Tagged: Gun Control

Groups representing police chiefs and sheriffs from major U.S. cities and counties were in Washington for meetings this week.  Like the rest of the country, those law enforcement leaders are divided on recent proposals for reducing gun violence.   Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chipp Bailey attended the meetings, and he spoke with WFAE's Mark Rumsey.

  Mayor Anthony Foxx says he's met twice recently with Vice President Joe Biden on the topic of gun control and this he week signed a letter with other mayors supporting tougher firearms laws. But Foxx also wonders if the city may be inadvertently helping to fund the push against gun control. WFAE's Julie Rose reports:

Mayor Foxx this week asked the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for details about where it gets its firearms and bullets. The lobby against new gun laws is "pretty effective in Washington" says Foxx.

Gaston County Commissioners voted 6-0 Thursday night in support of a resolution that calls for the General Assembly to make gun permit records secret. Commissioner Tracy Philbeck says the resolution was in response to news outlets publishing gun permit information after the shootings at Sandy Hook elementary in Connecticut.

"I'm a strong proponent of government transparency," Philbeck says. "At the same time, I think the press, in a lot of cases, have used the freedom of information act to bring forth an anti-gun agenda to criminalize those that own a gun."

With the president’s announcement of gun control proposals, the divisive battle has re-emerged even when the nation tries to comprehend the horrors of Sandy Hook Elementary.