April 16, 2012

Last fall, the Justice Department announced the establishment of the Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence as part of the Attorney General’s Defending Childhood Initiative, a project that addresses the epidemic levels of exposure to violence faced by the nation’s children. In response to a request from the Justice Department, Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran submitted testimony to the Task Force April 12. His statement urges the task force to include strong recommendations relating to gun safety in its report to the Attorney General. Below is the full text of Cochran’s statement:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony to the Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence. I write on behalf of America’s mayors to highlight one issue that can have a significant positive effect on reducing the violence, which children face – the need to strengthen our gun laws through common sense legislation, which will make our communities safer for our children and reduce their exposure to guns.

According to a report published just last month by the Children’s Defense Fund, 2,947 children and teens died from guns in the United States in 2008 and 2,793 died in 2009 – 5,740 over the two year period, which CDF points out is “one child or teen every three hours, eight every day, 55 every week for two years.” CDF reports further that “six times as many children and teens—34,387—suffered nonfatal gun injuries as gun deaths in 2008 and 2009. This is equal to one child or teen every 31 minutes, 47 every day, and 331 children and teens every week.

We know that strengthening our gun laws will not prevent all of these deaths or injuries. We also know, however, that it can help to reduce these shameful and tragic numbers. Reasonable changes in law and regulation would go a long way toward protecting children, keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, and providing law enforcement with tools that will help them solve crimes. Among the changes we advocate:

1) A strengthened, effective ban on military'style assault weapons, such as AK-47s, and their component parts, including high-capacity magazines, must be reinstated.

2) Common sense gun legislation, such as that advocated by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, co-chaired by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, must be enacted. Such legislation should close the gun show loophole, keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, and no longer permit gun dealers whose licenses are revoked to conduct fire sales.

3) Anyone purchasing a firearm in the United States must be required to go through a background check, and states must be required to submit records, including those involving persons with serious mental health problems and those who are drug abusers, to the National Instant Check System.

4) Legislation should be enacted which would limit the number of guns a person may purchase in a single transaction or in a month or other specified period of time.

5) Law enforcement agencies’ access to gun trace data should not be limited in any way by either state or federal law – for example, by any version of the so-called Tiahrt amendment.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has had strong gun control policy for 45 years. This is because mayors are committed to doing everything in their power to protect their cities’ residents, especially children, from harm. And mayors believe that there is no greater threat to public safety and to the safety of children in particular, than the threat of illegal guns.

We urge the Task Force to include strong recommendations relating to gun safety in its report to the Attorney General.