Mayors urge Bush to tighten gun control laws

Mayor Thomas M. Menino urged the Bush administration yesterday to tighten gun control laws and stand up to the National Rifle Association in the aftermath of the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech.

"The federal government could take action . . . by getting the NRA to back off these issues," Menino said in a telephone interview. "Young kids have guns today. . . . How is this being perpetrated throughout the country? It's not just a Boston problem. It's a national problem."

The mayor made his comments as he returned to Boston from New Jersey, where he attended a meeting yesterday of a coalition of mayors united against illegal guns. Menino and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York started the coalition with 15 mayors in April 2006, and it grew to 214 with the addition of 27 mayors from New Jersey yesterday.

Like Menino, Bloomberg said yesterday that he will wait for the investigation to be completed before offering extensive comments on the massacre, though he did say that an average of about 30 Americans are slain by gunfire daily.

Menino pointed out that the guns Seung-Hui Cho used to kill 32 people and then himself were bought legally in Virginia. He said looser gun laws in Southern states such as Virginia cause the streets of Boston to be flooded with illegal guns.

Like many cities, Boston is confronting a surge in homicides. This year, the city is well ahead of the pace of last year's total of 74 homicides, just one shy of the 10-year high of 75 set in 2005.

"A young person goes to one of those Southern states with liberal gun laws and brings them to Massachusetts and sells them out of trucks," Menino said. "Why isn't the president doing something about it?"

The mayors' coalition will begin airing television ads on network political talk shows Sunday to push for the repeal of a law that prevents the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from sharing gun trace information with local law enforcement.

Menino and Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis say the law makes it more difficult for police to apprehend criminals who use guns to kill and maim people.

The website of the NRA says the group supports the legislation because it protects the privacy of gun owners, whose weapons could be traced even when they are not used in crimes.

Menino said it makes sense that mayors are taking on the gun lobby.

"We get the calls at night, we visit the families, we offer our condolences, and, in some instances, our eulogies," he said.

"We're on the front lines . . . of homicides and shootings in America . . . and that's why we're outraged.

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.