Mayor Menino is using the power of his office to tackle a tricky political problem with a national scope: How to stem the bloodletting of gun violence in American cities. The mayor has learned the hard way that one city or one state cannot take on that challenge alone. Illegal guns — and their scofflaw traffickers –don’t take heed of state and city lines. We need a rational, national strategy to check the flood of illicit firearms making its way onto our streets.
To that end, Menino was in Washington, D.C., this week to testify in front of Congress on behalf of a coalition — Mayors Against Illegal Guns — from all over the U.S. that he and New York’s Michael Bloomberg have helped to build. The group has wisely steered clear of a Second Amendment firestorm over whether citizens have a right to purchase a gun. Instead, the coalition has found common ground among the various regional factions and laid out a four-step plan to curb the illegal gun trade. They include closing a loophole in background checks at gun shows, requiring all dealers to do criminal background checks on their employees, and closing a “terror gap,” which Menino says allows even those on the terrorist “no-fly list” to buy firearms in the U.S.
Another positive from Menino’s work: Wal-Mart, the nation’s leading retailer of firearms, announced this week that it will follow the mayors’ advice and adopt voluntary guidelines on gun sales. As part of the 10-point code, Wal-Mart will videotape all gun transactions and implement a computerized log of all retailers, part of an effort to stop so-called “straw” purchases.
Menino told the Reporter this week that such a buy-in by corporate America’s gun manufacturers and retailers is critical to reform.
“Wal-Mart is the first to step to the plate,” the mayor said. “That’s what we need: More corporate America to say enough is enough.”
Nancy Robinson, of the Boston-based Citizens for Safety organization, who was at the Congressional hearing on Tuesday, says that Menino’s strategy is prudent.
“For too long we’ve been mired in a debate about a false choice,” says Robinson, referring to the Second Amendment issue of whether guns should be banned outright. The mayor’s strategy shifts that debate, she says, away from the distraction of the Constitutional culture war.
“The good news is we don’t have to wage that argument to win the war against gun violence. We simply have to shift the focus,” Robinson says. “Eight out of ten shooters get their guns illegally. Where do the guns come from?”
By building consensus with mayors from small towns and big cities, Menino and Bloomberg have opened up a new route for a bipartisan path towards reasonable gun enforcement. Let’s hope this Congress has the good sense to take it.
