(DURHAM) -- Marking one month since the tragedy in Newtown, Mayors Against Illegal Guns released a new multi-media initiative demanding that political leaders take immediate steps to end the gun violence that kills 33 Americans every day. Durham Mayor Bill Bell, Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Morrisville Mayor Jackie Holcombe appeared jointly as a press conference in Durham to support the effort.

Co-chair Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also released “Access Denied”, a new report that surveys all the efforts by the gun lobby, with the cooperation of Congress, to suppress data and research funding on gun violence, making it difficult to study the causes of gun violence and to hold the firearms industry accountable for their role in the epidemic.  The report was released at a summit focused on gun violence research at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

“Thirty days have passed since 20 children and six adults were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School – and still, no action has been taken by Washington to end our country’s gun violence epidemic,” said Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.  “Now is the time for Congress to buck the special interests of the gun lobby that endanger our children.  This means requiring background checks for every gun sale, restricting assault weapons and high capacity magazines, and making gun trafficking a federal crime.  We cannot let another month go by with no action.”

"Today we remember the lives that were needlessly lost one month ago, and the 33 lives taken by gun violence across our country every day,” Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said.  “But we also continue our call for action to take the illegal guns out of our neighborhoods, and tragedies like Newtown out of our nation's future. This time must be different. Our leaders in Washington must act, and pass the common-sense gun reforms necessary to protect our children and communities."

Mayors Against Illegal Guns also announced today that since the Newtown shooting, it has added more than 100mayors to its national bipartisan coalition to end gun violence and grown to more than one million supporters.

The “Access Denied” report released today reviews how the U.S. does nearly no scientific research to understand or prevent gun violence – and blocks questions from police, military officers and even doctors to learn more. All of this despite the fact that Americans murder each other with guns at nearly 20 times the rate of residents of other high-income countries.  This is because for 20 years, the National Rifle Association’s Washington leadership has advanced policies to obstruct access to and analysis of information related to firearms and violence.