THE RIGHT WAY TO WAGE WAR ON GUNS
Even as New York City wrestles with an increase in shootings, Mayor de Blasio is making a habit of missing opportunities to lead on gun safety. Softballs cross the city’s plate, and the mayor doesn’t bother to swing.
Last November, he broke a campaign promise by failing to join 73 mayors and others in pressuring gun manufacturers to make a greater commitment to gun safety.
Strike one.
After NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were murdered in December with a gun sold by Georgia’s Arrowhead Gun and Pawn Shop, no one in the de Blasio administration bothered to ask Glock — the Austrian handgun manufacturer that lists the NYPD as among its most important customers — why the company continues to do business with Arrowhead and stores like it. The gun used to kill the cops was not a Glock, but the city could and should have used its leverage as a major purchaser to change the practices of that and other bad gun shops.
Arrowhead sells weapons that end up at crime scenes throughout the country; in 2009 it was the number one source of out-of-state guns seized by the NYPD. But with no pressure coming from customers like New York City, it’s no wonder that Glock and other manufacturers treat bad-apple gun stores as someone else’s problem.
Strike two.
Two weeks ago, yet another softball came across the mayor’s plate. The Metro Industrial Areas Foundation held the nation’s first-ever “smart gun” show. Leaders from nine New York, Connecticut and New Jersey police departments met in the basement training room and shooting range of the New Rochelle police headquarters to see and shoot a new generation of guns that can only be fired by authorized users.
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Neither de Blasio nor anyone representing him or the City of New York was among them. They missed a chance to test out potentially life-saving technologies.
Strike three.
As New York City’s mayor walks away from the plate, he abdicates the city’s national leadership role on gun violence established by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Bloomberg didn’t get everything right on guns. He over-focused on federal legislation and never tapped the city’s greatest source of power in this arena — its purchasing power.
Public Advocate de Blasio shared this critique. In 2011, after the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others, he called on the NYPD to boycott Glock until it agreed to stop marketing high-capacity magazines like the one used in the shooting.
Mayoral candidate de Blasio promised to build on Bloomberg’s legacy on guns. At a 2013 forum, he gave an enthusiastic “yes” when Metro IAF asked whether he would use the city’s leverage as a buyer to push manufacturers to make safety a higher priority. That was 26 months ago.
De Blasio’s staff says they are still “processing” our requests for his involvement in our national campaign, called “Do Not Stand Idly By.” The Democratic and Republican officials participating from across the nation are moving forward without him.
But with all due respect to leaders like Mayor Jose Torres of Paterson or Police Chief Joseph Gaudett of Bridgeport — both of whom attended the smart gun show — their purchasing power pales in comparison to New York City’s. With all due respect to the mayors of Boston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Columbus — all participants in this national effort — none of these cities are “anchor tenants” in the public-sector marketplace the way New York, with its 34,500 police officers, is.
The gun company CEOs need to hear from our mayor.
City Controller Scott Stringer has stepped into this breach. On behalf of New York City, he has added his name to the Request for Information sent to seven major gun CEOs inquiring about their distribution practices and safety technologies.
It’s time for Mayor de Blasio to get reacquainted with Public Advocate de Blasio, and candidate de Blasio, and initiate long-overdue conversations with major firearms companies about the steps they can take to prevent senseless gun-related deaths in America.
Rev. Patrick O’Connor and Joe Morris for the NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/o-connor-morris-wage-war-guns-article-1.2248290