New Bloomberg Ad Demands Action From Obama, Romney Against Gun Violence
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking his fight against guns to the airwaves.
In a new TV spot that aired during the Olympics and during Sunday morning new shows, three survivors from the 2011 Tucson, Arizona shootings demand action against gun violence.
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The ad, paid for by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, features pictures of President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with Tucson survivors Col. Bill Badger, Pat Maisch and Pam Simon saying "our leaders gave us a moment of silence then, but haven't given us a plan."
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It's part of a campaign called "Demand A Plan" which is pushing the presidential candidates to "detail specific plans to prevent the gun violence."
"President Obama, Gov. Romney -- we demand a plan," the three say in the ad.
Watch the ad below:
The campaign was launched just days after the mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. that left 12 people dead and injured dozens more.
The ad references that shooting, saying 48,000 Americans "will be murdered with guns during the next president's term. That's three Aurora shootings every day."
More than 125,000 people have signed an online petition, according to Bloomberg's aides.
"Every day that goes by without action, 34 more people will be murdered with guns. The people who want to run this country need to tell us their plans to stop the bloodshed," Bloomberg said in statement.
The mayor said he wants federal laws to:
* Require background checks for every gun sold -- 40 percent of all guns are sold without background checks
* Stronger enforcement of straw sales, where someone buys a gun for someone not eligible to own one
* A requirement that states enter criminal and mental health records into the federal background check system
Bloomberg has stepped up his calls for gun control since the Colo. shooting.
Immediately following the July 20 shooting, Bloomberg said if Obama and Romney "want to make the world a better place" then "tell us how."
"No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them concretely, not just in generalities – specifically what are they going to do about guns," Bloomberg said last month.
At the Sikh Cultural Society in Queens on Monday, Bloomberg spoke out again about gun control, this time in the wake of another mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wis. on Sunday.
"Just two weeks ater the tragedy in Aurora we've seen another mass shooting, one in which it appears there have been some warning signs about the shooter, and still the two presidential candiates have not given the American public a plan to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people," Bloomberg said.
The ad reportedly debuted just hours before that shooting, in which seven people were killed, including the alleged gunman, and three others injured.
The nephew of Suvez Khatra, who was killed in the Wisconsin attack, told CBS 2's Marcia Kramer that the presidential candidates should step in and offer plans to end gun violence.
"It is my thinking that Mr. President Barack Obama or Governor Romney both should decide this thing," Mohan Khatra said.
Both President Obama and Romney have expressed condolences for the Wisconsin incident, but Mayor Bloomberg says that's simply not enough. Adding his voice to the demand for action was Queens State Sen. Michael Gianaris, who is proposing a package of bills to give New York one of the nation's toughest gun laws, CBS 2's Kramer reported.
This isn't Bloomberg's first ad campaign against gun violence. During the Super Bowl, Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino appeared in an ad together saying "we just need to repair our background check system in the United States."
The Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a coalition of more than 700 mayors across the country fighting gun trafficking and gun violence.
For more information about the campaign, visit www.demandaplan.org.
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