New York City Mayor Bloomberg recently formed an anti-gun coalition similar to the Brady Campaign, entitled "Mayors Against Illegal Guns." This group is comprised of 109 mayors from all over the country including notoriously anti-gun cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Boston.

Being the true politicians that they are, the coalition's website proclaims that their mission is to "prevent criminals from illegally obtaining and using guns." In New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., the mere possession of a handgun by a law-abiding citizen is very likely a criminal act. Los Angeles and Boston are not far behind. The mayors of these cities know that they cannot legally pass an ordinance banning all guns although this is very much what they would like to do. So they do the next best thing. They ban small guns, big guns, and ugly guns. They require you to obtain a permit then they create a bureaucratic process making the permit almost impossible to obtain. Or, as was the case in D.C., they just stopped issuing permits altogether creating a de facto gun ban.

The Mayors Against Guns further claim that they "respect the rights of law abiding citizens to own guns." No they don't.

Let's face it. The City of New York has done just about everything it can do in the form of imposing strict gun control. The only thing Mayor Bloomberg can do to prove his anti-gun worthiness is try to enforce gun control in other cities. Do you think the people of Atlanta, Georgia appreciate Mayor Bloomberg's influence on their gun laws?

As you peruse through the rest of the Mayors Against Guns website, you will see all the telltale signs of an anti-gun mentality. One example is the number of people killed by firearms each year in America: 30,000. The website won't tell you that the number of lives saved by firearms each year in America is over TWO MILLION. The website also lists various anti-gun legislation but no legislation that supports concealed carry or Stand Your Ground laws.

If Mayor Bloomberg and other mayors across the country were serious about reducing crime, they'd be looking at the single common denominator in all crimes: Criminals. We know that approximately 60-70% of serious offenders are rearrested within 3 years of release from prison. Enacting more laws for people who already disobey the law is absurd. You can't reduce crime by keeping guns "off the street". You have to keep criminals off the street.

Rather than focus on the cause of crime, however, anti-gun mayors prefer to focus on you, the law abiding citizen. Their goal is to enact more laws that make it more difficult for you to own and possess firearms. Anti-gun mayors from New York and Los Angeles are going to show mayors in Anchorage, Denver, and Providence how it's done.

Your job is to form an informal coalition of your own entitled, "Citizens Against Anti-Gun Mayors." If your mayor is a member of the anti-gun coalition you need to expose him or her by calling into your local talk radio station, writing letters to the editor, and telling all of your friends. Then you should try to get 20 or more people together and schedule a group appointment with the mayor. Have the mayor explain how writing more laws for people who do not obey the law is a good idea. Have him explain why you should restrict your liberties while he (or she) fails to focus on keeping criminals off the street.

If your mayor is NOT currently a member of the anti-gun coalition, it would be a good idea to thank the mayor by scheduling a group appointment. This will serve not only as a gesture of appreciation, but will also discourage any future anti-gun coalition possibilities.

Jennifer Freeman is Executive Director and co-founder of Liberty Belles, a grass-roots organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the Second Amendment.
http://www.libertybelles.org
jennifer@libertybelles.org