President Barack Obama is set to deliver his annual State of the Union address tomorrow night, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg would like to revisit a theme from last year’s speech–the tragic shooting in Tuscon which killed six people and injured Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
In a letter to the president, Mayor Bloomberg writes, “This week will mark Congresswoman Giffords’ last days in Congress before she steps down to focus on her truly inspiring recovery…[W]e hope that you will take the opportunity to address her departure, and the causes of it, in your State of the Union Address tomorrow.”
The letter is co-signed by Tom Menino of Boston, who is, along with Hizzoner, head of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition. Gun control advocates have been stymied in recent years but how little these kinds of tragedies have moved the needle in favor of stricter laws. The last time meaningful gun control seemed at hand was after a series of random shootings in the mid-90′s.
So far there has been no indication that President Obama intends to mention gun control, or the Giffords shooting in his address tomorrow night.
The full letter is below:
January 23, 2012
President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
When you last reported on the state of our Union, you expressed the nation’s hopes and prayers for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of the Tucson shootings. This week will mark Congresswoman Giffords’ last days in Congress before she steps down to focus on her truly inspiring recovery. We hope her departure from public life will be temporary and her return will be swift. And we hope that you will take the opportunity to address her departure, and the causes of it, in your State of the Union Address tomorrow.
Last year, 12,000 Americans were murdered with guns. To put the death toll in perspective, imagine the entire population of a town being murdered over the course of a year. Or a university losing its entire student body, each day bringing 34 new murders. Surely, these events would shock Washington into action. But the grim fact that guns are used to murder 34 people a day is barely discussed in Washington – even though the tragic reality is that many of those lives could have been saved if the federal government had fixed its broken background check system.
After the Tucson shootings, you called for a new national conversation about guns, saying “we have a responsibility to do everything we can to put a stop to the daily death toll from gun violence in America,” and that “our focus right now should be on sound and effective steps that will actually keep those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.” To achieve that goal, you said “we should provide an instant, accurate, comprehensive and consistent system for background checks to sellers who want to do the right thing, and make sure that criminals can’t escape it.” We strongly agreed.
Many months later, almost nothing has changed. Criminals and other dangerous individuals are still exploiting massive gaps in the national do-not-sell database. These gaps facilitate the murder of 34 Americans every day. And they are at the heart of another tragic trend. Last year, for the first time in 13 years, firearms overtook traffic incidents as the leading cause of fatalities for law enforcement officers. In 2011, 65 police officers were murdered with guns, an increase of 10 percent over 2010. In at least 35 of these police killings, the shooter was a criminal or other dangerous person who was barred by current law from owning a gun, but slipped through gaps in the background check system.
The more than 600 members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns – representing both political parties and all regions of the country – urge you to address our broken background check system in your State of the Union address. Our country needs your leadership – and we urge you not to let this issue fall victim of election year politics. It is too important. And, as polls show, more than 80 percent of gun owners support the common sense reforms you have proposed to fix our broken background check system.
Tomorrow night, when you speak to the nation about your top priorities for the year ahead, we hope you will remember the debt we owe to the families of police officers killed in the line of duty; to all victims of illegal guns; and to the 12,000 people who will likely be murdered with guns this year – unless we act.
Sincerely,
Thomas M. Menino Michael R. Bloomberg
Mayor of Boston Mayor of New York City
Coalition Co-Chair Coalition Co-Chair
Follow David Freedlander via RSS.
Yea the criminals mozy on down to gander mountain and buy their guns. You dumb assholes. Do you really believe criminals slip thru background checks? Really? Their are law abiding citizens who have rights in this country ( well the free country not police state ny). You seek to label all guns as illegal and are stripping the rights of innocent law abiding people illegally. Mr bloomberg you should be ashamed of yourself.
A simple fact: Washington DC has the most extreme gun control in the nation. In 2010 DC had twenty seven times more murders than the larger city of El Paso. This is in part because in Texas every responsible adult can carry a concealed handgun. Also, Texas has the death penalty and is willing to use it. Bloomberg blames the other states for this violence but the state with the least gun control is in the bottom half dozen states for murders. If gun control worked, these numbers would be reversed.
Research from the Brady Campaign Scorecard and the FBI Crime Report.
A simple fact: Washington DC has the most extreme gun control in the nation. In 2010 DC had twenty seven times more murders than the larger city of El Paso. This is in part because in Texas every responsible adult can carry a concealed handgun. Also, Texas has the death penalty and is willing to use it. Bloomberg blames the other states for this violence but the state with the least gun control is in the bottom half dozen states for murders. If gun control worked, these numbers would be reversed.
Research from the Brady Campaign Scorecard and the FBI Crime Report.
A simple fact: Washington DC has the most extreme gun control in the nation. In 2010 DC had twenty seven times more murders than the larger city of El Paso. This is in part because in Texas every responsible adult can carry a concealed handgun. Also, Texas has the death penalty and is willing to use it. Bloomberg blames the other states for this violence but the state with the least gun control is in the bottom half dozen states for murders. If gun control worked, these numbers would be reversed.
Research from the Brady Campaign Scorecard and the FBI Crime Report.
January 24, 2012
Mr. Bloomberg,
One gun would have saved our city. One.
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
ps. Even Governor Cuomo is starting to understand how expensive gun control is. . . .
June 4, 2008 (revised 5/26/11)
Dear: Governor Cuomo, State-Senator Leibel(now in prison), State Senator Ball, Assemblyman ????? (does it really matter, your a democrat)
Every year some new idea about how to make our streets safer via “Gun Control” arrives in New York. We’ve registered our guns. Violent crime continues. We’ve banned assault weapons. Violent crime continues. We ballistically identify our legally possessed pistols. Violent crime continues. There are 200 to 300 million firearms in this country – they are woven into the fabric of our society. For all the “wiz bang” technology that modern society has invented – rifles and pistols are still the foundation of our national and state defense. Thousands of times an hour they are used to dissuade another from pursuing an ill advised path; whether in the hand of a police officer or a private citizen. Yes – accidents and tragedies happen, and a mature society must look itself in the mirror and draw the proper conclusions from these horrible events, but to think that by passing law upon law the public at large will somehow be magically made safer via “gun control” is psychotic and dangerous.
I and many of you witnessed the attacks on September 11, 2001. Had those pilots – many of whom were ex military officers – been required to carry a side arm; that day would have ended much differently. Imagine all the lives and treasure that could have been saved but for an irrational fear of the law abiding gun owner. Can any of you honestly say that over the past few decades your collective efforts have made New Yorkers safer? If any of you answered yes then you must take a close look at the FBI statistics on violent crime – you’ll find disappointment waiting for you. No law can urge the lawless to ask permission from anyone for anything. Remember ladies and gentleman criminals, terrorists, and sub human miscreants are dumb, but they are not stupid.
The latest iteration of this policy is the idea that putting a serial number on a bullet casing as it ejects from a semi-automatic pistol will allow law enforcement to detect and thus incarcerate more criminals – this is also referred to as micro-stamping. So let us pretend that all of you are now criminals – how would you alter your behavior to avoid detection? Police your brass. Use a sawed off shotgun. Use a revolver. Gasoline and a match are very effective. Explosives work exceedingly well in motor vehicles. Poison – women seem to prefer this method – Spitzer should hire a food tester. There are very effective ways of killing people that never include a semi-automatic pistol. Not to mention the most obvious trick – remove the firing pin and file off the serializing mechanism. What about something even more devious – picking up used serialized brass at a firing range and place it at the scene of the future crime to throw off the police. Serializing casings of pistol cartridges not only will not work, but it will create more permutations of that section of the population of New York State that are hell bent on killing for profit or psychosis.
New York State currently operates a system that ostensibly should be doing what micro-stamping or serializing a cartridge would do. That system is called “The New York State Combined Ballistic Identification System,” or COBIS. To date COBIS has cost the taxpayers of New York $30,000,000 and has produced only two matches in its database. It costs $4,000,000 per year to operate. We are not the only State to have attempted such foolishness – Maryland has attempted it also. The only difference is Maryland abandoned it because firearms possessed by law abiding citizens are use to commit crimes in infinitesimally rare circumstances. I could fill five pages with all I know of ballistic identification and it’s pros and cons – I sincerely suggest all of you educate yourselves and rethink New York’s current approach – last I checked New York was running a $5,000,000,000 deficit saving a few million here or there might start adding up to real money.
Many proven methods work to prevent crime, a solid basic education in how to behave in civil society, economic growth, engaged and active parents, etc. But the most effective methods that exist for reducing crime is self defense and long term humane incarceration for those who cannot coexist peacefully with their fellow citizens. New York State concealed carry law is a mess – some counties provide permits to law abiding citizens with out much hassle while others, “you have to know somebody.” Fix this and you’ll have a safer society. Don’t get me wrong – have stringent rules and requirements that are not capricious for the officials as well as the applicants, but stop deluding yourselves in thinking that permit holders and firearms are in and of themselves the enemy – the opposite is true – concealed carry holders are the most productive and law abiding segment of society. Florida maintains excellent statistics on this point – less then one hundredth of one percent of all permit holders has ever committed any crime in its entire thirty year history of concealed carry! Before Elliot Sptitzers behavior was detected he let 200 murderers out of prison. These people did not steal a loaf of bread to feed their children – THEY KILLED AND RAPED PEOPLE. Fix this and you’ll have a safer society. Bring back the death penalty for criminals that take an officers life.
Please stop attacking me and my fellow firearms owners we neither deserve your ire or your ad hominem attacks. Focus your efforts on what works and not what will get any of you reelected, stop using firearms as a means to win votes in an effort to demonstrate to your misguided constituents that you can save them from violent crime if only they surrender more of their forgotten liberty, when the opposite is true – even they at some point will recognize your hypocrisy for what it is.
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
What about the 350,000 lives ended by Planned Parenthood at tax payer expense?
Shameless opportunism.
to bloomburg when you take the gun from law abbiding citizen you can bet dumb ass there willbe for blood on the streets than you can count ,wont you grow up and look at the real problem !!thats your to dumb to see that a armed citizen is a polite citizen and your thrugs are always going to do what they do and thats take what is not theres from some one that work there ass off for.
to bloomburg when you take the gun from law abbiding citizen you can bet dumb ass there willbe for blood on the streets than you can count ,wont you grow up and look at the real problem !!thats your to dumb to see that a armed citizen is a polite citizen and your thrugs are always going to do what they do and thats take what is not theres from some one that work there ass off for.
These pompous asses hide behind their armed guards and complain about guns, because they won’t control their criminals.
600 mayors have joined MAIG. 18,800 mayors have not joined MAIG. Maybe that’s because all of the MAIG proposals have to do with hindering the legal sale of guns.
600 mayors have joined MAIG. 18,800 mayors have not joined MAIG. Maybe that’s because all of the MAIG proposals have to do with hindering the legal sale of guns.