Mayors query candidates on guns
Responses are sought by Jan. 2
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group cofounded by the mayors of Boston and New York, wants to know where the presidential candidates stand on controlling illegal guns.
The group sent a survey to each candidate on Friday, requesting responses by Jan. 2. It plans to post the results on its website, said Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
"Each city is talking about the issue of violence. We see what is happening in some cities in America. We want to make sure that the presidential candidates are able to express their opinion on this issue," Menino said last night in a phone interview.
The group will not endorse a presidential candidate.
"We want to stop the flow of illegal guns into the United States of America," he said.
As of Nov. 25, there were 49 homicides with a gun and 261 nonfatal shootings in Boston, according to the Police Department. Last year at this time, there were 48 homicides with a gun and 296 nonfatal shootings.
The coalition was founded about 18 months ago by Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It has grown from 15 to about 250 members nationwide, because "mayors are realizing the problem we have," said Menino.
The survey includes about 22 questions on different issues related to gun control, including whether respondents support the Tiahrt Amendment, which, according to the mayors' group, limits access to data on firearms traces compiled by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Since 2003, Congress has passed increasingly restrictive measures. The mayors strongly oppose the legislation.
"I believe that the United States is one of the only industrialized states without uniform gun control," Menino said.
"We [in Massachusetts] have probably some of the toughest laws," he said. 