In Gun War, Mayor Recruits Two Who Some See as City’s Enemies
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Mayor Bloomberg has recruited two allies in his war on guns that have in recent days been painted as enemies of New York in the city’s fight for more counterterrorism dollars.
Mr. Bloomberg announced yesterday that 37 mayors from cities across the country have joined the coalition of 15 mayors that he and the Boston mayor, Thomas Menino, established to fight illegal guns.
Two of the new mayors are from Louisville, Ky., and Omaha, Neb., which both received substantial increases in homeland security funding last week from the Bush administration when New York learned of its 40% cut.
Omaha’s mayor, Mike Fahey, was quoted in the Omaha World Herald saying: “Right now there’s just a little bit of sour grapes going on, and that’s unfortunate.” Funding in his city rose to $8.3 million this year from $5.1 million last year, while New York City’s funding dropped to $124.5 million from the $207.5 million it received last year.
When asked about Mr. Fahey’s comment yesterday Mr. Bloomberg said: “I don’t think it’s sour grapes, nor are we whining. I think the facts speak for themselves.”
The mayor said while protecting the food supply is important, the “cow population of this country and the corn fields are kind of tough targets.”
Louisville’s mayor, Jerry Abramson, whose funding jumped 70% to $8.5 million, has publicly defended his city in recent days and said his funding would go toward a $70 million emergency communication upgrade.
Mr. Bloomberg’s press secretary, Stuart Loeser, touted the leadership it takes to bring people together who “don’t agree on every issue.”
“If every mayor – or every American – agreed on everything, we wouldn’t have needed the illegal gun summit or its continuing work in the first place,” he said via e-mail.
The expanded coalition includes the mayors of Los Angles, Atlanta, Baltimore; Little Rock, Ark., and Raleigh, N.C. City Hall said it would try to bring the count of the coalition – which plans to fight for stronger gun laws – up to 50 by the end of the year. The announcement was six months ahead of schedule.
