Homicide and gun-related violence in Cleveland hit a 13-year record last year, with 134 dead. Some names are immedeiately recognizable, like 12-year-old "Cookie" Thomas, killed by a stray bullet on her way home from a candy store, and Success Tech student Asa Coon - the distraught 14-year-old who wounded teachers and classmates then turned the gun on himself. And then there was 13-year-old Jayshawn Richardson, who councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott compared to someone close to her who died 35 years ago.
Sabra Pierce Scott: "Both were victims of illegal guns, both were good students and had talents...I come to you as an elected official, but also as the sister of Vincent Pierce, who was in the vehicle with my father who stopped at a stop sign. Two brothers were fighting; one went to shoot the other. The bullet strayed, and in a second, my brother was dead."
Nancy Robinson of the Boston-based Citizens For Safety said Congress has stalled on laws that would outlaw some gun sales because of objections from well funded gun-owners organizations.
Nancy Robinson: "To every gun owner in our audience today, let's make something perfectly clear: We're not talking about your guns. We're talking about crime guns. We can all agree that we don't want guns in the hands of criminals and children."
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino co-founded the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which now counts more than 300 mayors in 40 states among its members, including Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and 24 Northeast Ohio mayors. He told the group that crime is at a 30-year-low in Boston because of a plan that aggressively prosecutes sellers and buyers of illegal guns.
However, he says, about 60 percent of his state's illegal guns come from states like Ohio because of a loophole that allows certain sales to take place without a criminal background check.
Menino: "When there's a shooting in Boston the first place people go is to the mayor. They always say, `What are you going to do about this?' And I always say, 'Where did the gun come from?' This is the piece of the puzzle that connects the shooting with the system of gun trafficking that enables illegal guns to get into the hands of criminals."
This year Cleveland's homicides are down to 92 and 1,500 guns have been seized. But until the "iron pipeline" is plugged, shootings will be both a crime problem and a public health problem - one that is particularly American. So says Edward Michelson, an emergency room doctor at University Hospitals.
Michelson: "Many emergency physicians in the United Kingdom go through their entire career never once taking care of a gun accident victim. Police officers by and large in the United Kingdom do not carry guns because they don't need to. That's not to say there isn't violence. There are plenty of muggings there are stabbings. But there are very few flying knives that end up affecting or afflicting an unintended victim."
Everyone on the panel expressed hope that a new president and Congress will support federal laws that limit the sale of illegal weapons. Until then, members of the mayors group say they'll continue to make their case city by city.
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3