NYC - Boston mayors seek bipartisan solution to gun related violence.

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Are the anti-gun politicians finally waking up and addressing the problem of gun related crime by focusing on the criminals rather than demanding even more restrictive gun control laws?

Previous news articles quoted Menino as blaming the "lax" gun laws in NH, Maine and Vermont for Bostons gun woes (in one story he even suggested the possibility of the MA state police stopping and searching cars at the border :eyes: ).

Bloomberg wants to impose a 3 1/2 year "mandatory prison sentence(s) on those who possess loaded guns while committing crimes".

(IMHO, 3 1/2 years is way too "lax"... make it more like 10 years with no parole, Mike).

This is the sort of gun crime policy I can support... punish the criminal, not the law abiding gun owner.

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Menino launches national antigun violence initiative

By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | January 26, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Mayor Thomas M. Menino, seeking a national platform for a problem plaguing Boston, said yesterday that he and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York would spearhead what he called a national campaign to eradicate gun violence.

Speaking to the nation's mayors in Washington, Menino said that he and Bloomberg, a Republican originally from Medford, would travel the country as chairmen of a panel that would develop federal crime-fighting legislation.

''Everybody talks about it, but if we coalesce around one piece of legislation, I think the Congress will listen," Menino said in an interview at the meeting of the US Conference of Mayors. ''Don't forget it's an important year for them. It's an election year, and each city is facing the same issue."

After a year in which Boston recorded 75 slayings, the most in a decade, Menino has been under intense pressure to hire more police and stem the flood of illegal guns on city streets. Some mayors agreed that a nationwide campaign would renew hope that Washington would hear the cities' pleas, but others said it would be foolhardy to wait for federal action.

''Don't look to the federal government, we have to look within ourselves to have the right solutions," said Mayor Douglas H. Palmer of Trenton, N.J., who plans to join Menino's campaign. ''Because if we wait for them, we'll be kicked out. We won't even be in office by the time they come back. We have the resources and certainly the citizens' will and support to help ourselves."

Boston has seen a dramatic rise in gun violence.

After the city's homicide rate rose by 17 percent last year, a Globe survey indicated that figure was the sixth-highest percentage increase among 15 cities with comparable populations. Homicides declined in 2005 in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, the nation's largest cities."

Complete article