Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam Joins Major Summit on Gun Violence Prevention and Industry Accountability, Releases Data on Manufacturers of Crime Guns

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Summit at Gracie Mansion in New York City to Focus on Gun Industry Accountability, Will Conclude with Press Conference at 1PM ET – Livestream Available HERE

Summit Hosted in Partnership with the African American Mayors Association

MIRAMAR, Fla. – Today, ahead of a groundbreaking mayoral summit on gun violence prevention and holding the gun industry accountable, Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam, a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and a trustee of the African-American Mayors Association, released new data on the manufacturers of guns used in crimes in Miramar and called on fellow mayors across the country to do the same. The summit is hosted by Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair New York Mayor Eric Adams, in partnership with the African American Mayors Association.

In 2006, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and then-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns as an original coalition of 15 mayors. The coalition has since grown to a bipartisan group of more than 1,000 current and former mayors from the smallest towns to the biggest cities in nearly every state. 

“As mayors, we’re on the front lines of our gun violence epidemic, and it’s our first duty to do everything we can to keep our constituents safe,” said Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam, a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and a trustee of the African-American Mayors Association. “The gun industry has played a deadly role in furthering this epidemic, and I’m looking forward to this convening to figure out how we can hold them accountable for it.”

“We’ve allowed members of the gun industry to operate without public scrutiny for far too long,” said Lindsey Shook, a volunteer with the Florida Chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We thank Mayor Messam for publishing this data, and taking the first steps towards accountability and transparency; and there is still work to be done.” 

Twelve cities published data today on the manufacturers of crime guns in their cities. The top manufacturer of recovered crime guns was Glock in 9 of the 12 reporting cities. On average, over 1.5x more Glocks were recovered than the second leading manufacturer in each of those 9 cities. Five gun manufacturers accounted for over half of the recovered crime guns: Glock (16.6%), Taurus (12.4%), Smith & Wesson (11.8%), Ruger (6.5%), and Polymer80 (3.8%). Collectively across this sample of 12 cities, these five manufacturers accounted for nearly 10,000 recovered crime guns in 2021.

Additionally, with former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach now sworn in as the first Senate-confirmed director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in nearly a decade, the mayors called on ATF to take key steps towards fulfilling its vitally important oversight role. Those measures include: 

• Giving cities the data and analysis needed to fully understand the flow of illegal guns and develop targeted interventions, and clarifying that the Tiahrt Amendment does not prevent cities from publicly releasing analysis of this important data; 
• Strongly implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) and aggressively enforcing the new ghost gun rule; 
• Cracking down on rogue gun dealers by requiring high-risk dealers to implement anti-trafficking standards; issuing a new Demand Letter to those high-risk dealers requiring them to share more information with ATF, and dramatically increasing gun dealer inspections to shut down the gun dealers who are violating the law; 
• Investigating the secondary commercial marketplaces that are the source of guns for gun traffickers, including online marketplaces and gun shows, and implementing a new regulation defining who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms (a provision in BSCA) to clearly define the unlicensed sellers who are unlawfully selling firearms without a background check.

All of the mayors attending today’s summit are members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and nearly all are either Co-Chairs of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) and/or Trustees of the African American Association (AAMA), including New York Mayor Eric Adams (MAIG Co-Chair, AAMA Trustee); Augusta, Georgia Mayor Hardie Davis (AAMA Trustee); Buffalo, New York Mayor Byron W. Brown (AAMA Treasurer); Baltimore, Maryland Mayor Brandon Scott (MAIG Co-Chair, AAMA Trustee); Former Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Steve Benjamin (MAIG Co-Chair); Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas (MAIG Co-Chair); Little Rock, Arkansas Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. (AAMA President); Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam (AAMA Trustee); Montgomery, Alabama Mayor Steven Reed (AAMA 2nd Vice President); Mount Vernon, New York Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard (MAIG Co-Chair, AAMA 1st Vice President); Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka; St. Louis, Missouri Mayor Tishaura Jones (MAIG Co-Chair); and Tampa, Florida Mayor Jane Castor (MAIG Co-Chair). Chicago, Illinois Mayor Lori Lightfoot (AAMA Trustee); and Chattanooga, Tennessee Mayor Tim Kelly (MAIG Co-Chair) will also join remotely. Several of these mayors, including the mayors of New York, Columbia, Kansas City, and Baltimore, have already taken significant steps towards holding certain members of the gun industry accountable through litigation for their contributions to our gun violence epidemic.