Hiawatha mayor joins others in petition to end gun violence

In mid-December, 20-year-old Adam Lanza went into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members. He then shot himself in the head.

Before the school shooting, Lanza had shot and killed his mother in their home.

After the murders, Hiawatha mayor, physician and father Crosby Gernon decided he had to take some sort of action to try to prevent future killings of children.

"I thought it was important to do something that makes our schools safer," Gernon said.

Gernon turned to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition and signed its Demand Action petition, which asks President Barack Obama, Congress and governors across the nation to come up with a plan to end gun violence that includes a more comprehensive background check system.

"I want reasonable background checks so guns aren't in the hands of felons or those with mental illnesses," he said. "It's an important issue, and I'd like to see common-sense measures put in place to make things safer."

Only two mayors in Kansas have signed the petition. The other is Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, who didn't return several telephone messages left by The Topeka Capital-Journal during the past week.

Gernon said his signing of the petition was "an individual action" and not taken on behalf of the city of Hiawatha or any governmental body.

About 30,000 Americans are killed each year as a result of gun violence, nearly 12,000 of which are homicides, according to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website.

The coalition ? and Gernon, a lifelong hunter ? believes measures to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, drug abusers, the seriously mental ill and other dangerous individuals goes hand in hand with protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to own legal guns.

"We all love this country and believe strongly in the Constitution, but the idea that any gun, any time, any place is OK ? it needs to be looked at closely," he said.

Gernon said he has received positive feedback, as well as messages expressing derogatory or polite disagreement with his views.

"How can you look at Sandy Hook and Aurora and say that there's nothing that could or should be done?" he said.

In July 2012, James Holmes entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and used multiple firearms to kill 12 people and wound 70 others.

The Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition was formed after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino hosted a group of 15 mayors at a summit in April 2006 in New York City to discuss strategies for stopping the flow of illegal guns into U.S. cities.

The mayors drafted and signed a statement of principles to guide their efforts as a coalition. According to the organization's website, the principles include:

? Punish, to the maximum extent of the law, criminals who possess, use and traffic in illegal guns.

? Hold accountable gun dealers who break the law by knowingly selling guns to straw purchasers. Typically, a straw purchase is when someone who isn't eligible to buy a gun has another person buy one for them.

? Oppose federal efforts to restrict cities' right to access, use and share trace data or interfere with the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to combat illegal gun trafficking. Trace data tracks the movement of a firearm from its sale by a manufacturer or importer through the distribution chain to its first retail purchaser.

? Keep lethal, military-style weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines off the streets.

? Work to develop and use technologies that aid in the detection and tracing of illegal guns.

? Support local, state and federal legislation that targets illegal guns.

Since 2006, the coalition's ranks have grown to more than 850 mayors from 44 states and its statement of principles has been endorsed by major national organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Conference of Black Mayors.

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Source: http://cjonline.com/news/2013-06-30/hiawatha-mayor-joins-others-petition-end-gun-violence

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