By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg will make a major announcement regarding illegal guns and the federal background check system, his office said Saturday.
The announcement will be made at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 24, in the City Hall rotunda, where the mayor will be joined by Martin Luther King III, as well as friends and family members of people killed during the tragic shootings of Tucson, Virginia Tech and Columbine.
Bloomberg, who has made the fight against illegal guns one of his staple issues, spoke alongside other officials in the days following the Tucson shooting earlier this month to demand changes to federal gun laws.
Specifically, the mayor, who co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns, called for lawmakers to close loopholes that allow people with drug records to purchase guns.
"The more we learn, the more it becomes clear that this case is fundamentally about a mentally ill drug abuser who had access to guns who shouldn’t have," Bloomberg said of the Tucson shooting at the Jan. 11 meeting.
"As this case makes terribly clear, deadly gaps [in the nation's gun laws] still remain."
The mayor’s office did not provide further detail about what Monday’s announcement would include.
