Bloomberg Pushes for Gun Control This Super Bowl Sunday
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pressed on with his crusade for firearm law reform, an issue he hopes to bring to a wider audience than ever this Super Bowl Sunday. On NBC's Meet the Press this morning, he made blunt reference to Gabrielle Gifford's shooting in wondering out loud what it would take to get Congress to enact more stringent laws.
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Some of his remarks, courtesy of Talking Points Memo:
"You’d think that if a congresswoman got shot in the head, that would have changed Congress’ views. I can tell you how to change it, just get Congress to come with me to the hospital when I’ve got tell tell somebody that their son or daughter, their spouse, their parent is not going to come home again. [...]
You know, the federal laws say you can’t get a gun if you have a drug problem, psychiatric problems, criminal record or [if you are] a minor. And yet Congress doesn’t give moneys to make sure we can have a background check. They have too many loopholes. The background databases aren’t up to date. Private sector sales of guns are something like 40 percent and they don’t do background checks, I don’t know who has to get killed for people to start saying ‘wait a second, this is enough.’"
Watch his appearance here:
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Elsewhere, the mayor appeared with his Super Bowl rival, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, in a PSA set to air during the game. In it, the two men squabble over team allegiances and hometown pride, but unite in their belief that government must do more to "keep guns out of the hands of criminals." The commercial directs viewers to the unwieldy URL MayorsAgainstIllegalGuns.org, where you can learn more about the "bipartisan coalition of more than 600 mayors from across the country" who are committed to gun reform." If Congress won't act, the mayors will.
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