Colorado Law Enforcement Leaders Demand That Congress Act Now to Reduce Gun Violence

New Ad Features Colorado Law Enforcement Leaders Saying Now is the Time for Common-Sense Reforms Like Background Checks for All Gun Sales

Background Checks Save Lives and Help Police Catch Criminals; Polls Show Overwhelming Support for Background Checks; www.DemandAction.org

NEW YORK, March 19, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mayors Against Illegal Guns today released a new ad featuring law enforcement leaders from across the country calling on Congress to pass background checks for all gun sales to save lives and help police catch criminals.  Colorado law enforcement leaders featured in the ad are Chief Dwight Henninger of Vail and Deputy Chief William Nagle of Denver.  The ad can be viewed at www.DemandAction.org/police

Background checks prevent felons, domestic abusers, the severely mentally ill, and other dangerous people from buying guns. But they also serve another purpose: when licensed gun dealers perform these checks, they retain a receipt with identifying information about the gun. These records provide a vital paper trail for police to combat gun traffickers and track down criminals before they strike again.  In the states that go beyond federal law to require checks for private sales, data from those sales allow law enforcement to trace the gun to the private market and solve crimes.  Mayors Against Illegal Guns has documented some of these cases in this fact sheet.

"Our nation's law enforcement officials know better than anyone what it takes to protect our communities from gun violence, and they know that background checks help save lives," said Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "They have dedicated their lives to protecting the public, and as Congress debates our nation's gun laws, their voices deserve to be heard."

"Our police officers put their lives on the line every day to protect our neighborhoods and our families," said Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "They are gun owners, hunters, supporters of the Second Amendment, and NRA members. And they agree that background checks on all gun purchases is a commonsense measure that will keep guns out of the wrong hands, help them do their jobs, and make our communities safer."

"Denver's law enforcement officers have been witness to some of the worst mass shootings in our country's history, but that hasn't broken our resolve to protect our citizens," said Deputy Chief William Nagle of Denver. "The Colorado General Assembly recently passed a series of reforms that will help our officers better preserve the safety of the public, but gun violence is a national problem that requires a national solution. Congress must act now before more lives are lost."

"Background checks on firearm purchasers are important for public safety and the safety of our officers and deputies," said Chief Dwight Henninger of Vail.  "Background checks are a point we can all agree on in the effort to reduce gun violence, and most importantly, they save lives."

The ad will air nationally on cable today and throughout the week on Washington, D.C. cable and on broadcast in home states of some of the participants in the ad. 

Around 40 percent of U.S. gun transfers are conducted by unlicensed "private sellers" who are not required to conduct a federal check,[1] and who often do business at gun shows and on the Internet – indicating that about 6.6 million guns are transferred in the U.S. every year with no background check for the buyer.[2] This loophole allows dangerous people who are prohibited from buying guns – including felons, domestic abusers and the seriously mentally ill – to avoid a background check by simply avoiding licensed dealers.

When private sales are conducted without background checks, as federal law currently allows, those sales cut off police leads and turn cases cold.  Almost 60 percent of ATF trace investigations involve secondhand guns, which are difficult to trace because unlicensed sellers are not required by federal law to keep records of the transfers.[3]

Evidence demonstrates that background checks save lives.  For example, in the fourteen states that already require background checks for all handgun sales:

• Gun trafficking is 48 percent lower than in states that fail to require background checks for all handgun sales.[4]
• In 2010, the rate of women murdered by an intimate partner with a gun was 38 percent lower than in other states, while the rate murdered by other means was nearly identical.[5]
• The firearm suicide rate was 49 percent lower than in other states, even though people committed suicide in other ways at almost precisely the same rate.[6]

Recent polls by Mayors Against Illegal Guns showed likely voters in a wide range of states and congressional districts overwhelmingly support background checks for all gun sales. The average support for background checks for all gun sales among 41 congressional district polls was 89 percent; the average among 21 statewide polls was 86 percent.  The findings of these surveys can be found here.  These findings are in line with recent independent polls that have found more than 90 percent of Americans support background checks for all buyers.   Previous polling by Republican Frank Luntz for Mayors Against Illegal Guns also found that 82 percent of gun owners – including 74 percent of National Rifle Association members – support requiring criminal background checks for anyone purchasing a gun.

Recent Mayors Against Illegal Guns research found that an estimated 98.1 percent of Coloradoans live within ten miles of a gun dealer – disproving the gun lobby's claim that background checks would be burdensome for private gun sellers and bolstering the case for checks on all gun sales.

About Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Since its inception in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 mayors to more than 900 mayors from across the country. We have more than 1.4 million grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country.  The bipartisan coalition, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, has united the nation's mayors around these common goals: protecting their communities by holding gun offenders and irresponsible gun dealers accountable; demanding access to trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat illegal gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix gaps, weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other prohibited purchasers to get guns.  Learn more at www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org

CONTACTS

Erika Soto Lamb: [email protected] or 646-580-5281
Alex Katz: [email protected] or 617-721-3779

Mayor Bloomberg's Press Office  (212) 788-2958
Mayor Menino's Press Office       (617) 635-4461

[1] Philip J. Cook & Jens Ludwig, Guns in America, 1996, available at http://www.policefoundation.org/pdf/GunsinAmerica.pdf. 2,568 individuals, including 251 gun owners, were surveyed by telephone and asked how they obtained their firearms.

[2] In the 38 states that have not fully closed the private sale loophole, an estimated 9,856,984 background checks were conducted between November 2011 and November 2012, out of an estimated 16.5 million total firearm transfers in those states. 40 percent of this total—6.6 million transfers—occurred without background checks. Calculation based on FBI data. Available: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/20130205_1998_2013_state_program_to_date_purpose_ids.pdf

[3] U.S. Department of Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Following the Gun: Enforcing Federal Laws Against Firearms Traffickers, 2000, available at: http://maig.us/VowJfH

[4] Daniel Webster, Jon Vernick, & Maria Bulzacchelli, "Effects of State-Level Firearm Seller Accountability Policies on Firearm Trafficking," Journal of Urban Health, July 2009.

[5] U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Supplementary Homicide Reports, 2011.

[6] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [online]. (2005) [cited 2012 Dec. 20].

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns