October 06, 2009
ROBERT SCIARRINO/THE STAR-LEDGER

Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy prepare for a press conference were they announced arrests and the seizure of guns and drugs.

A bipartisan coalition of 450 mayors thinks Washington is insufficiently aware of the threat from gun violence in American cities and is demanding a federal crackdown, especially on the thousands of gun shows held annually. It's about time.

The coalition, in a 51-page report, called for a bigger, better financed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, saying agents' "hard work has been undermined by Congress, inadequate resources and a lack of leadership from federal officials in Washington."

The "undermined by Congress" statement is a thinly veiled criticism of spineless congressional subservience to the gun lobby, the vaunted National Rifle Association. The NRA wasted no time striking back. It urged its members to write their mayors, denouncing the coalition as an attempt to "essentially criminalize all gun ownership" - a standard NRA overstatement.

The tactic has had some success; an estimated 40 original signers turned tail and quit the coalition. In New Jersey, 39 mayors, including those in Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth and Trenton, have signed the coalition report.

The report, made public by the Washington Post, contains a long list of recommendations, 40 in all, that deserve support from the Obama administration and a better hearing in Congress than most gun control proposals have received.

Unlike many gun control groups, the mayoral coalition isn't seeking new anti-gun legislation and it defends the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Instead, it calls for better enforcement of laws already on the books that are too often ignored and for closer coordination between federal and local officials.

And it demands the gun-show loophole that allows private dealers to peddle firearms without performing background checks be closed.

The mayors made a special point of the need for the FBI to notify promptly state and local officials whenever someone fails a background check while trying to purchase a gun.

At the same time, they demanded the feds take a more aggressive approach to prosecuting those who fail such tests while trying to buy guns. In 2005, the coalition noted, the FBI referred 67,713 such cases to the AFT, but federal prosecutions were pursued in only 135.

In demanding tighter oversight of gun shows nationally, the mayors observed that, at present, "AFT does not have a formal gun show enforcement program." Currently, gun dealers are inspected by the AFT only about once every 11 years instead of once every three, they noted.

The ATF needs more money to hire additional inspectors - up to $53 million, the coalition said - and should be given greater discretion to run criminal investigation of gun shows that have been the source of firearms used in crimes. At the moment, the mayors observed, "criminal activity endemic to some gun shows goes unchecked."

Gun manufacturers could help, too, they said, by stamping a second, secret serial number on new guns, since regular serial numbers on guns used in crime are often obliterated.

Congress and the Obama administration could help even more by taking seriously and embracing the mayors' recommendations. As we do.