More than a dozen mayors will meet in New York City next week to discuss ways of stopping illegal gun traffic and reducing gun violence, the New York Times reports. Mayors Michael Bloomberg of New York and Thomas Menino of Boston are organizing the meeting, which will be attended by mayors from Seattle, Dallas, Washington, Milwaukee, and cities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Bloomberg has made combating illegal guns a priority of his second term, and the meeting will be a “positive move” to address a national problem, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday. “Our shootings are down this year; still, there’s way too many guns,” he said. “We know that the majority – 82 percent – of the guns we confiscate here come in from out of state. So we need to marshal support across the country, and I think this is an important first step on the part of the mayor.”
Kelly said illegal guns seized in the city seemed to come particularly from Florida, West Virginia, and Ohio. No mayors from those states are scheduled to attend the meeting. To combat gun crime and illegal guns, New York City has created a special gun court and has increased penalties for gun crimes.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/nyregion/19guns.html?_r=1&oref=slogin