WASHINGTON â€" Mayor Bloomberg said his 800-member Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition will launch “a major congressional outreach campaign†to help push President Obama’s gun control legislation through Congress.
The mayors come from large and small cities in 44 states and would join together to lobby for the gun laws including an assault weapons ban, a law requiring background checks for gun purchases and one that would make gun trafficking a federal crime.
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“I will support members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, who support these common sense proposals â€" and I will remember those who don’t,†hizzoner told the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “We need them to hear that from everyone here.â€
The mayor’s speech came two days after Obama announced a sweeping package of gun control legislation in the wake of the massacre that claimed the lives of 20 children and six educators last month in Newtown, Conn.
The proposals include “virtually all†of the initiatives suggested by the mayor’s group, Bloomberg said.
He noted that mayors are more concerned than members of Congress about gun violence because they more directly see the toll weapons take on city streets.
“Congress is more removed from this issue than mayors are,†he said. “Congress people don’t get called in the middle of the night when a police officer has been shot. Mayors do.â€
“We’re the ones that are on the streets,†Bloomberg said. “We’re the ones that see them every day. We understand what it’s like and they don’t.â€
The mayors coalition has gained 100 new members since Newtown.
The billionaire mayor vowed to use his vast personal fortune and political connections to take on lawmakers who block action on guns.
“We need members to know that if they stand up for sensible gun laws, we will stand up for them. And if they don’t, we will stand up for those who run against them,†he said.
dfriedman@nydailynews.com
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