03-07-2013 Mayor Buttigieg Featured in Anti-Gun Violence Public Service Announcement

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Washington enact a concrete plan to reduce gun violence in America," said South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. "Unchecked gun violence is a threat to our families and our children and action must start now." Under current federal law, only licensed firearms dealers are required to conduct background checks on potential buyers. Around 40 percent of U.S. gun transfers are conducted by unlicensed"private sellers" who are not required to conduct a federal check,' and who often do business at gun shows and on the Internet—indicating that about 6.6 million guns are transferred in the U.S. every year with no background check for the buyer.2 This "private sale loophole" allows dangerous people who are already prohibited from buying guns —including felons, domestic abusers and the seriously mentally ill —to avoid a background check by simply avoiding licensed dealers. Evidence demonstrates that background checks save lives. For example, in the fourteen states that already require background checks for all gun sales: • Gun trafficking is 48 Percent lower than in states that fail to require background checks for all handgun sales. • In 2010, the rate of women murdered by an intimate partner with a gun was 38 percent lower than in other states, while the rate murdered by other means was nearly identical.' • The firearm suicide rate was 49 percent lower than in other states, even though people committed suicide in other ways at almost precisely the same rate.5 Mayors featured in the PSA released today include (in order of appearance): Mayor Thomas Menino - Boston Mayor Pete Buttigieg- South Bend, IN Mayor Michael Nutter-Philadelphia Mayor Jim Suttle- Omaha, NE Mayor R.T. Rybak-Minneapolis, MN Mayor David Coss- Santa Fe, NM Mayor Paul Dyster-Niagara Falls, NY Mayor Sal Panto-Easton, PA Mayor John Linder- Chester, PA ' Philip J. Cook&Jens Ludwig, Guns in America, 1996,available at http://www.policefoundation.org/pdf/GunsinAmerica.pdf. 2,568 individuals,including 251 gun owners,were surveyed by telephone and asked how they obtained their firearms. In the 38 states that have not fully closed the private sale loophole,an estimated 9,86,9 84 background checks were conducted between November 2011 and November 2012,out of an estimated 16.E million total firearm transfers in those states. 40 percent of this total-6.6 million transfers—occurred without background checks. Calculation based on FBI data. Available: http://www.fbi.gov/about- us/cjis/nics/reports/20130205_1998_2013_state_program to_date_purpose_ids.pdf 3 Daniel Webster,Jon Vernick,&Maria Bulzacchelli,"Effects of State-Level Firearm Seller Accountability_ Policies on Firearm Trafficking,"Journal of Urban Health,July 2009. 4 U.S.Department of Justice,Federal Bureau of Investigation, Supplementary Homicide Reports,2011. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System(WISQARS) [online]. (2000 [cited 2012 Dec.20]. 2