By Laura DeKoven Waxman
April 27, 2009

On April 6 Conference of Mayors President Miami Mayor Manuel (Manny) A. Diaz issued a statement to the national news media in reaction to the spate of mass shootings that had occurred in cities throughout the country. In the statement Mayor Diaz specifically cited:

• Samson, AL – 10 people killed on March 10;

• Oakland, CA – four police officers killed on March 21;

• Carthage, NC – eight nursing home residents killed on March 29;

• Santa Clara, CA – five family members were killed March 29;

• Binghamton, NY – 13 people killed April 3;

• Graham, WA – five children killed April 4;

• Pittsburgh, PA – three police officers killed April 4; and

• Miami, FL – 12 members of three families killed in three separate incidents in the preceding few weeks.

“America’s mayors are alarmed by the string of mass shootings that have occurred in recent weeks in cities across the nation,” Diaz said. “This epidemic serves as a stark reminder that the easy availability of guns often turns domestic and personal disputes into acts of murder. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families, their neighbors, and their communities.”

Diaz said that, in most of the incidents, the shooters lives were also taken, in four cases by their own hand, in one by police. He pointed out that these are “the dramatic shootings that garner considerable public attention. We haven’t heard as much about the 84 deaths involving firearms, including 34 homicides, which occur on an average day in our nation.”

The Conference of Mayors has advocated for strong gun safety policy for more than 40 years, Diaz explained, and late last year made gun safety a key element in its National Action Agenda on Crime for the Next President of the United States (usmayors.org). In that agenda mayors and police chiefs called for:

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

2. Common sense gun legislation, such as that advocated by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, should 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. 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.

4. 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.

5. Anyone purchasing a firearm in the United States should be required to go through a background check. Full funding should be provided for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and states should be required to submit records, including those involving persons with serious mental health problems, to the NICS.

6. The Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) should be expanded to include ballistic images for all new guns, not just those involved in crimes. The federal government should support the development of new technologies, such as microstamping, which can help solve crimes.

In transmitting Mayor Diaz’s statement to the media, CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran underscored the Conference President’s message, saying: “On the 10th anniversary of the Columbine massacre, and approaching the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, and with gunshots again echoing in cities across the nation, we are reminded of Washington’s failure to deliver sensible, responsible gun safety laws. When will public safety trump politics? If you don’t have a safe city you have a challenged city; if you don’t have a safe nation you have a challenged nation. The time for action is now.”