In a new national TV commercial, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s group Mayors Against Illegal Guns is calling on both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to lay out detailed plans to combat illegal firearms, says the New York Post.
In the ad, which aired during the Olympics and morning political talk shows this week, two victims wounded in the 2011 Tucson, Ariz., shootings – Bill Badger and Pam Simon – warn that more than 48,000 Americans will be killed by guns during the next president’s term.
The commercial is the start to a new campaign by Mayors Against Illegal Guns known as “Demand a Plan,” which also has an online petition and a letter to the two presidential candidates asking for “a substantive plan to end gun violence” according to the Post.
The website includes chilling statistics on its front page – nearly 600 Americans have been killed by gun violence in the 17 days since the Aurora, Colo. movie theater shooting.
“The Tucson survivors have waited nearly 600 days for Washington to take action to end gun violence. They are still waiting, and we are all waiting,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
Despite the mayor’s calls for tightened gun control, last week it was reported that , which sells reloaded bullets to the public without any background or identification checks.
When asked about this, a spokesman for the mayor said: “Our purpose is to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, not keep guns or ammunition away from law-abiding citizens.”
