At Valor Ceremony, Mayor Chides Congress on Guns

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday bestowed the New York Police Department's highest medal of honor on a former detective who, after being shot numerous times, managed to shoot the assailant as he fled in a car.

The mayor used the occasion — during which he also recognized two officers who died in the line of duty last year — to attack Congress for blocking a campaign he has launched with other mayors to limit illegal guns.

"We are demanding that Congress stop playing politics with law enforcement," Mr. Bloomberg said. "To choke off the flow of illegal firearms into our streets, the NYPD needs allies in other states and in our nation's capital as well."

The mayor suggested that many of the 24 service members who were rewarded for their valor in the line of duty yesterday had grappled with criminals possessing illegal guns.

Detective Patrick Caprice earned the Medal of Honor for the June 2005 incident, when he tried to apprehend a drug suspect.