Alameda Mayor Marie Gilmore signed a letter to President Obama Wednesday as part of a group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, calling for tighter gun control laws and other steps — notably appointing an official to fill a top enforcement post that has been vacant for six years..
The letter Gilmore signed noted that "the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), the federal agency responsible for enforcing our gun laws, has gone without a confirmed director for more than six years."
Gilmore's group sent out its note on the same day that the U.S. Conference of Mayors wrote to the President and Congress with a similar agenda that called for three specific actions:
- Enact legislation to ban assault weapons and other high-capacity magazines being prepared by Senator Dianne Feinstein and others;
- Strengthen the national background check system and eliminate loopholes in it; and
- Strengthen the penalties for straw purchases of guns.
"We know that preventing gun violence – whether it is a mass shooting in a school or a murder on a street corner – will take much more than strengthening our gun laws," the Conference of Mayors letter says. "We need to reverse the culture of violence in our nation so that a violent act isn’t the first response to settling a difference or compensating for a wrong."
But gun control laws shouldn't wait for other improvements to happen first, the letter says.
The two letters come less than a week after a . It goes on to say that Congress should increase funding for mental health care and establish a commission to look at violence in the country as a whole.
Download the letter Gilmore signed here [PDF].
Download the Conference letter here [PDF].
What do you think of the Mayor's position?
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There are many examples of Corruption. I will give you 1 example for arguments sake. We were given the freedom of information act. When Dr Shirley Moore and Richard Fine discovered and exposed that the L.A. Superior Court Judges were excepting money that was not authorized by LAW and Sturgeon vs. Los Angeles County 1 declared those payments to be UNCONSTITUTIONAL the Judges paid a lobbyist to pass SBX211 that granted themselves (Retro Active Immunity from Prosecution). When Government and Corporations are held to the same standards of the rule of LAW as the people are held. Then and only then could there be meaningful discussions about gun control. When Government stops taking money from the people and giving it to banks and corporations and prosecutes blatant acts of corruption then gun control could be an option. The presstitutes and politicians will paint the topic of gun control as being about duck and dear hunting.
Michael John Torrey mjohntorrey54@yahoo.com Alameda, CA. 94501-1875
Thank you Mayor Gilmore.
I don't care how big the magazine is that you put on a bolt action rifle, it's still a slow firing weapon.
I respect what you are trying to do, but you are scaring parents and you are scaring children. Big 5 does not sell high powered, rapid fire weapons. They have hunting and sporting rifles there. The rifles they sell that are "military looking" is cosmetic only, since California has an assault weapons ban, and the average hunting rifle is more lethal. Facts and the truth are important in this debate. You are being less than truthful when you are telling Alamedans a local store is selling high powered, rapid fire weapons. Look at the comments in your petition and the misinformation is obvious. People are calling for Big 5 in Alameda to stop selling large ammunition magazines, automatic weapons and assault weapons -- all illegal in CA. This just upsets me because we need real gun control in this country and this is hurting the cause.
Since when am I scaring anyone ? You speak about "facts and truth" ...which I am illuminating. And children do not need a power point demonstration, but appropriate to age, deserve facts and truth....not to mention a cohesive family and sense of love and security.....which I might suggest would eliminate much of the slaughter this nation suffers. I have no problem with protests, but the situation and solutions have more holes than swiss cheese.
Paul English