Mayors Against Illegal Guns

They've got 4 million followers. He's got 16 billion simoleons. This could get verrrrry interesting. This being the stare-down between the National Rifle Association and Michael Bloomberg. Behemoth vs. behemoth. Since the Reagan revolution, few lobbies have been mightier than the NRA. The Second Amendment defenders rarely lose on Capitol Hill, but lose they did just a few days ago, falling short in a sit-up- and -take-notice squeaker of a Senate vote on an amendment...

National attention returned to the Newtown, Conn., massacre Thursday as authorities unsealed warrants detailing what detectives found in searching Adam Lanza's home. The list of items included weapons and ammunition. Among the other items authorities said they found following the December shooting in Newtown, Conn.: a news account of a mass shooting at Northern Illinois University, knives, a bayonet, books on autism savants and Asperger's syndrome, computers and video game consoles, and Lanza's own report card from Sandy Hook.

In a way, it would almost be better if the person who allegedly killed 12 people in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater had been a terrorist. That, at least, we could understand. I mean, the terrorists are crazy, too, but at least it's become a familiar, semi-graspable crazy. It's a well-organized insanity that involves networks of other conspirators, coded messages, suicide videos, etc. Each step of the way toward their planned martyrdom is an opportunity for infiltration or disruption.

A disgruntled former employee murdered Sami Rahamim's father, Reuven, last September. But the teen doesn't want to be known for what happened to him. Instead, he wants to be recognized for what he is doing about it. "One of the things I am working toward is to be known for advocacy, not for the unfortunate circumstance that put me here," said Rahamim, 17, of St. Louis Park, Minn. As a gun violence prevention advocate, he has testified at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, spoken to...

I t's understandable if unfortunate that the controversy surrounding the killing of Trayvon Martin has polarized the country along both racial and ideological lines. But there is one issue that should not have any racial connotations: the urgency of repealing "Stand Your Ground" laws. And leave it to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to speak the blunt truth about why these laws are dangerous — and why the National Rifle Association keeps pushing them anyway. "In reality," Bloomberg said in a speech before the National...

Purcellville Mayor Robert W. Lazaro Jr. is the newest Virginia member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national bipartisan coalition dedicated to combating gun violence across the nation. In the wake of the horrific mass shootings last month at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Lazaro anno unced Dec. 31 that he had joined the coalition, which was established in 2006 and includes more than 700 mayors from across the country, according to the organization. Lazaro is the first Loudoun...

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly referred to the Government Accountability Office as the General Accountability Office. MAYORS AGAINST Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition of roughly 500 U.S. mayors, has been pushing for smart and sensible law enforcement solutions to reduce the number of illegal guns obtained by criminals or would-be criminals. Last month the mayors renewed their call for adoption of two relatively modest but potentially powerful proposals.

National attention returned to the Newtown, Conn., massacre Thursday as authorities unsealed warrants detailing what detectives found in searching Adam Lanza's home. The list of items included weapons and ammunition. Among the other items authorities said they found following the December shooting in Newtown, Conn.: a news account of a mass shooting at Northern Illinois University, knives, a bayonet, books on autism savants and Asperger's syndrome, computers and video game consoles, and Lanza's own report card from Sandy Hook.

Joseph A. Califano Jr. [ "The lesson from LBJ," op-ed, Dec. 17] has a selective memory of the gun control "lessons" learned from President Lyndon B. Johnson 44 years ago. He should recall the fate of Sen. Joseph Tydings (D-Md.). Johnson had a clear grasp of what was politically feasible. Undeterred, Tydings, who was widely thought unbeatable, announced that his 1970 reelection would be a "referendum" on federal gun registration and owner licensing. Maryland gun owners mobilized one of the first grass-roots...

The White House announced Monday that the administration is starting a series of sessions with leaders on both sides of the gun control issue to try to reach compromise on legislation to reduce gun violence. White House Secretary Jay Carney did not announce which groups would be invited to the sessions this week, but he said the Justice Department is "meeting with stakeholders on all sides of the issue to look at ways we can find common ground. " The meetings come after President Obama called Sunday for...

"An overwhelming majority of Americans agree with us on the need for universal background checks," President Obama said during his announcement of new gun control rules and proposals Wednesday. "Including more than 70 percent of the National Rifle Association's members, according to one survey. So there's no reason we can't do this. " That 70 percent figure was very familiar to the gray-haired man slumped in the second row of the Old Executive Building auditorium. John Feinblatt,...

BALTIMORE — New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) brought his nationwide campaign for stricter gun control to Baltimore on Monday, imploring President Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to summon the will to put in place meaningful reforms to reduce gun violence in the country. "This is not a constitutional question; it's a question of political courage," Bloomberg told a crowd gathered for a two-day gun summit at Johns Hopkins University's public health school, which bears the...

NEW YORK — Michael Bloomberg, America's most prominent and deep-pocketed advocate for gun control, would rather rehabilitate Republicans than oust them. "Somebody got them the way they are now," the mayor of New York said in a recent interview as he sat in the bullpen offices of City Hall, surrounded by a buzzing staff, blinking Bloomberg terminals and clocks telling the same time in each of the five boroughs. "Why can't you change them?" On Monday, Bloomberg will headline a summit on guns at the Johns Hopkins...

"I have one question for our political leaders," says Roxanna Green, whose 9-year-old daughter, Christina, was the youngest victim in the Tucson shootings two years ago. "When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby?" she asks, in a commercial for Mayors Against Illegal Guns. "Whose child will have to die next? To every mother: We cannot wait. We have to demand a plan. " Yes, we do. But to anybody who thinks a plan is the easy part, given the politics, well, think again.

Purcellville Mayor Robert W. Lazaro Jr. is the newest Virginia member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national bipartisan coalition dedicated to combating gun violence across the nation. In the wake of the horrific mass shootings last month at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Lazaro anno unced Dec. 31 that he had joined the coalition, which was established in 2006 and includes more than 700 mayors from across the country, according to the organization. Lazaro is the first Loudoun...

The first and most important victory for advocates of sensible gun laws would, on almost any other matter, seem trivial. But when it comes to firearms, it's huge: Since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, attention to the issue has not waned and pressure for action has not diminished. Please don't dismiss this achievement. Consider that until so many children were gunned down, the National Rifle Association and the gun manufacturers for which it speaks were able to block calls for a legislative response in the wake of...

NEW YORK — Michael Bloomberg, America's most prominent and deep-pocketed advocate for gun control, would rather rehabilitate Republicans than oust them. "Somebody got them the way they are now," the mayor of New York said in a recent interview as he sat in the bullpen offices of City Hall, surrounded by a buzzing staff, blinking Bloomberg terminals and clocks telling the same time in each of the five boroughs. "Why can't you change them?" On Monday, Bloomberg will headline a summit on guns at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of...

BALTIMORE — New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) brought his nationwide campaign for stricter gun control to Baltimore on Monday, imploring President Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to summon the will to put in place meaningful reforms to reduce gun violence in the country. "This is not a constitutional question; it's a question of political courage," Bloomberg told a crowd gathered for a two-day gun summit at Johns Hopkins University's public health school, which bears the...

Joseph A. Califano Jr. [ "The lesson from LBJ," op-ed, Dec. 17] has a selective memory of the gun control "lessons" learned from President Lyndon B. Johnson 44 years ago. He should recall the fate of Sen. Joseph Tydings (D-Md.). Johnson had a clear grasp of what was politically feasible. Undeterred, Tydings, who was widely thought unbeatable, announced that his 1970 reelection would be a "referendum" on federal gun registration and owner licensing. Maryland gun owners mobilized one of the first grass-roots political campaigns...

In a way, it would almost be better if the person who allegedly killed 12 people in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater had been a terrorist. That, at least, we could understand. I mean, the terrorists are crazy, too, but at least it's become a familiar, semi-graspable crazy. It's a well-organized insanity that involves networks of other conspirators, coded messages, suicide videos, etc. Each step of the way toward their planned martyrdom is an opportunity for infiltration or disruption.