Mayor Bloomberg (AP)
LOST IT ALL: Gun-control advocates (from left) Pam Simon, Roxanna Green and Chris Foye — all affected by gun violence — appear with Mayor Bloomberg yesterday. (
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Mayor Bloomberg stepped up his crusade for tougher federal gun laws yesterday, calling to City Hall 34 Americans who lost loved ones in some of the nation’s most horrific gun massacres.
Relatives of victims of this year’s Aurora, Colo., movie-theater massacre, the Tucson, Ariz., shootings that nearly killed Gabby Giffords last year, and the 2007 Virginia Tech slaughter, among others, stood with the mayor as he called on President Obama to move forward quickly with reform in the aftermath of the school shooting in Connecticut.
“The president spoke out visibly on gun violence after the mass shooting in Tucson two years ago. Yet since those shootings happened, more than 24,100 Americans have been murdered with guns,” Bloomberg said during a City Hall press conference.
“That’s right — in two years, 24,100 more Americans have been murdered with guns. Had we done something then, a vast number of those would be alive today and their families wouldn’t have been torn asunder.”
Bloomberg said he has not spoken to Obama since the Sandy Hook shooting and the president’s emotional vow to protect the nation’s children from gun violence.
“Being the consoler in chief is part of his job,” Bloomberg said. “His main job is being commander in chief, and I endorsed him, and I endorsed him because he said he believes in rational use of guns in this country and I expect him to do exactly that.”
Bloomberg — who is pouring an untold amount of his personal fortune into fighting the National Rifle Association in political races — called on Obama to reinstate the assault-weapons ban and require states and the feds to send information on felons to a national criminal database.
Among his guests yesterday was Roxanna Green, whose 9-year-old daughter, Christine Taylor Green, was killed in the Tucson shooting at an outdoor event hosted by then-Congresswoman Giffords.
“I have a hole in my heart forever,” Green said. “She’s never going to come back, and if they don’t do something about it now, I just can’t even believe the country we live in. It should’ve happened after Tucson. It should’ve happened after Aurora . . . It has to happen now.”
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut, Bloomberg — who founded and co-chairs Mayors Against Illegal Guns — unveiled a series of 34 heart-wrenching videos demanding gun-law reform from victims’ relatives.
The spots, which can be found at his group’s Web site, DemandAPlan.org, include testimony from Chris Foye, the father of 13-year-old Chris Owens, killed in Harlem in 2009.
“It’s [the] worst pain that a parent can go through,” he said, before concluding with the message featured in each of the videos: “I demand a plan.”
Another video highlights Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was wounded in the Virginia Tech mass shooting in 2007.
The videos are intended to pressure Congress and Obama into tightening federal laws on guns, including the so-called gun-show loophole that allows gun sales at shows without background checks of the buyers.
“It should be illegal to have a weapon whose only purpose is to kill large numbers of people. I think it should be illegal to sell bullets whose only purpose is to pierce armored vests,” said Bloomberg.
“The last time I saw a deer wearing an armored vest was a long time ago. Those bullets are designed to kill police officers. That’s all they’re designed for. That should be illegal,” he said.
“Last night, the president said he would use whatever powers his office holds to address this violence, and I think it is critical that he do so,” Bloomberg said. “Words alone cannot heal our nation. Only action can do that.”