Now it's official.
According to the FBI's final crime statistics for 2006, violent crime is up for the second consecutive year, the first time that's happened in over 10 years. Gun crime in particular is surging nationwide, with an 8% increase in gun robberies and an almost 3% increase in gun assaults.
The numbers are much worse in America's small- and medium-sized cities, with gun robberies in cities of 25,000 to 50,000 people up twice the national rate at 16.2%, and in medium-sized cities (250,000 to 500,000 people) up a whopping 14.7%.
As the former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana (a Midwestern city with just under 250,000 citizens where the number of violent crimes actually dropped between 2005-2006), and as a former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, I know first-hand the challenges that cities and communities face when confronting the scourge of gun crime. Creating safer communities takes hard work, and success is no accident.
Neither is it any accident that weak gun policies at the Federal level have contributed to the current national violent crime trend: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), responsible for the enforcement [pdf document] of our nation's gun laws, does not have the resources or effective tools it needs to stop the trafficking in illegal guns; there are gaps in the Brady background check law that allow prohibited purchasers - including the dangerously mentally ill and even suspected terrorists [pdf document] - to walk out of a gun store fully armed; and we have no Federal limits [pdf document] on how many dangerous weapons someone can buy at a time.
The President and Congress could do a great deal to help towns and cities across America in the fight to reduce gun crime and make their communities safer. In the short run, Congress can pass the NICS Improvement Act (H.R. 2640) [pdf document] - a common-sense bill designed to close the gap that allowed the Virginia Tech shooter to get his guns.
Supported by the Brady Campaign, strong gun law advocates like New York Sen. Charles Schumer and New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, and even the NRA, the bill is now stalled in the Senate by a single member, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Every concerned American should contact their Senator to get this bill to the floor for a full vote as soon as possible.
Another step Congress can take is to enact the Administration's bill, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Rep. Peter King of New York, to close the terrorist gap in gun store purchases. There are documented cases [pdf document] of suspected terrorists buying guns in gun stores, but Federal authorities can't stop those sales under current law.
We shouldn't wait until another tragedy strikes us when we can take steps to close this terrorist gap today. Congress should pass the Lautenberg/King bill (S. 1237/H.R. 2074), and make it harder for terrorists to get firearms.
These are actions that could be taken this Fall to make us all safer. There is still much more left for us to do. We need to keep asking our elected leaders, and each other, "What will you do to reduce gun violence in America?"
(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)