Praise Mayors Against Illegal Guns for tackling a problem

This editorial appears in the Sept. 16, 2009, Yakima Herald-Republic.

It's hard to fault Yakima's Mayor Dave Edler for trying to do whatever he can to quell gun violence that during this summer alone has left nearly two dozen people wounded, including several by random gunfire.

So he signed a pledge, as have more than 450 other mayors from 40 states across the nation, to find ways to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill and juveniles.

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Not so fast. The National Rifle Association says the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the nonpartisan group that Yakima's mayor joined, is nothing more than another thinly veiled attempt to limit gun ownership -- this time by trying to regulate private gun shows out of existence.

Yes, the mayor finds himself once again in the crosshairs of controversy. He's already embroiled in a public debate over what he considers as too much political partisanship in City Council races and had earlier been on the losing side of a ballot measure to pay for extra firefighters and emergency medical personnel.

Now he finds himself the sights of the NRA, and he doesn't think it's fair.

"It's an issue of law and order and life and death," Edler said Monday during a meeting with the news media.

The mayor's quote is lifted directly from a mission statement written by the organization's co-chairmen, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, who also said "the issue of illegal guns is not conservative or liberal."

To join the group, each mayor is asked to sign a statement of principles. These goals include punishing to the maximum any criminal who possesses or traffics in illegal guns, targeting irresponsible gun dealers who knowingly sell to straw purchasers and opposing any federal law that restricts cities from accessing gun trace data compiled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The Mayors Against Illegal Guns has also focused on private gun shows where guns, ammunition and assorted collectibles are bought, sold and traded. Federal law requires people engaged in interstate firearms sales or dealing in firearms have a federal firearms license and to conduct background checks through a nationwide criminal background system. Private sellers, who make occasional sales within their state, are not required to conduct a background check or keep records on the transactions.

However, private sellers at gun shows must follow state laws. Seven states do require background checks. Washington is not one of them.

Edler agrees with his fellow mayors that private sellers at gun shows should have to make the same kind of background checks as licensed gun dealers are required to do. Again, it goes to the core values of the national mayors' group -- to keep illegal firearms off the streets.

Nine years ago the ATF analyzed more than 1,530 trafficking investigations over a nearly three-year period and found gun shows to be the second-leading source of illegally diverted guns in the nation. The No. 1 source was corrupt licensed firearms dealers.

While we stand fully in support of the Constitution's guarantee of the right of gun ownership, we're deeply weary of NRA members' almost blind opposition to principled efforts to reduce the number of weapons that get in the hands of those who are legally banned from owning them.

Rather than having his patriotism questioned, Edler and mayors like him should be praised for taking aim at a very real problem.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.