Firearms Industry Challenges
Mayoral Coalition Against Illegal Guns
NEWTOWN, Conn.―Following a press conference today in Boston by New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announcing
the expansion of their mayoral coalition against illegal guns, the
National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association of the
firearms industry, called the press conference political grandstanding
and challenged the coalition members to engage in a constructive
dialogue with the firearms industry to advance the goal shared by all
Americans of reducing the criminal acquisition and misuse of firearms.
The mayors' coalition against illegal guns is an outgrowth of a national
summit on illegal guns co-hosted by mayors Bloomberg and Menino last
April at New York City's Gracie Mansion. Mayor Bloomberg rebuffed the
NSSF's request to attend the summit. "Unfortunately the firearms
industry was not permitted to educate this budding coalition about the
various programs we have developed with law enforcement that are working
to reduce criminal misuse of firearms as well as reduce firearms
accidents," said Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and the
industry's chief spokesperson.
Keane also expressed disappointment in Mayor Menino's failure to follow
through on a pledge to form a cooperative relationship with the industry
after ordering his lawsuit against the industry dismissed in 2002. At
the time, Boston acknowledged in a
court filing that "members of the industry … are genuinely concerned
with and are committed to the safe, legal and responsible sale and
distribution and use of their products." The city said it believed "that
through cooperation and communication [Boston and the firearms industry]
… can reduce the criminal acquisition of firearms." Repeated
letters from NSSF
to Boston, as recently as last October, have gone unanswered.
"Members of the firearms industry remain as committed today to working
with mayors toward our shared goal of reducing crimes committed with
firearms as we did when Boston dropped its lawsuit and as we were when
Mayor Bloomberg put politics ahead of cooperation. The firearms industry
challenges every member of the mayors' coalition against illegal guns,
many of whom we have worked with in the past on firearms safety
programs, to take the high road and engage with us in a constructive
dialogue. The path forward remains one of cooperation and communication,
not publicity stunts and overheated rhetoric," concluded Keane.
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