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Coleman backs plan for background checks on handgun sales
(Posted Jan. 26, 2011) Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman voiced his support for a new plan calling for background checks on handgun sales. The plan, announced by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Martin Luther King III, seeks to improve upon the Gun Control Act of 1968 and Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act of 1993 that aimed to keep guns out of the hands criminals, drug abusers and the mentally ill. The two-part plan calls for improving the federal background check system by making sure the name of every prohibited purchaser is entered into the system and conducting a background check on the sale of every handgun. “Since 1968, when Congress passed a landmark law aimed at reducing gun violence, 400,000 Americans have been murdered with firearms,” Mayor Coleman said. “This is why I stand with more than 60 other mayors in Ohio and more than 550 mayors nationally in calling on Congress to a fix flawed system to keep guns out of the hands of those who would threaten our neighborhoods.” Coleman is Ohio chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which is chaired nationally by Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston. Details about the plan can be found at www.fixgunchecks.org.
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