By John Tredrea, Special Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — David Del Vecchio, who has just embarked on his 21st year as mayor of Lambertville, has joined a bipartisan nationwide coalition of mayors that has called on President Barack Obama to lead an effort for tougher gun control laws.
The coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston, Massachusetts Mayor Thomas Menino.
The coalition sent a Dec. 19 letter, signed by more than 750 mayors nationwide, including Mayor Del Vecchio, to President Obama. Copies of the letter were sent to Congressional leaders.
In the letter, the mayors said the Dec. 14 murders of 20 children and six adults in a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school mean that tougher gun control laws must be enacted as soon as possible.
”As mayors, we are charged with keeping our communities safe,” the letter to President Obama says. “But too many of us have sat with mothers and fathers of children killed with guns. Twenty-four children enrolled in public schools in your hometown of Chicago were shot to death just last year.”
”Our bipartisan coalition of more than 750 mayors has joined forces with over 700,000 Americans and more than 100 survivors of deadly shootings. Together, we urge you to put forward an agenda that is rooted in common sense and that will make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns, and easier for police and prosecutors to crack down on them,” the letter also says.
The coalition had a number of specific recommendations on gun control in the letter to the president. Requiring every gun buyer to pass a criminal background check was at the top of the list.
”Background checks are the only systematic way to stop felons, domestic abusers and other dangerous people from buying firearms,” the letter says.
”These checks are instantaneous and highly effective. Since its inception, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has blocked firearms purchases at licensed dealerships by millions of individuals who are barred by federal law from owning them. But criminals and other prohibited purchasers avoid these checks by buying firearms, including online and at gun shows, from unlicensed ‘private sellers,’ who are not required by federal law to conduct the checks. Millions of gun sales — estimated at more than 40 percent of the U.S. annual total — are conducted through private sellers. The Fix Gun Checks Act (H.R.1781 / S.436) would close this enormous gap in our laws by requiring a criminal background check for every gun sale.”
The letter signed by Mayor Del Vecchio also said it is imperative to get high-capacity rifles and ammunition magazines “off our streets. Military-style weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines have no appropriate civilian or sporting function. They are designed to kill large numbers of people quickly. They also are disproportionately used to kill law enforcement officers; approximately one out of five law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty is killed with assault weapons. The time has come to review the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and draft a new law that is clear and enforceable and will take these weapons out of our communities. “
Making gun trafficking a crime is also a change that needs to be made, the letter says. It states: “Today, there is no clear and effective statute making gun trafficking a crime. Prosecutors are instead forced to rely on a weak law prohibiting engaging in the business of selling guns without a federal license, which carries the same punishment as trafficking chicken or livestock.
” As a result, according to the Justice Department’s Inspector General, U.S. attorneys decline to prosecute 25 percent of those cases while declining only 9 percent of drug conspiracy cases. Mayors Against Illegal Guns supports proposals to empower law enforcement to investigate and prosecute straw purchasers, gun traffickers, and their entire criminal networks.”
Other steps recommended in the letter are appointment of a director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which has gone without a Congressionally approved director for six years, the letter notes.
”During that time,” the letter states, “criminals and those with serious mental illness have been able to take advantage of insufficient enforcement of existing federal gun laws, and an estimated 72,000 Americans have been murdered with guns. In 2011, for the first time in over a decade, more police officers were shot to death in the line of duty than were killed in automobile accidents. The need for leadership at the ATF has never been more urgent.”
Other actions urged by the letter include prosecution of felons and other prohibited gun purchasers who fail criminal background checks, but still attempt to buy guns, ammunition or high-capacity magazines.

