Boston, NYC Mayors Fight Illegal Guns in Super Bowl Ad

While most football fans were ooh-ing and ah-ing over the down-to-the-wire game between the Giants and Patriots, and while many casual fans were still in stitches over Dorito bribes or partying M&M's, some of us gun nuts -- depending on where you live -- caught this ad courtesy of Boston Mayor Tom Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling for tighter gun laws to keep guns away from criminals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO94AdhCg0k&feature=player_embedded

Menino and Bloomberg co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which supports the Second Amendment and the rights of citizens to own firearms, but seeks to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals, according to the group's mission statement.

The group consists of over 600 mayors in over 40 states, claiming "a responsibility to protect their communities by holding gun offenders and irresponsible gun dealers accountable." The group demands trace data used by law enforcement to track illegal gun trafficking, and works with lawmakers "to fix gaps, weaknesses and loopholes in the law" that the group says make it too easy to put guns in the hands of criminals.

MAIG has come under fire from the National Rifle Association, however, which claims the group is a front for Bloomberg's alleged anti-gun agenda. According to a notice released by the NRA in 2009, "Bloomberg created MAIG as a front group to lobby Congress to oppose important pro-gun reforms and support new federal gun control restrictions." In a 2007 article in the NRA's magazine, America's 1st Freedom, MAIG was lambasted as a cover for sweeping gun control with a carefully phrased mission statement, while Bloomberg was called "a billionaire, Boston-grown evangelist for the nanny state"