Spencer Tucker, NYC Mayor's Press Office New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl meet to sign a statement endorsing the principles of the nationwide Mayors Coalition Against Illegal Guns. Click photo for larger image.

MANHATTAN -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Good afternoon. Have a seat. Let me welcome the new Mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl. He is young and handsome and successful, just like me. (?) Right? But don't get any ideas -- he is married as a matter of fact. His beautiful wife, Erin, is right here with us and she's committed to spend the entire family fortune in New York stores, help our taxpayers. Seriously, it's a little bit sad. We wish Luke all the best, but he just took over 13 days ago when the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Bob O'Connor, died tragically from brain cancer, and it's a loss not only for Pittsburgh but really for our entire nation. But I think that Luke's going to carry on. He has got the enthusiasm and the love of Pittsburgh. He and I have talked about it. My sister used to live there so, and I visited many, many years ago when I was back in the private sector. Luke cares and I think he's going to make a great mayor and make a great difference. He is going to go on "The David Letterman Show" tonight. So if anybody wants to watch, I'm sure he'll be able to hand Dave. Tell Dave I said hello.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl: I will do that.

Mayor Bloomberg: One of the things that I like in particular is that Luke wants to follow Mayor O'Connor and be a member of our Coalition of Mayors against illegal guns. As you know in every big city there are just too many guns on the streets, particularly guns that are there illegally by people with criminal records, people whose only intent is to use them to shoot other people. And we have no problems with the 2nd Amendment. If you want to have a weapon, that's fine. But they just don't belong on the streets of big cities. And I know that Mayor Ravenstahl agrees with us. And he's determined to stand up on this issue and he's agreed to join our Coalition. We have something over 80 mayors that have already signed the agreement and in a moment he'll sign the Statement of Principles that we drafted back in April and that dozens of mayors from every part of the country and both parties signed. This is not a partisan thing, it's not a geographical thing. Big cities have a problem and it's comforting that the next generation of mayors like Luke are willing to stand up and understand the issue and fight. He's got big shoes to fill but I know you're up to the job. And want to say something to the press?

Mayor Ravenstahl: Yeah, first of all, it's great to be here in New York City. I'd like to thank the Mayor for taking time out of his busy schedule to accommodate me here this afternoon. It's an exciting day for me to be here as the Mayor of Pittsburgh, to appear on 'The David Letterman Show" and really tell the nation all the great things that Pittsburgh has to offer. It's important to us to change our image nationwide. We have a great city in Pittsburgh and I'm proud to be the Mayor of that City and I'm grateful for the opportunity tonight to appear on the "Letterman Show" and tell that story. And so I look forward to signing this, as the Mayor alluded to. Pittsburgh is no different than any other urban city. While we are a little bit smaller, the Mayor and I were talking. He has 300,000 city employees; we have a little bit over 300,000 residents that live in our city. So while the scale might be a little bit different, we do certainly face the same challenges. And illegal guns are definitely one of those. So that's why I'm proud to be here today with him and to follow in my predecessor Bob O'Connor's footsteps in signing this pledge.

Mayor Bloomberg: We'll be happy to take a question or two if anybody...

Reporter: Mayor Bloomberg - do you have any words of advice to the young Mayor aside from the gun control issue?

Mayor Bloomberg: My advice to him would be 'be yourself.' I think that if there's one thing that I've tried to do, and I think in the end, never fake it. People respect you if you're honest and genuine if it comes from your heart. They'd like to know it's well thought out, but most importantly that you're not just saying it because you think it is what's politically correct or you think it's what partisan politics demand. There's no reason to think that his ideas aren't as good as anybody else's ideas, but they want to know that they're his ideas.

Reporter: What's next for the Coalition? Do you have any idea when you guys are going to be joining or (?) meeting again?

Mayor Bloomberg: We will get together again. Haven't scheduled it yet, but we're trying to sign up a lot of mayors. We thought originally we'd have 25 mayors and we're well over 80 already. I mean it's going much faster and better than what we'd thought, and I think you will see stories in the press. There's an awful lot of dealing in this country that pro-gun advocacy organizations may be just too (?) and not willing to understand that for example Saturday night specials aren't appropriate to be sold. Nobody's buying a Saturday night special or an Uzi machine gun for hunting. Nobody is buying an armor-piercing bullets to go shoot animals. There's just one reason why you'd have something like that. And I think that we are making progress in that. It's going to be a very tough battle because the NRA in particular just tried to cow Congress into not allowing reasonable restrictions whatsoever on purchasing firearms and selling firearms. What the NRA has always argued is you have to obey the law, and that's exactly what we're trying to do. That's why New York went out and caught 15 dealers around the country who were breaking the law, and that's why we've tried to prosecute them, and some have already settled, and I'm optimistic that that will send a message.

Reporter: What will be (?) formally send like a letter to Congress or the President or make some sort of changes...

Mayor Bloomberg: Yeah. I've testified before the Congressional Black Caucus as you know last week, a week before. And if I thought a letter would make any difference, we certainly would do that. I think what we have to do is make sure that each member of Congress knows that they are really voting to protect criminals when they vote to keep the police departments of this country from getting guns out of the hands of criminals. It's not a pro-2nd Amendment vote, it's a pro-criminal vote. And when some young child is killed in their district, they've got to understand that they're going to have to explain to the voters why they chose to stymie police departments whose only interest is to protect the people on our streets. Sir?

Reporter: Mr. Mayor, a complete change of gears, what would your advice be for handling Letterman?

LAUGHTER

Mayor Bloomberg: Dave's had a little bit of experience, so you know, he might think of- if you could come up with a couple of zingers for him. Dave has a great sense of humor and it will be fun. I mean, did you ever think you were going to be on Dave Letterman?

Mayor Ravenstahl: I didn't.

Mayor Bloomberg: I never did either. Miss?

Reporter: Mayor (?) talk to us about (?) meeting with the Mayor, meeting with Dave, just a little bit about this whole experience coming to the Big Apple. What did you think?

Mayor Ravenstahl: Well I haven't met Dave yet, but the Mayor has been gracious, and it's a good experience and again, it's one that I certainly have mixed emotions on how I arrived here with the untimely passing of Mayor O'Connor, who was a great friend of mine and a friend of our family. So I spoke with Mayor O'Connor's family because I wanted to make sure because it is so sensitive on whether or not it was appropriate to do something. That's fine. "The Letterman Show" will be fine. It's lighthearted and hopefully we'll have a good time. Judy O'Connor, Mayor O'Connor's widow, agreed that she thought it was appropriate. Bob was one of the City of Pittsburgh's biggest cheerleaders and she knows that he would have wanted me to do it. So we made a decision to (?) and I look forward to this evening.

Mayor Bloomberg: Sir?

Reporter: What do you think of Mayor Ravenstahl's sales pitch for businesses?

Mayor Bloomberg: Well I think it's a great sales pitch as long as you don't take business away from us. I think I've said we'd be happy to work with him, but when it comes down to us versus them for a client, we're going to fight as hard. And I think when the Steelers come to play the Giants or Jets, there's no question that I'm on the side of New York.

Reporter: Can we get maybe just a little comment from both of you about- I know the Mets are playing the Pirates over the weekend.

Mayor Bloomberg: I think that, you know, we should feel sorry for the Pirates. I'm sure they're going to try very hard and I would like to see the Mets clinch their title back here at Shea rather than in Pittsburgh. It may actually work out that it could be this weekend. The Mets are playing great baseball, as are the Yankees. You know, my predecessor delivered a Subway Series so you'll have to do something like a Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series.

Mayor Ravenstahl: We could do that. I don't know if it's going to be on the baseball side, maybe with the football. But I couldn't tell you, to be honest with you, what the Pirates have done over the last couple of weeks. I've been pretty consumed with everything else. They're doing good? All right. Here we go.