By Don Spatz
Reading Eagle

The Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, led by Reading Mayor Tom McMahon, kicked off a media blitz Wednesday urging the U.S. Senate to pass a bill that would close what they call a loophole in a federal gun control bill.

The mayors contend the so-called gun-show loophole allows criminals to avoid otherwise required background checks and buy weapons at gun shows.

That's because a federal law requires background checks for sales by licensed gun dealers but not for transactions between unlicensed individuals at gun shows.

Pennsylvania law requires all gun-show sellers to use the same background checks as licensed dealers to keep felons and others not allowed to have guns from getting them.

But many states, such as Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia, don't require background checks on sales of personal firearms at gun shows.

The mayors urged Pennsylvania's two Democratic U.S. senators, Arlen Specter of Philadelphia and Bob Casey Jr. of Scranton, to vote for a bill that would require background checks for gun-show sales nationwide.

"If you're living in Pennsylvania, you can go right across the border, buy a gun and use it here," McMahon said during a telephone news conference led by five of the coalition's 186 member mayors.

"Criminals don't respect jurisdictions, but they do know where to get things," said Lancaster Mayor Richard Gray, a former criminal defense attorney. "We go to the funerals. We see the end results of this. It's a personal thing with us (mayors); it's not a philosophical thing."

"The hell with the politics; we're talking about lives," said Mayor Andrew Onufrak of Montgomery Borough, Lycoming County. "It's a no-brainer. We have to do this."

The National Rifle Association opposes the bill, although the mayors say that 69 percent of NRA members support it.

"I think there's a disconnect between the NRA membership and the NRA leadership," McMahon said.

The NRA says the loophole doesn't exist because all licensed dealers, including at gun shows, have to do background checks on buyers. An exception is made, the group says, for gun owners who occasionally sell personal weapons under limited circumstances.

The NRA says that fewer than 1 percent of criminals get their weapons at gun shows, and the federal bill would merely impose red tape and require gun-show attendees to register themselves.

The mayors coalition said TV ads will begin airing today in the state's major media markets and will run through at least Sunday.

Contact Don Spatz: 610-3771-5027 or dspatz@readingeagle.com