The New York Times reports that earlier this month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent undercover agents to Phoenix to investigate selling practices at a gun show. Such venues serve as the planet-sized loophole through which people who shouldn't have guns are able to buy them without a background check. In many states, all you need to buy a gun at a show is a driver's license and the ability to seem like you'd pass a background check. Sellers get to decide. The Times provides the following transcript of an exchange that took place at that Phoenix gun show.

Investigator: So, youre not one of those, you know, dealer guys, right?Seller: No. No tax, no form, you dont have to do transfers or nothing.Investigator: Yeah, yeah.Seller: Just see an Arizona ID and thats it with me.Investigator: So no background check?Seller: No.Investigator: Thats good, because I probably couldnt pass one, you know what I mean?

The clerk sold him a Sig Sauer pistol for $500.I've never heard of a mayor running this sort of operation. Can't imagine Arizona officials appreciate Bloomberg's investigation, but it certainly speaks to the desperation of urban mayors. Their cities are being decimated by gun violence. And it's not just a city problem. A 2010 study showed that rural white kids were just as likely as urban black kids to die from gun injuries. All while the NRA's lapdogs stymie widely supported measures like background checks for all firearm sales. Why should it be harder to buy a car than a gun?