Gun-control advocates slammed elected officials from both parties yesterday, vowing to make their lives miserable until tougher firearm laws are enacted.
“The main thing we’re encouraging people to do is to call the White House every day until President Obama offers us more than thoughts and prayers,” said Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
“If politicians are cowards — and it seems they are — then we need to play the political game.”
Obama reiterated calls to “take meaningful action” yesterday, emphasizing the need to “prevent tragedies like this from happening, regardless of politics.” But he offered no specific solutions following the massacre that took 27 innocent lives in Newtown, Conn.
Mayor Bloomberg, one of the nation’s most vocal advocates for tougher laws to restrict illegal guns, blasted Obama for his failure to act quickly and decisively.
“The country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem,” Bloomberg said Friday. “Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action.”
Bloomberg is certain to step up pressure on Washington in the coming days.
“The president should lead the nation in mourning, but he also needs to lead the nation in acting,” said John Feinblatt, the mayor’s criminal-justice coordinator, yesterday. “I think the American public wants a plan — is demanding a plan — how the president is going to keep them safe.”
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He said that under Obama’s tenure, gun laws have actually been loosened, not strengthened, citing relaxed rules for carrying guns in national parks as one example.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat whose husband was killed in the Long Island Rail Road massacre in 1993, has pushed gun-control bills in the House for years, but they continue to gather dust in committee.
McCarthy blamed Republicans.
“We’re confident that with the current leadership in the House, nothing’s going to happen,” said her spokesman, Shams Tarek.
McCarthy wants a ban on high-capacity magazines and background checks for everyone who purchases a gun in the country.
But other elected officials contend that stronger gun laws aren’t the solution.
“We tend to misdirect our energies in times of tragedy,” said Rep. Bob Turner, a Queens Republican. “Somebody just hacked up children with a machete in China less than a year ago. I suspect whatever was wrong with that person might be the same thing wrong here.”
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Democratic leaders vowed a renewed push to pass tougher laws.
“Politics be damned,” said Rep. John Larson, the House Democratic Caucus chairman. “Of the 12 deadliest shootings in our nation’s history, half of them have happened in the last five years. There is not a single person in America who doesn’t fear it will happen again.”
New York state’s gun laws may also be strengthened in the wake of the Newtown shooting.
The biggest gun-related issue before the state Legislature is micro-stamping, which makes it possible to trace shell casings to whomever purchased the bullets.
A measure passed the Assembly this year, but was blocked by the Republican-controlled state Senate. One government source said the new power configuration in the Senate, where Republicans are teaming up with a small band of renegade Democrats to control the majority, means the measure could be revisited.
“If it gets to the floor, it’ll pass,” predicted the source.
Additional reporting by Gerry Shields and Erik Kriss.