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US Mayors Call for New Gun Control Measures

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - More than 200 U.S. mayors demanded Thursday that the
   Senate return from its summer recess to approve gun control legislation
   in the aftermath of two mass shootings last weekend that killed 31
   people in Texas and Ohio.

   The U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 214 cities with both
   Republican and Democratic leaders, told Senate Republican Majority
   Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer that it was
   urgent for the Senate to approve the measures already passed by the
   House of Representatives in February.

   That legislation calls for background checks for all gun purchasers and
   would extend the waiting period for gun transactions from three to 10
   days when instant checks raise questions about would-be buyers.

   Schumer has also urged Senate approval, but McConnell has blocked a
   vote because he opposes the measures.

   "Already in 2019, there have been over 250 mass shootings," the mayors
   said in a letter to the lawmakers. They said the "tragic events" in the
   U.S.-Mexican border city of El Paso, Texas, and Midwest city of Dayton,
   Ohio, "are just the latest reminders that our nation can no longer wait
   for our federal government to take the actions necessary to prevent
   people who should not have access to firearms from being able to
   purchase them."

   U.S. President Donald Trump, who visited Wednesday with survivors of
   the two shootings, first responders and health care workers in both
   Dayton and El Paso, said there is a "great appetite for background
   checks." But he also voiced the same sentiment a year ago after 17
   students and teachers were gunned down at a Florida high school before
   backing off in the face of opposition by the country's top gun lobby,
   the National Rifle Association.

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