The mayors of Parkland, Florida and Dayton, Ohio, the sites of two high-profile mass shootings, are among a group of mayors who have endorsed Pete Buttigieg for president over high-profile military-style weapon confiscation advocate Beto O’Rourke.
Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton and Mayor Christine Hunschofsky of Parkland are two of 58 current and former mayors who endorsed the South Bend, Indiana, mayor on Wednesday. The 2018 shooting at a Parkland high school left 17 people dead and the early August shooting in Dayton’s downtown area killed seven.
Unlike former Texas congressman O’Rourke and some of his other primary competitors, Buttigieg does not call for confiscation of military-style weapons like those used in the Dayton and Parkland shootings.
Like most other Democratic presidential hopefuls, Buttigieg supports banning the future sale of military-style rifles but not a confiscation program. He also backs expanding background checks for firearm sales and creating red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others. Both Whaley and Hunschofsky call for similar gun control measures that are popular among Democrats.
O’Rourke become the most vocal Democratic presidential candidate for mandatory buybacks for military-style rifles after an early August shooting in El Paso that occurred the same weekend as the Dayton shooting. “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke said during a Democratic primary debate last week.
Buttigieg, in contrast, warns that O’Rourke’s comment could play into the hands of Republicans. “When even this president and even Mitch McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms, we know that we have a moment on our hands. Let’s make the most of it and get these things done,” Buttigieg told CNN on Sunday.
Buttigieg argues that his city-level executive experience prepared him well for the Oval Office, and his 58 newest endorsers echo that sentiment. Nevertheless, the number of mayors listed represents just a tiny fraction of the thousands of municipal leaders in the nation.
“Mayors are walking symbols of their cities. When we cut a ribbon at a new factory, or comfort a grieving parent whose child was lost to gun violence, we are showing the people we represent that their community stands with them. That kind of empathetic leadership is desperately needed in the Oval Office,” the mayors wrote in an op-ed.
Buttigieg snagged endorsements from mayors of some of the nation’s largest cities, including Steve Adler of Austin, former Mayor Annise Parker of Houston and former Kansas City Mayor Sly James.
But several of the mayors come from very small towns. Bernville, Pennsylvania, has a population of around 950. Britt, Iowa’s, population is about 2,000, and Wells, Nevada, has about 1,250 people.
