One by one, families of victims of gun violence...talk about their loved ones.
Audrey McCullough says, "I miss my son so much. They didn't just take him, but they also took a part of my life and I'm fighting to get that back." Audrey's son Brandon was murdered in Savannah in 2009. Another mother Joyce Moore described how someone killed her son on Bull Street in January 2007.
Joyce Moore says, "My son was murdered by a convicted felon with a gun that had time and chance to think about what he was going to do." They are all showing their support for the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011.
The proposed law:
Imposes tougher penalties on states that don't comply with laws
Requires a background check on every gun sale including private sellers.
The Assistant Manager at Mission Essential says they run background checks to make sure guns like this one, don't get in the hands of felons. He says, We go ahead, we call the FBI Nicks background processing center and from there they give us one of the three commands. Either proceed, delay, or denied.
While those at Mission Essential perform background checks, Mayor Otis Johnson and mayors from across the country want to make sure that system is followed coast to coast.
He says, "We're not talking about denying any rightful citizen the opportunity to have a gun but felons, adjudicated, mentally ill, and drug abusers and other users and other people that are on the other side of the law should not be able to sneak through."
The mayors want to protect law enforcement officers, too. Metro police officer Jason Pagliaro says a convicted felon fired at him.
He says, "People are buying guns that have no business buying guns and we've got to do something. We've got to enact tougher legislation to prohibit that and I support this cause completely,"
Supporters of the Fix Gun Checks Act hope the bill is presented during an upcoming congressional hearing, another step to the bill becoming a federal law.