“Bloomburg Pushes Stricter Gun Control Measures”
Elizabeth A. Harris
January 24, 2011
On Monday, the 24th of January Mayor Michael Bloomberg brought a group of family members and friends of shooting victims to speak at a City Hall news conference. The reason for this conference was to persuade Washington to create stricter gun laws in order to prevent people who have had violent tendencies and mental illness from obtaining the guns. Bloomberg has stated that previous laws, such as a law passed in 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Robert F. Kennedy’s assassinations and The 1993 Brady Act, are flawed. The acts prevent people (drug abusers, the mentally ill and convicted felons for example) from getting the weapons through a background check system. Bloomberg explains the reasoning of the flaws are that the system does not have millions of people on record that should not be allowed to purchase guns. Eighteen states have provided less than 100 mental health records and 10 have not supplied any records at all (Mayors Against Illegal Guns; a group Bloomberg founded.) The Mayor is pushing for the President to addresss the issue of gun control, Bloomberg believes that with thecountryy still mourning the shooting in Arizona now is the right time to brace the background check system. Harris closes her article with a quote from Bloomberg saying “You see the fierce urgency of now everywhere, except in Washington.”
I somewhat agree with what Bloomberg is saying, if the records are not complete, states should be required to send in the information needed. However, in the article Bloomberg says that the average 34 Americans killed with guns everyday are shot by people who obtained the guns illegally. In my opinion, if someone is trying to possess a gun, the system will not stop them from doing it illegally. Though, with the system having a tighter hold it will be harder for that person to do so. I think that if gun control laws are going to have a more strict law, they should focus on the reasoning for the person’s desire to have the gun. Overall, it seems as if the gun control debate will have a lingering place of debate in congress.
Original Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/nyregion/25bloomberg.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=gun+control&st=nyt
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