Being in New York, it's no surprise that our viewers have consistently said that illegal guns are a bigger concern for them over legal guns so it was interesting to expand that aspect of gun reform on our show. And many of you thought that this latest gun bill might actually work with 64% saying a possible 20-year sentence for gun trafficking might curb the spread of illegal guns. We won't be abandoning this topic anytime soon and we'll look to explore a different angle of this crucial issue on our next show.

A bipartisan bill introduced by congressional lawmakers today would make gun trafficking a federal crime with a 20-year prison sentence. One of the bill's sponsors, New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, says harsher penalties are needed against "straw purchasers" who knowingly buy firearms for convicted criminals who can't legally obtain weapons on their own.

The bill is the latest idea being debated in Washington since the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Others ideas include mandatory background checks for all gun sales, an assault weapons ban, and limiting the number of bullets held in high-capacity magazines. What do you say?

What should the penalty be for people who give or sell guns to convicted criminals? Will a 20-year sentence serve as an effective deterrent? Of all the ideas presented in recent weeks, which ones do you support in an effort to combat gun violence?

Send your thoughts using the link above.

These anti-gun nuts will be satisfied only after all guns are confiscated.

They don't care about your freedom or your life. It's power, they seek, power to rule the world.

Joe
Port Richmond

The 20 year sentence is a good idea, I also like the mandatory background checks, and the assault weapons ban, and or, placing a limit on the number of bullets used in high capacity magazines.

Felix
Bay Ridge

ANYONE CAUGHT WITH A WEAPON AND NO LICENSE TO CARRY=LISTEN CAREFULLY=FOR EACH WEAPON A 10 YEAR SENTENCE=PERIOD!! LET'S SEE WHAT ALL OF THESE PHONIES SAY ABOUT THAT!!

They have no guts to do anything!!

The message alone from the people on the street were crying for help because only living in the projects they have no law enforcement, it was dismantled and if they turn anyone in they fear for their own lives. Stop and frisk is needed because that is the only thing on our side to help us clean up this problem. I would like to know just how many have been caught and prosecuted.

But it always goes back to the same thing and that is be cautious because these are also our voters.

Maxxiee
Morris Park

American's have a romance with guns and violence. Even if you take guns away tomorrow, we will club, stab, and smash each other. It's in our movies, music, video games, and sports. We can show children killing each other in sport in a movie, but not a nipple. That tells me more about our culture than any law.

Frank
Sunset Park

The gun laws must be federal...straw buyers go to Florida, purchase the weapons, drive up 95 and drop sell them to perps in Philly. (this is just one scenario). I think the 20 years should be a mandotory sentence. Many of these weapons fall into the hands of cop killers and innocent civilians. It's really disgusting. Go Congresswoman Maloney.

Kate (Retired NYPD)
Midtown East

Even though I believe in gun control, I do not believe that just because a doctor label a person with symptom of depression or schicsophrnia, that does not mean that the are suicidal or a danger to their self or other, and that don’t mean that N.Y State should have the right to take away my 2nd amendment rights. They don’t take them away when we have these conditions fighting for our Country. Please post my comment and let the President understand my rights. I served this Country and would have given my life if was called to do so and I don’t think because I have some form of mental illness that the government should have the right to take automatically take away my 2nd Amendment rights.

Dex
Queens

For all those people who want to include AR15’s in the assault weapons ban, let me make it absolutely clear to you:
AR15s are simply single shoot, semi-automatic guns – when you pull the trigger once, it shoots one shoot, you have to release the trigger and pull it again one more time to shoot one more shot. If you pull the trigger and hold it down it will not continue to shoot many shoot rapidly – despite how they look physically / appearance.

They are not automatic guns, there are not machine guns, they cannot shoot 4/5/6 bullets per second, and they are not design to kill as many people as possible.

They are design for home defense, target shooting, hunting, and competition.

For a gun to be consider as an assault weapon, it should be judge by its functionality – not by its appearance / looks – and sticking a pistol grip, in the definition, does nothing at all to the functionality of a gun.

Kemal

Maloney's law is bull. Gun ownership is Protected under the 2nd Amendment. Period.
New Yorkers have been cowed and abused by corrupt pols for decades. How criminal was Cuomo's mid ramming thru the legislature of his unconstitutional gun ban? He will force upstaters to split from the City.

Gahan

Its sad that America is up in arms over guns/guns control. That we care about so much about something that is such a quintessential symbol of death is really a bad omen for us as a society. Yet, what when America is the worlds biggest arms dealer and ever hungry for war, its only logical for us to be as obsessed with violence and its symbols. How but obsess about education?

Crime is down, the problem is law abiding citizens carrying guns. They have to take guns off the market, the second amendment was written three hundred years ago and no one can read it, we already have police misusing guns, I want to leave my housewithout getting shot in the street.

Pat
Manhattan

Since serial numbers can be scratched off, how about having a mandatory ballistics test for each gun sold in this country? I think people will be careful when they know they will be accountable.

And for gun runners, 20 years sounds right.

Simone
Manhattan

No….the mental health argument and even the current debate over guns and gun control are mirages to hide the real issue America has as a country. America has been at war my whole life. To grow up in a culture of war breeds and encourages violent behavior. The very fact that we are the world's biggest arms dealer shows how silly the current debate is and how much money and war have consumed our identities as a culture.

Robert
Fort Greene

I oppose the bill because they (politicians) are forgetting that its not people who own guns that are committing these gruesome crimes but mentally ill and young adults, who are exposed to a lot of violent media.

The bill should enforce those who own guns, they should be obligated to invest in a safe and secure storage for their firearms so that these mentally challenged people can't have access to these lethal weapons.

Frank
Harlem

The media continues to fail to present all the facts.
FBI & DOJ all state that assault weapons account for less than .02% of incidents.
Low capacity clips just sound good. The sooter in Virginia Tech, Cho, used low capacity magazines.

Our supreme court has ruled that it is unconstitutional for criminals to get licensing to carry firearms that are required by law abiding citizens.

Law makers are just doing knee jerking responses to make people feel good. Criminals are not afraid of our jails, and laws do not stop them.

Let's not forget when senator gifford was shot, she was saved by a law abiding licensed gun carrier.

We all love our kids but more than 50,000 people die each year by cars, including inocent cildren. Guess we should ban cars or limit the # of seats they have.

Bob
Manhattan