Mayors Against Illegal Guns

CRANFORD, N.J. - A Hunterdon County man whose son was fatally shot in the Virginia Tech massacre joined a group of New Jersey mayors and law enforcement officials Monday in urging federal lawmakers to pass "sensible" restrictions on gun ownership. "Six years ago, as the colors of the Empire State Building were lit up with the colors of Virginia Tech, people were saying, 'Enough is enough,' " said Michael Pohle, whose 23-year-old son, Michael Jr., was shot to death while sitting in German class, weeks shy of graduation.

One month after 20 children and six adults were massacred at a Connecticut elementary school, nearly a dozen Delaware County mayors from both major parties came together Monday to call on national leaders to restrict assault weapons and curb gun violence. The news conference in Media was one of a number held nationwide Monday by the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns to push for change and to announce the release of a television advertisement featuring family members of gunshot victims.

The "Fix Gun Checks" truck tour paid a visit to Philadelphia yesterday with a giant billboard that adds another death to its counter every 40 minutes to symbolize the 34 people killed nationwide each day by guns. The tour was launched in New York Wednesday by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition of more than 550 mayors, including Mayor Nutter and 184 other Pennsylvania mayors. Nutter and other supporters gathered with the mobile billboard outside City Hall yesterday morning.

DENVER - A man wounded in the mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater is appearing in a nationwide TV spot aimed at drawing attention to gun violence as part of the upcoming presidential debates. Stephen Barton, 22, of Southbury, Conn., was among the 58 people injured in the July 20 attack in Aurora that also left 12 people dead. Barton was bicycling across the country and staying with a friend the night of the shooting. He now does victim outreach and policy research for Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which helped produce the ad that began airing Monday.

INSTEAD of the Keystone State, you could call Pennsylvania the "Keep Your Head Down State. " And Delaware? "Definitely Not First. " A national report released Sunday knocked Pennsylvania and Delaware as two of just 10 states that failed to report any mental-health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). New Jersey didn't do much better: In a state with 8.7 million people, just eight mental-health records were submitted through August last year. Compare that with California, which bested everyone by reporting 256,106 during the same period, according to the study.

Gun legislation was supposed to go on the back burner this year, with the economy on life support, the health-care system overloaded, and most folks more worried about swine flu than assault weapons. But who could ignore the series of mass shootings that killed police in Oakland and Pittsburgh, nursing-home residents in North Carolina, and immigrants in Binghamton? Especially since the victims were buried around the 10-year anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School, two years after the tearful tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Mayor Nutter has called for mayors in 600 U.S. cities and towns to gather 25,000 petition signatures opposing proposed federal gun legislation. In a letter Thursday to members of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Nutter said the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 would "eviscerate the ability of individual states to decide who can carry a hidden, loaded gun. " Nutter's letter said the legislation "would force every state to honor...

Heeding God's Call, a religious-based group that has for years been trying to reduce illegal gun sales in the city, needs more people to pay attention and get involved.   Just last month, an 18-year-old shot himself in the head during a webcam chat. He reportedly thought the gun, apparently purchased illegally by his 22-year-old brother, was unloaded. Heeding God's Call wants the public to be made aware of any retailers who knowingly sell guns illegally. That effort can be linked to a nationwide push to crack down on illegal gun trafficking.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Parents of children slain in the Connecticut school massacre held photos of their sons and daughters, cried, hugged, and spoke in quavering voices as they called for a national dialogue to help prevent similar tragedies. "I do not want to be someone sharing my experience and consoling another parent next time. I do not want there to be a next time," said Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was among 20 first graders and six adults killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Win or lose, the constitutional challenges to local gun laws in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and other Pennsylvania communities appear to be helping build grassroots pressure on Harrisburg lawmakers to follow New Jersey's lead and enact tougher statewide gun-control measures. Even as the latest court ruling dealt a blow to Philadelphia's 2008 gun laws, Lancaster became the eighth town to enact its own requirement that owners must report lost or stolen weapons. In addition to Philadelphia, officials in Pittsburgh, Allentown, Reading, Easton, Pottsville, and Wilkinsburg have adopted such ordinances in hopes of forcing the hand of lawmakers who toe the National Rifle Association line.

WASHINGTON - Two of the loudest voices in the gun debate say it's up to voters now to make their position known to Congress. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the National Rifle Association's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, claim their opposing views on guns have the support of the overwhelming number of Americans. They are looking at the next two weeks as critical to the debate, when lawmakers head home to hear from constituents ahead of next month's anticipated Senate vote on gun control.

WASHINGTON - As the Senate prepares to begin debating new gun-control measures, some of President Obama's fellow Democrats are poised to frustrate his efforts to enact the most sweeping limits on weapons in decades. These Democrats from largely rural states with strong gun cultures view Obama's proposals warily and have not committed to supporting them. The lawmakers' concerns could stand in the way of strong legislation before a single Republican gets a chance to vote "no. " "There's a core group of Democratic senators, most but not all from the West, who represent states with a higher-than-average rate of gun ownership but an equally strong desire to feel their kids are safe," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Heeding God's Call, a faith-based movement against gun violence, has installed a strong visual memorial along Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill - a field of 331 crosses on the front lawn of a Presbyterian church, each holding a T-shirt with the name, age, and date when one of Philadelphia's murder victims was killed in 2012. "Philadelphia - highest major- city gun death rate," reads a sign facing drivers on the neighborhood's main thoroughfare. "Where are you, Mayor Nutter?" About 60 volunteers from three area churches built the memorial Saturday, fashioning small crosses from PVC piping, using markers to inscribe a name on each shirt, and lining up the crosses in front of the church.

WASHINGTON - Supporters of President Obama's gun-control proposals are planning a methodical, state-by-state campaign to try to persuade key lawmakers that it's in their political interest to back his sweeping effort to crack down on firearms and ammunition sales and expand criminal background checks. To succeed will require overturning two decades of conventional wisdom that gun control is bad politics. The National Rifle Association is confident that argument won't sell. But with polls showing majorities supporting new gun laws a month after the Connecticut shooting deaths of 20 schoolchildren and six adults, gun-control activists say the political calculus has changed.

One month after 20 children and six adults were massacred at a Connecticut elementary school, nearly a dozen Delaware County mayors from both major parties came together Monday to call on national leaders to restrict assault weapons and curb gun violence. The news conference in Media was one of a number held nationwide Monday by the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns to push for change and to announce the release of a television advertisement featuring family members of gunshot victims.

CRANFORD, N.J. - A Hunterdon County man whose son was fatally shot in the Virginia Tech massacre joined a group of New Jersey mayors and law enforcement officials Monday in urging federal lawmakers to pass "sensible" restrictions on gun ownership. "Six years ago, as the colors of the Empire State Building were lit up with the colors of Virginia Tech, people were saying, 'Enough is enough,' " said Michael Pohle, whose 23-year-old son, Michael Jr., was shot to death while sitting in German class, weeks shy of graduation.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Parents of children slain in the Connecticut school massacre held photos of their sons and daughters, cried, hugged, and spoke in quavering voices as they called for a national dialogue to help prevent similar tragedies. "I do not want to be someone sharing my experience and consoling another parent next time. I do not want there to be a next time," said Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was among 20 first graders and six adults killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

IT'S STILL TOO EARLY to know whether the tide has truly turned following the slaughter of children in Connecticut. The good news is that if the concern over guns and gun violence in this country translates into action, we'll know it, by the concrete evidence of laws. That action must start in Congress. On Page 19 in today's Daily News , former governor Ed Rendell calls out some of the wusses in Congress to pass common-sense regulations, including a ban on assault weapons and on high-capacity magazines, and closing the gun-show loophole that allows people to buy guns without a background check.

IT SHOULD TAKE Vice President Joe Biden about three minutes to round up a list of ideas to present the president for proposals to reduce gun violence. Many ideas - like banning assault weapons and restricting high-capacity gun magazines - have been around for years. Biden would also do well to consult the list of federal legislation being pushed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. These include a fix to the gun-checks act that would update the database of people barred from owning handguns, and close the loophole that allows people to buy guns at gun shows without background checks.

A SIGN OUTSIDE an Arizona gun shop reads: "Effective immediately: If you voted for Obama, your money is no good here!" Cope Reynolds, owner of the shop where that sign was posted, needn't worry that he will turn customers away. Gun shops all over America are doing brisk business in the aftermath of the election as paranoid gun owners rush to stock up before stricter gun controls can be enacted. These gun-shopping sprees have become a time-honored and peculiarly American tradition.