NEW YORK, NY February 14, 2008 —REPORTER: Mayor Bloomberg attended a crime summit yesterday in Baltimore.

He was joined by local mayor Sheila Dixon and several other members of the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Bloomberg said the NRA's powerful influence in Washington is an impediment to the mayors' efforts to curb illegal gun-running up and down the East Coast.

BLOOMBERG: When the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate, they wouldn't protect the public, they were protecting the criminals. And when the Democrats took over the House and the Senate, they continued to protect the criminals.

REPORTER: New York and Washington have both seen sharp drops in homicides in recent years, but there were 282 murders in Baltimore in 2007 - that's the highest rate since 1999.

Baltimore has created a gun registry that tracks offenders, in addition to a task force to coordinate the enforcement of gun laws.