My heart goes out to the victims and the families of the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech University, I only hope that their sorrow can serve to wake-up Americans to the dangers of hand guns.
I commend Mayor Bloomberg and other national mayors who have united with many local and state police organizations to get illegal hand guns off our streets.
Mayor Bloomberg, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and several other Ohio mayors joined last week to sign onto a national coalition seeking to curb illegal gun sales - Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
ProtectPolice.org is a project of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition of more than 160 mayors in more than 40 states. Mayors Against Illegal Guns is dedicated to making America's cities safer by cracking down on illegal guns.
To the Mayor's credit he has put his money where his mouth is by co-founding the brand new campaign, designed to let the public know what the NRA is trying to do to our police officers in Congress.Radical NRA-supporters in Congress are working hard to try and pass the Tiahrt Amendment, which would keep law enforcement officers from sharing data about where guns come from before they’re used in crimes.
”Keeping illegal guns off our streets has absolutely nothing to do with the Second Amendment or the rights of lawful gun owners,” Bloomberg said. “It’s about enforcing the law and cracking down on criminals.”
It's true, the illegal gun issue has nothing to do with the Second Amendment and everything to do with law enforcement.Mayors have the direct responsibility to protect their communities and the police officers who put their lives on the line every day. This means working to keep guns out of the hands of criminals; imposing tough punishments on those who sell and possess illegal guns; and ensuring that police officers have the tools they need – including critical gun trace data – to do their jobs effectively. Illegal guns are firearms that are sold, bought, transferred, possessed, or used in violation of existing federal, state, and local laws, usually by those who already have criminal records.
The Tiahrt Amendment is a provision that members of the NRA-supported Congress's have tucked into federal spending bills that restricts cities and police from accessing and using Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) trace data from guns recovered in crimes.
The Tiahrt Amendment restricts local governments from accessing the ATF gun trace data they need in order to understand and address citywide and regional gun crime trends. So the amendment seriously limits the ability of cities to access their own crime gun data.
The Tiahrt Amendment prevents local governments and police from accessing ATF gun trace data from areas outside its geographic jurisdiction, greatly undermining regional efforts to control gun crime.
Cincinnati Mayor Mallory said, “Public safety is a regional issue that requires a united response...Criminals do not recognize municipal boundaries, and we need to make sure that our efforts do not stop at our individual borders either.” The Tiahrt Amendment blocks trace data from being used as evidence in any state or local civil action—even a gun dealer license revocation. The Tiahrt Amendment also stops ATF from publishing reports that use gun trace data to analyze nationwide gun trafficking patterns.
“Plain and simple, we are trying to keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” Bloomberg said. “Those criminals are killing our children and killing our police officers and it’s just got to stop.”
Therefore, I enthusiastically support the Mayor's campaign and ask that everyone reading this visit their web site www.protectpolice.org and add your voice and assistance to the Mayor's noble efforts to protect us all.
