Following Announcement Of Manchin-Toomey Bill, Mayors Against Illegal Guns Stops Ads On Pennsylvania Airwaves

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Previously Aired Ads Encouraging Toomey to Take Pennsylvania Solutions to Washington

New Bipartisan Legislation From Toomey and Manchin Would Require Background Checks for Commercial Gun Sales; www.DemandAction.org

NEW YORK, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following the announcement today that Senator Pat Toomey joined West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin in co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation to require background checks for commercial gun sales – including at gun shows and online – Mayors Against Illegal Guns announced that it would stop airing ads in Pennsylvania and thanked Senator Toomey for standing with Pennsylvanians and supporting this commonsense legislation.  The ad that was pulled from the air and a previous ad that aired in Pennsylvania can be viewed at www.DemandAction.org/Toomey. 

The coalition also released statements from coalition co-chairs New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino lauding Senator Toomey and this fact sheet on the Manchin-Toomey amendment today.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns undertook a number of activities in Pennsylvania in previous weeks including airing two ads, hosting more than 25 events across the state, executing 35,000 robocalls, generating more than 5,000 calls and collecting 58,569 petitions encouraging Toomey to support the legislation.  These efforts were part of a national field campaign to advocate for commonsense gun reforms.  The coalition also conducted recent polling that found 88 percent of Pennsylvanians support comprehensive and enforceable checks for all gun buyers. The bipartisan Mayors Against Illegal Guns includes 208 Pennsylvania mayors in its coalition and over 60,000 grassroots supporters in Pennsylvania.

Members of the Pennsylvania coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns also made the following statements on Senator Toomey's decision to co-sponsor the background check legislation:

"We've been saying it for years: enforceable background checks are the most effective way to reduce gun violence in America," said Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray (D). "It takes political courage to sit down at the table and hammer out a compromise on sensible legislation. I commend Senator Toomey for his leadership and for representing the will of the people of Pennsylvania."

"This is not a matter of partisanship, it's a matter of common sense," said Oxford Mayor Geoffrey Henry (R). "Pennsylvanians want our lawmakers to put partisanship aside, and an overwhelming majority support background checks for every gun sale. Background checks save lives. We're proud to have a senator who's willing to stand up for what's right."

About Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Since its creation in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 members to more than 900 mayors from across the country. We have more than 1.5 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 communities by holding gun offenders accountable; demanding access to crime gun trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other dangerous people 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

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns