Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray joined Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer Monday in calling for Congress and President Barack Obama to strengthen firearms regulation in response to last month's school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

During an afternoon press conference at City Hall, the two mayors called for:

• Requiring a comprehensive criminal background check for every gun sold in the United States.

• A ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

• Making gun trafficking a federal crime.

The press conference was one of 40 being held as part of a push by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a nationwide group of 800 mayors.

The announcement was made one month after a lone gunman entered a suburban elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and shot and killed 20 children and six member of the school staff. Earlier, the gunman shot and killed his mother, the lawful owner of the guns.

"The people in this country, and I can tell you from personal experience, are demanding that something be done about gun violence," said Gray, who said people have been stopping him on the street to talk about the issue in recent weeks.

He said nothing being proposed threatens the Constitutionally protected right to bear arms.

Gray, an attorney, maintained the Second Amendment does not guarantee free and unfettered access to firearms.

He compared it to the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech. However, he said, it does not protect an individual from making libelous or slanderous statements. And it does not allow someone to falsely yell "Fire" in a crowded theater, he said.

"Is an assault weapon with multiple-bullet magazines really what the founding fathers had in mind?" asked Mayor Spencer.

Spencer said three people had already died in Reading this year from gunshots. One of those was a 15-year-old boy shot outside his home last week.

Gray said the military-style rifles, such as the ones used in the Newtown shooting and last summer's massacre in a Colorado movie theater, should be banned as federally "prohibited offensive weapons."

Other weapons that have that designation are sawed-off shotguns, switchblade knives and brass knuckles.

Similarly, Gray echoed the national mayor group's call to ban rifle magazines that contain more than 10 rounds. He contended that high-capacity magazines, like the 100-round magazine used by alleged Aurora, Colo., shooter James E. Holmes, are unnecessary for those who use firearms to hunt or defend themselves.

"You'd have to be the worst aim in the world to need 100 rounds to take down a deer," said Gray, who said he is not a hunter.

The federal prohibition on gun trafficking is intended to establish a national standard, so people who would be prevented from buying a gun in one state do not cross state lines to purchase a gun where laws or background checks are more lax.

Asked whether the provisions would have stopped the Newtown shooting, Gray responded no.

But, he said, passage of restrictions may prevent future shootings.

He compared it to the ready availability of switchblade knives when Gray, 68, was young. Since they were outlawed, switchblades have gradually become scarce, he said.

It may takes years, but a nationwide ban on assault-style weapons would gradually make them less available to mentally unstable individuals, such as those accused of the recent mass shootings, he said.

The call for requiring background checks for all gun purchases is aimed at transactions between individuals, Gray said. The law requires licensed gun dealers to do background checks, but an individual gun owner selling a gun to another individual does not have to meet the same requirements.

Gray specifically cited gun shows, where, he said, even a terrorist could come and buy enough guns to fill the trunk of a car without a records check, provided they bought the weapons from someone who was not a licensed dealer.

Maria Finn, press secretary for the Pennsylvania State Police, said individuals who sell guns to another individual and do not go to a licensed dealer for a background check are taking the risk the buyer is not prohibited from purchasing the gun.

A sale to a prohibited buyer, such as a convicted felon, is illegal whether the seller is a licensed dealer or not, Finn said.

And sales without a background check can only be done for long guns, such as rifles or shotguns. All pistol sales require background checks, she said.

Finn said the state police process many background checks from gun shows.

Gray said that a national discussion should also include discussions of mental health treatment and the prevalence of violence in society, but such a discussion cannot be held without confronting the problem of ready access to guns.

"This is not a be-all and end-all," Gray said of the mayors' proposals. "This will not solve all the problems. This is a beginning."

The City Hall press conference comes a day after National Rifle Association President David Keene said on CNN's "State Of The Union" program that he does not believe Congress will pass bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

It also came the day before Vice President Joe Biden is expected to deliver recommendations from his task force on comprehensive gun violence legislation.
bharris@lnpnews.com