Guns - launched at a regional conference of Mayors Against Illegal Guns held in Jacksonville, Florida; and County Executives Against Illegal Guns, a 15-member group launched last week. A founding co-chair of the coalition of County Executives, Prince Georges County, Maryland County Executive Jack Johnson attend today's Summit meeting.