[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3502]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   MAYORS UNITE TO FIGHT GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on January 23, over 50 members of Mayors 
Against Illegal Guns met in Washington, DC, for the coalition's 2007 
National Summit. Mayors from 27 States and the District of Columbia 
shared practices and strategies, discussed the importance of forging 
alliances with gun owners, and united in opposition to laws that 
restrict cities' access to, and use of, gun trace data. They also heard 
the results of a bipartisan national poll which shows strong support 
for tougher enforcement of existing gun laws and common sense 
provisions to prevent and solve crimes.
  The original group of 15 mayors first met in April 2006 in New York 
City, where they pledged to seek the involvement of up to 50 mayors 
from around the country. By early June 2006, 52 mayors had joined the 
coalition. Within a few days following the conclusion of the 2007 
summit, 31 additional mayors from across the Nation joined the 
coalition. The coalition currently includes 154 mayors from 44 States 
and the District of Columbia.
  As cochair of the coalition, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg 
described this growth by saying:

       Our coalition is growing because--as the national summit 
     showed--mayors of both parties are committed to doing more to 
     keep illegal guns off the street, which threaten the safety 
     of our citizens, especially our police officers. The 31 new 
     mayors joining the ranks of our coalition demonstrate that 
     momentum is building for our effort to crack down on illegal 
     guns and convince state legislatures and Congress to take 
     ideology out of law enforcement.

  The coalition's basic principle is that keeping illegal guns off the 
street is not an issue of ideology but of law enforcement. It, 
therefore, is united in taking a commonsense approach to fighting 
illegal guns at the local, State and Federal levels. The vast majority 
of guns used in crimes are purchased and possessed illegally. Most gun 
dealers, however, are honest business people that carefully follow the 
law. According to gun crime trace data, 85 percent of dealers do not 
sell any guns used in crimes. It is only a small number of 
irresponsible dealers that cause the vast majority of problems. In 
fact, it is only about 1 percent of gun sellers who account for 60 
percent of all guns used in crimes.
  According to a national survey conducted by Greenberg Quinian Rosner 
Research and the Terrance Group on behalf of Mayors Against Illegal 
Guns, 84 percent of Americans say they are concerned about gun 
violence. This concern crosses partisan lines, and spans big cities and 
small rural areas alike. Eighty-two percent of Americans favor either 
tougher enforcement of existing laws or tough new laws. This strong 
public support for common-sense measures serves to reinforce what we 
should already know. I would like to urge this Congress to follow the 
example of these mayors and work in a bipartisan manner to promote and 
pass sensible gun safety legislation.

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