More than 200 mayors from across the country sent a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), urging them to immediately call the Senate back to Washington, D.C. to take action on gun control legislation.
The press release from the U.S. Conference of Mayors is available here. The letter is available here.
The letter is signed by Republican and Democratic mayors, including Mayor Dee Margo of El Paso, Texas and Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio.
“This past weekend, senseless gun violence claimed dozens of innocent lives and forever changed countless others. America’s mayors are on the frontlines of this epidemic, and our communities can no longer wait for the federal government to take action. Keeping our cities safe is not a partisan issue. That is why we are together calling upon Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Schumer to immediately bring the Senate back into session and take up bipartisan solutions to this crisis. The future of our nation and cities depends on it,” said U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) President Bryan Barnett, Mayor of Rochester Hills, Michigan.
The Tennessee mayors are who signed the letter include:
- Knoxville: Madeline Anne Rogero
- Nashville: David Briley
- Chattanooga: Andy Berke
The Ohio mayors are:
- Toledo: Wade Kapszukiewicz
- Youngstown: Jamael Tito Brown
- Dayton: Nan Whaley
- Akron: Dan Horrigan
- Canton: Thomas M. Bernabei
- Cincinnati: John Cranley
- Cleveland: Frank G. Jackson
- Columbus: Andrew J. Ginther
- Euclid: Kirsten Holzheimer Gail
- Lima: David J. Berger
The mayors from Michigan are:
- Rochester Hills: Bryan K. Barnett
- Detroit: Mike Duggan
- Flint: Karen Weaver
- Brownstown Township: Andy Linko
- Burton: Paula Zelenko
- Grand Rapids: Rosalynn Bliss
- Kalamazoo: Bobby J. Hopewell
- Lansing: Andy Schor
- Muskegon: Steve Gawron
- Westland: William R. Wild
- Rochester: Robert J. Ray
The mayors from Minnesota are:
- Burnsville: Elizabeth B. Kautz
- Rochester: Kim Norton
- Edina: James B. Hovland
- Minneapolis: Jacob Frey
- St. Louis Park: Jake Spano
- St. Paul: Melvin Carter
- Duluth: Emily Larson
“There is no worse thing that can happen to a city. Dayton is pulling together, but this violence has left a lasting void in our community,” said Whaley. “We cannot allow this tragic event to fade from our memories without taking action. We cannot just accept it and wait until horror strikes again. Politics has stood in the way of action for too long, and I can tell you politics seems very petty when it is your friends and neighbors who are injured or dead. We are urging everyone in Washington to come together and end this crisis.”
Whaley recently used a misleading “250 mass shootings” number, Battleground State News reported.
USCM CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran said, “The United States Conference of Mayors has supported common-sense gun regulations since 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated.”
The letter urges the Senate to consider two bipartisan bills that previously passed the U.S. House of Representatives: H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019, and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019. H.R. 8 would close serious loopholes in the nation’s background check system for gun purchases, and H.R. 1112 would lengthen the background check review period deadline.
McConnell has essentially blocked those bills from consideration in the Senate, Breitbart said.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “Gun Control Now Sign” by Fibonacci Blue. CC BY 2.0.
