(See response to Portman: "Gun control group to Rob Portman: We've got some stats, too.")

WASHINGTON -- Hit by verbal shots for three straight months, Ohio U.S. Sen. Rob Portman mounted a strong defense today against the anti-gun lobby, citing facts and statistics to counter what he and others portray as feel-good but meaningless gun-control rhetoric.

This comes as Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, holds a rally today in Columbus, and another tomorrow in Akron. The Columbus rally features the sister of a victim of the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults last December; Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and other local elected officials; religious leaders, and gun violence prevention advocates. It is part of the "No More Names: National Drive to Reduce Gun Violence," a 25-state bus tour to urge America's leaders to support "common-sense gun policies."

Portman has been criticized nonstop by the mayors' group since he voted in April against a proposed law that could have made it harder to buy guns on the Internet and from private sellers at gun shows, where licensed gun dealers are already regulated. The first-term Republican senator said the law could have made it harder for law-abiding sportsmen to lend and borrow guns for hunting.

Portman's vote and explanation are on the agenda for derision today and tomorrow. The Akron rally will include a survivor of the Feb. 27, 2012 Chardon High School shooting as well as mayors Don Plusquellic of Akron and Brad Sellers of Warrensville Heights. But Portman waited for neither event to start, instead sending two preemptive responses today to the mayors' group.



The boldest was from his communications director, Jeff Sadosky, who emailed reporters a list of statistics that he says make the senator’s point rather starkly:

“If those attending the Mayors Against Illegal Guns rally know…

“That 1% of Ohio’s adult prison population since 1974 is responsible for 57 percent of the state’s violent felony convictions,

“And that high-rate violent offenders, those convicted of three or more unique violent crimes, were responsible for 33.2% of all violent crime convictions,

“And those high-rate violent offenders had an average of 7.4 arrests per offender and 6.4 criminal convictions in their collective criminal histories,

"And the burden of violent crime is disproportionately concentrated in four Ohio counties (Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Summit, and Franklin), which accounted for 55.8% of all high rate violent offenders,



"And that gang membership is on the rise (40% increase between 2009-2011) and that gangs are responsible for an average of half of the violent crime in most jurisdictions – with some as high as 90%,

"And that the author of the Manchin-Toomey bill admitted it would have done nothing to prevent the tragic Newtown massacre,

"And that only 2% of state prison inmates who owned a gun at the time of their offense bought it at either a flea market or gun show, but 40% got one through illegal means,

"Then why would they be so focused on a law that its own author admitted would have done nothing instead of working with the author of the Second Chance Act, which directly attacks the repeat offender issue, to secure reauthorization of this vital program that is helping to cut the recidivism rate.

“One word…POLITICS.”

Separately, Portman’s office issued a news release in which Portman said that families of Newtown victims and the authors of the legislation he rejected “have acknowledged that it would not have prevented the heartbreaking loss of life we saw in Newtown.”

"Based on the Administration's own Justice Department statistics about how criminals obtain guns, we also know that legislation to expand background checks to private sales would have no meaningful impact on the unacceptable level of daily gun violence on the streets of Columbus and other places in Ohio,” Portman said.

"Rather than continuing to push for legislation that would place additional restrictions on law-abiding Ohioans and criminalize private sales, while doing little or nothing to address the true causes of violence, I urge city officials to instead work with me and others to seek solutions that will make a difference. This includes enforcement of current law, strengthening background checks by adding far better mental health records, and getting at the root cause of most gun violence by addressing the drug problem and gangs, and supporting prisoner reentry programs.”

He asked that people support reauthorization of two laws he authored: the Second Chance Act (Portman, then in the House, authored it with the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones) and the Drug Free Communities Act, both of which "are actually helping reduce the gun violence wreaking havoc in some of our communities and among our families."

Both laws have had strong bipartisan support, but Mayors Against Illegal Guns has not pushed for them.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns responded with its own sets of facts and figures this afternoon, and you can see it here.