Mayors Group Unveils Gun Victims Memorial

WASHINGTON —  Urging Congress to enact stricter gun control laws, several big-city mayors Thursday unveiled a memorial to victims of gun violence containing the names of more than 3,000 men, women and children who were among those fatally shot in 1999 after the slayings last April at Colorado’s Columbine High School.

The memorial--a stark black wall more than 10 feet high and 45 feet long--lists victims of fatal gun shootings in 89 cities across the country between April 20 and Dec. 31 of last year. The names were compiled from a survey sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, who presented the memorial at a news conference during their winter meeting here.

The group called on Congress to pass federal legislation requiring mandatory background checks at gun shows, child safety locks on all handguns sold in the United States and a lifetime ban on gun purchases by anyone convicted of a violent crime while a juvenile.

Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, the organization’s president, said that the mayors also hope to impose a minimum sentence of three years on anyone who knowingly furnishes a minor with a handgun and to establish laws banning the importation of large-capacity ammunition clips and juvenile possession of automatic assault weapons.

“Congress must act and it must act now or we’re going to continue to come here and build this wall,” Webb said. In a reference to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, he added: “If action is not taken soon, this wall will rival another we have in this city.”

The survey looked at gun crimes in a total of 100 cities, 11 of which reported no fatal shootings during the survey period. The cities included some of the largest in the country as well as those whose mayors are leaders in the conference. Los Angeles was not included.

The 3,094 victims listed on the wall range in age from 2 to 96, and about one-third were 18 to 25 years old. Juvenile deaths represented 8% of the total.