John Petro

A Day to Be Proud of Mayor Bloomberg

Here on DMIBlog, we're not exactly shy about being critical of Mayor Bloomberg. So it feels good at those times when we can be proud of our mayor for taking on an issue that advances social justice. Yesterday was such a day, when Mayor Bloomberg appeared with DMI board member Martin Luther King, III and the families of victims of gun violence to call for a comprehensive national background check system for the purchase of guns.

Beginning with the startling statistic that 34 Americans are killed by gun violence every day, Bloomberg called on the members of Congress to fix the "broken" background check system. On the CBS evening news, Bloomberg told Katie Couric, "We allow people to buy guns that we won't allow to get on an airplane." Many states have not contributed the names of the mentally ill to the national background check database. At the same time, Congress has under-funded the system, appropriating only five percent of the funds necessary to collect and enter the data, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg went on to call for the closing of the gun control loopholes that allow individuals to purchase guns at gun shows without passing a background check.

Maritn Luther King, III reaffirmed the mayor's statements, calling on Congress to "finally deliver on the long unfilled promise to make sure that every gun-buyer passes a background check. It is unconscionable to do anything less."

So, today we can be proud of Mayor Bloomberg for taking a politically difficult stance on gun control and for standing up for social justice.

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Posted at 12:16 PM, Jan 25, 2011 in Urban Affairs
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