Mayor Bloomberg Outlines Gun Control Reform Strategy on Meet the Press
Bloomberg had a few things to say about gun violence on Meet the Press today:
"It only happens in America. And it happens again and again. There was another shooting yesterday; three people killed, I think, in a hospital. We kill people in schools, we kill them in hospitals, we kill them in religious organizations, we kill them when they're young, we kill them when they're old. We've just got to stop this...If [Obama] does nothing during his second term, something like 48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns."
The 48,000 number appears to come from Demand a Plan, a campaign of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, cofounded by Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.
"There is a number of things that the President can do...through executive action, he can order his agencies to enforce the laws more aggressively. I think [there are] something like 77,000 people who've been accused of lying when they applied for a gun permit. We've only prosecuted 77 of them. The president can introduce legislation, even if it doesn't get passed...He's got to try. That's his job."
New York Senator Chuck Schumer appeared on CBS' Face the Nation today (after all 31 pro-gun rights senators passed on the offer), calling this weekend's attack a "tipping point" in terms of how the public views mass shootings. He offered a three-point plan to combat gun violence, recommending a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban (Dianne Feinstein has already announced plans to do so), a limit on the size of clips, and increased restrictions on gun purchases by the "mentally unstable."
Meanwhile, on Fox News Sunday, Senator Joe Lieberman "called for a 9/11 style commission for mass shooting," a position that was echoed by Senate majority whip Dick Durbin.