Pounded over gun-law fails

GUN CONTROL advocates from coast to coast flogged Congress Thursday for failing to ban bump stock devices like the one used by to kill 58 people. in Las Vegas.

While police union heads gathered in California for a call to outlaw the killing machines, mayors met in New York to put pressure on Congress.

“The bottom line is if you look at what’s happening across the country, a clear majority of Americans would like commonsense gun safety legislation,” Mayor de Blasio said at a City Hall news conference. “They don’t want to see mass killings. They don’t want to see assault weapons in the hands of folks who mean to do harm to others. I think that’s the shape of things to come, but it’s going to be a lot of work to get to that day Congress catches up to the needs of the American people.”

De Blasio, at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was joined by National Urban League President Marc Morial, who said the pain and suffering of Las Vegas has been felt all over the country.

“I am personally disappointed, and to some extent outraged that Congress will not act to ban a device which is really designed to evade the law,” Morial said. “It’s disappointing. It’s a tragedy.”

On the other side of the country, police union leaders teamed up with the San Francisco 49ers to push for more gun control legislation. Ed Mullins, the president of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, along with union heads from Portland, Ore., and San Jose, Oakland and Los Angeles, Calif., signed a pledge Thursday to improve police community relations and promote effective gun control.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin shuffled the issue over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — even though that agency says it has no authority to restrict or ban bump stock sales.