Mayors Urge Senate to Pass Gun Control Legislation

WASHINGTON -- Mayors throughout the Washington, D.C., area joined last week in calling on the Senate to ban assault-style rifles and to broaden background checks for gun buyers.

They sent a letter to the Senate majority and minority leaders days after mass shootings in Chesapeake, Va., and Colorado Springs.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ letter says an assault weapons ban “does not in any way infringe on Second Amendment rights” and more extensive vetting of gun ownership applicants “would close serious loopholes in the background check system.”

A pending bill to ban assault rifle sales already passed the House in July. It is awaiting a vote in the Senate, where it faces opposition from Republicans.

Titled S.736, the Assault Weapons Ban, it would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of certain semi-automatic weapons, bump fire stocks, and high-capacity feeding devices. It would exempt from the ban all assault weapons lawfully possessed on the date of enactment and would not apply to antique firearms, manually operated firearms, and more than 2,000 specified models of hunting and sporting firearms.

A second bill, called the Background Check Expansion Act, won approval in the House last year. It would require background checks before transferring guns between private individuals.

The mayors of Baltimore, Manassas, Norfolk and Richmond joined 66 other city leaders in signing the letter. All of them claim mass shootings hit their communities.

“We can tell you firsthand of the devastating impact these shootings have had on our residents and on our cities,” their letter says. “While we will never recover from them completely, we must try to prevent them from happening in other cities in the future.”

Chesapeake Mayor Rick West declined to sign the letter, despite the fact six people were killed in a shooting at a Walmart in his city on November 22.

Chesapeake city officials have declared themselves in a resolution a “Second Amendment Sanctuary.” They have said they would legally contest or refuse to enforce gun restrictions they believed were too oppressive.

The proposed federal legislation has the support of President Joe Biden.

For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: tramstack@gmail.com or phone: 202-479-7240.