Mayor Walsh on Obama’s Gun Control Order: ‘It’s Another Step Forward’

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh sit in the East Room of the White House before President Obama spoke about his executive order on gun control. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Mayor Marty Walsh traveled to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to throw his support behind President Obama’s executive orders on gun control.

During an appearance on MSNBC, Walsh said he approved of the measures being implemented by the president’s executive orders, which include expanding background checks on gun purchases by broadening the definition of gun dealers. In order to enforce the expanded background checks, Obama ordered the hiring of 230 additional FBI examiners to process them. The executive order included additional calls for cabinet departments to explore the areas to implement so-called “smart gun technology” and a plea for Congress to provide $500 million in mental health care spending.

While Obama focused on mass shootings, particular the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, Walsh talked about what this means for cities like Boston.

“It’s another step forward, giving us another tool that we need, particularly in urban America where we have too many guns in the street, too many illegal guns in the street,” said Walsh on MSNBC where he appeared to discuss the president’s new orders.

Guns are a different issue in cities than they are in suburban and rural areas where mass shootings rarely occur. A trade exists between northern New England states where gun laws are loose, and southern New England states where drugs are more plentiful. Walsh and other New England mayors have voiced their concerns about this trade in public forums.

“Guns are flowing into urban areas and being sold on the black market and that’s what what we have, we have too much access to guns. In the city of Boston, in the last two years, our police department has taken 1,800 guns off the street, yet every time we take a gun it seems like 2 or 3 more appear,” said Walsh.

Walsh said the expansion of background checks should help stem the flow of guns into urban communities like his own.

“Forcing a gun dealer to make sure they have a license and forcing a background check, I don’t see what the big problem is here. I don’t see what the public outrage should be,” said Walsh.

Watch his appearance here: