Mayor Thomas Menino announced on Tuesday his support of a bill in Congress that would tighten the background check system for gun sales.

The plan, which according to a press release on Menino’s website is supported by more than 550 mayors across the country, would also prevent individuals with mental illness or a criminal record from being allowed to buy firearms.

“Every day 34 Americans are senselessly lost due to gun violence,” Menino said in the press release. “We must fix our background check system and prevent dangerous individuals from gaining access to firearms. It is time to put a stop to this deadly ability for criminals and people with mental illness to buy guns.

At the press conference Menino held Tuesday, the Mayor addressed Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown in particular, asking him to support the bill.

“We haven’t heard from Sen. Brown,” Menino said in the conference. “When Sen. Brown was a state senator, he supported similar legislation. We don’t want to impact the Second Amendment. We just want to stop the proliferation of illegal handguns in America and save lives.”
According to the press release, Menino got more involved advocating for gun control in 2006, when he co-founded the bipartisan Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

MAIG started the “Fix Gun Checks Truck Tour,” on Feb. 16, and the billboard truck started traveling across the country in order to bring attention to the problems associated with the background check system for gun sales.

According to the mobile billboard, which depicts the number of people who have died as a result of gun violence, there have been 3,944 victims as of Tuesday. Boston was the 41st city that the truck visited.

The bill Menino is supporting is sponsored by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and would tighten restrictions not only in firearm stores but at gun shows as well as online. Current legislation only requires checks to be conducted by licensed gun dealers.

According to a September 2010 report released by MAIG, entitled “Trace the Guns: the Link Between Gun Laws and Interstate Gun Trafficking,” which was cited in the press release, “Massachusetts has a low crime gun export rate but a high net import rate of guns used in crimes.”

The cited report said that the top supplier of guns to the state of Massachusetts were New Hampshire, Maine, Florida, Georgia and Vermont.

64 percent of guns used in crimes in Massachusetts came from other states.

“Massachusetts has a low crime gun export rate but a high net import rate of guns used in crimes,” the release said.