Letter: Greenwich Council Against Gun Violence: Town Should Join Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Over the past several weeks, the Greenwich Council Against Gun Violence collected signatures of 324 residents asking the Board of Selectmen to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Last week, First Selectman Tesei did just that. We applaud Mr. Tesei for publicly standing up and joining this bipartisan coalition of more than 1,000 mayors who are working to make America’s communities safer.

Although the Board also passed a resolution mirroring the MAIG Statement of Principles, we believe joining carries more significance. MAIG is effectively mobilizing citizens and elected officials across the country to advocate for commonsense measures.

It’s working. After seven years of NRA-led opposition, the U.S. Senate finally confirmed a director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the nation’s “top cop”. Imagine the outcry if Greenwich did not have a Chief of Police for that long. 

Some people believe that MAIG merely reflects the personal agenda of NYC Mayor Bloomberg, and has the ultimate goal of confiscating everybody’s guns. There is no evidence for this. MAIG advocates for commonsense measures such as enforcing existing laws to the maximum extent possible, enabling law enforcement to share trace data, targeting gun dealers who knowingly sell to straw purchasers and supporting new legislation that targets illegal guns. 

The membership of MAIG has grown nearly 20% in the past year. It has 1.5 million grassroots supporters, making it the country’s largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization. We believe this attests to its effectiveness, and why we asked the First Selectman to join.

We respect the opinion of those who are not comfortable with the aggressive advocacy of MAIG, in particular calling out legislators who are standing in the way of commonsense gun regulation. But we believe the actions of MAIG are not unreasonably aggressive in the face of the epidemic of gun violence (over 7,000 confirmed deaths since Newtown) contrasted with the complete lack of progress in the U.S. Congress on universal background checks for firearm purchases.

Despite near-universal support across the nation, a minority of legislators in the U.S. Senate blocked passage of the Manchin-Toomey Amendment for universal background checks. The House leadership has refused to schedule a vote on the companion Thompson-King bill, which has 184 co-sponsors.

With Mr. Tesei’s courageous move, Greenwich is adding its voice to those who believe the status quo is unacceptable. Thank you, Mr. Tesei.