A $12 million television ad campaign paid for by Mayors Against Illegal Guns hopes to push gun control efforts including comprehensive background checks.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the group's co-chair, announced the ad buy Saturday. The New York Times reported Bloomberg is financing the campaign.

“I don’t think there’s ever been an issue where the public has spoken so clearly, where Congress hasn’t eventually understood and done the right thing," Bloomberg told NBC News' David Gregory in an interview that will be broadcast Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

The ads will target both Democratic and Republican senators in key states.

One of the ads portrays a middle-aged man sitting on the back of a pick-up truck and holding a rifle.

"I've owned a gun all my life and I'll fight for my right to keep it," the man says. "Background checks have nothing to do with taking guns away from anyone," he adds.

The ad urges viewers to tell Congress to vote in support of comprehensive background checks. There is no mention in the ad of an assault weapons ban, but Bloomberg told Gregory he still hopes Congress could pass one.

“We’ve been fighting since 2007 to get a vote. We are going to have a vote on – for sure – on assault weapons and we’re going to have a vote on background checks," he said.

"And if we were to get background checks only it wouldn’t be as good as if we got both, but we demanded a plan and then we demanded a vote. We’ve got the plan, we’re going to get the vote.”

The benefit-claims backlog that has ensnared nearly 600,000 younger veterans — many with war wounds — has reached a crisis point inside the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the hour has come for President Barack Obama to become personally involved in unclogging the quagmire, two of the nation's leading veterans advocates told NBC News Thursday. 

"It’s time to go above the VA. If you think of VA as a broken down car, it’s hard for us to know how to fix it if we can’t see under the hood. The president can see under the hood. And the president can send people in to fix it," said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which represents more than 200,000 people.

"When you have so many men and women that are waiting years to see their claims adjudicated, there is a problem and it's somewhere within VA. And the president needs to take a personal interest," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. 

Rieckhoff contends that Obama must answer a key question: With the overall claims tally surpassing 900,000 cases earlier this year and with 34,000 troops soon returning from Afghanistan, should VA Secretary Eric Shinseki be replaced? 

In a meeting Wednesday with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Rieckhoff said he told Obama's top advisor: "We need to hear it from the president" as to whether Shinseki should remain atop the VA.

During a press briefing Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "It is absolutely the president’s position that we need to aggressively address this problem, and he has made clear to Secretary Shinseki that he wants this addressed. He is getting weekly updates on the backlog."

Responded Rieckhoff: "We’re focused on ending the backlog. What we need from the president is a plan to end the backlog. If (Shinseki's removal) is a part of that plan, we’d love to hear about it. The easy thing to do is fire some people. But that won’t necessarily fix things.

"Yes, we need a cultural transformation (at the VA). We need new blood, new ideas," Rieckhoff added. "But three VA secretaries have been there and three VA secretaries have failed. That’s why we’re focused on the president. This is bigger than Shinseki."

IAVA file

"The backlog is the place where veterans end up feeling betrayed. When your claim is delayed 600 days, which is the case if you live in New York or L.A., you feel like your president and your country are letting you down," said IAVA's Paul Rieckhoff, photographed Thursday speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C.

VA official urged to step down
On Tuesday, Miller called for the resignation of Allison Hickey, the VA's under secretary of benefits. Miller is frustrated with Hickey, in part,  because she can not project where the backlog will stand in 12 months while she is simultaneously promising that no veterans will be waiting 125 days or more for their benefits by 2015. Miller said he fears that high-ranking VA officials have failed to reveal to Shinseki the real depth of the claims challenge and the scope of the financial hardships faced by hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans — many who are unable to work due to battle injuries.

Asked Thursday if he believes Shinseki should resign, Miller said: "I am not prepared to ask the same of the secretary. He has a strong desire to do what is right. My fear is his leadership (team) has not been transparent with him to the point that he knows the true picture that exists out there." 

This week, four other prominent veterans' groups — Student Veterans of America, The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans (DAV) all voiced support for Shinseki and for the work being done by the VA's Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), which has handled claims for millions of veterans. Those groups argue that the VA's plan to cut the backlog should be given a chance to work.

"DAV believes that VBA is on the right path, that they have set the right goals and that they have leadership committed to transforming and institutionalizing a new claims processing system to better serve veterans," DAV national legislative director Joe Violante testified Wednesday before a Senate panel examining veterans issues. 

During 2012, the VA paid $58.6 billion in benefits to 4.3 million veterans or their survivors, according to the VA. The agency reported Thursday that its total "claims inventory" stands at 859,396. The VA defines its "backlog" as claims that have been pending for more than 125 days — that number stands at 592,222, according to the VA. 

"Secretary Shinseki believes it is unacceptable that veterans are waiting too long to get the benefits they have earned," read a statement emailed by Josh Taylor, a VA spokesman. "That is why VA is implementing an aggressive plan that will solve this decades old problem for good and transform how VA processes claims for decades to come."

But according to Miller, one factor fueling the backlog is that VA claims handlers are not working as efficiently as they did before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 1997, the average VA field officer processed 138 claims a year while, in 2011, with three times as many overall employees, the average VA field officer processed 73 claims a year, Miller said. 

"I have confidence at this time that (Shinseki) has a desire to move in the right direction. He leads an organization of 300,000 people that delivers some of the best health care in the world as well as educational benefits," Miller said. "But this benefits backlog, unfortunately, is going to be a stain that will stay with VA for years to come."

Related:

• Epic waits, 'gaming' the books at some VA hospitals, testimony reveals
• As VA backlog grows, Congress, veterans grow weary of excuses
• Disability-compensation claims for veterans lag as 'VA backlog' worsens
• Home from war, troops face 'white knuckled' first month

Larry Downing / Reuters

Firefighters from D.C.'s Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department appeared with President Barack Obama during a press event on Tuesday.

D.C. Fire and EMS denied Friday night that three local firefighters are facing possible disciplinary action after appearing with President Obama during a press event.

Earlier this week the president was flanked by first responders as he spoke about the impact of sequestration. Kenneth Ellerbe, chief of D.C.'s Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department, told News4 the three members of DCFEMS who participated in the event may have violated department regulations.

“I didn’t know about it, the deputy mayor didn’t know about it, the mayor didn’t know about it," Ellerbe said. "There should be protocol followed anytime one of our employees representing the District of Columbia appears at a public event.”

The department released the following statement Friday night:

Contrary to reports in local media, the DC Fire and EMS Department is not considering any disciplinary action against uniformed personnel for appearing alongside President Obama. At the request of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, DC FEMS is simply reviewing its internal protocols for such appearances to ensure that both the Department and its employees are fully informed.

We fully support the efforts of President to highlight the essential and life saving work that our first-responders do every single day, and welcome his invitation for our members to participate. We're exceedingly proud of the men and women that wear the DC FEMS uniform, and thank the President for his support.

Ellerbe says the three firefighters have each been ordered to file a special report on the event detailing how they came to appear with the president and who authorized it.

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“How did they get there, why were they there and why didn’t we know about it before?” Ellerbe said.

Ed Smith, president of Local 36 of the firefighter’s union, said his office facilitated the appearance by the firefighters. “The request came through the International Association of Firefighters,” Smith said, adding that it’s not the first time D.C. firefighters have been asked to appear with the president.

But he said, it’s the first time it’s been an issue. “We’ve done this before. I would hope it doesn’t come to any discipline. They were supporting our president,” he said.

Also on NBCWashington.com: Gun control law advances in Maryland

Ellerbe would not identify the department members involved, but one of those pictured is Lt. Robert Alvarado, who has been disciplined in the past by Ellerbe. In 2012 Alvarado was placed on leave after he wore a uniform with an outdated logo.

Ellerbe says requiring Alvarado and the others to explain why they attended the event in their dress uniforms is not payback for any previous incidents.

“There’s no payback, we don’t operate in a payback environment. I know folks say that but it’s not true.” Ellerbe insisted.

Ellerbe says none of the firefighters is facing termination, but added one of those involved is a woman who is new to the department and still on a probationary period.

This story was originally published on Fri Feb 22, 2013 6:55 PM EST

Francois Lenoir / Reuters

In this Oct. 2012 file photo, U.S. General John Allen attends a news conference during a NATO defense ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels. Allen has decided to retire rather than proceed with his nomination as the NATO supreme allied commander due to "health issues" in his family.

General John Allen said Tuesday he has decided to retire for "personal" reasons, leaving behind his nomination as the NATO supreme allied commander.

President Barack Obama accepted Allen's request, praising him as "one of America's finest military leaders" and "a true patriot," The White House released in a statement Tuesday. Back in October, Obama nominated Allen for supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe.

Last week, three U.S. military officials told NBC News that Allen's withdrawal from the position was likely to happen. The officials acknowledged that Allen did not want to drag his family through a nomination process, which likely would have brought up his controversial emails with Florida socialite Jill Kelley.

Allen's emails Kelley came to light during the investigation that ultimately brought down CIA director David Petraeus, who confessed to an extramarital affair with a separate woman. The Pentagon had cleared Allen of wrongdoing in that scandal last month.

In a statement Tuesday, Allen made clear that his decision to retire after 32 years in uniform was personal: "While I won't go into the details, my primary concern is for the health of my wife, who has sacrificed so much for so long."

Obama commended Allen's service in Afghanistan, where Allen has served as a top U.S. commander.

"General Allen presided over the significant growth in the size and capability of Afghan National Security Forces, the further degradation of al-Qaida and their extremist allies, and the ongoing transition to Afghan security responsibility across the country," Obama said.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta also expressed his gratitude for Allen's efforts in Afghanistan.

"His leadership over the last 19 months will long be remembered as pivotal to this campaign," Panetta said in a statement Tuesday. "The strategy he developed and implemented has put us on the right path towards completing this mission, with Afghan forces now on track to step into the lead for security nationwide this spring and to assume full security responsibility by the end of next year."

Jessica Mcgowan / for NBC News

Former Marine Paul Menefee, an Iraq war veteran, makes music in his Union City, Ga bedroom, on Feb. 15. Since transitioning to civilian life, Menefee works as a music producer in Atlanta. At home, Menefee spends most of his time in this blacked out bedroom making music and relaxing. Drawing blinds and blacking out windows is a habit Menefee started after his military service to help him feel more secure.

In the first month home from war, one Marine routinely searched his darkened bedroom for the rifle he'd left in Iraq, while another Marine shunned his favorite nightspot for fear that someone in the club might carry a gun. 

In the four weeks after their homecomings, one infantryman drove “white knuckled” at 55 mph while another soldier purposely began living even faster — losing her virginity, going blonde and drinking hard with battle buddies.

Some 34,000 service members will ship home from Afghanistan during the next year, President Barack Obama told the nation last week. 

Amid the gleeful glow of arrivals, many of those troops may quickly confront sensory overloads, social awkwardness and, perhaps, deep cravings for personal freedoms, according to interviews with four younger veterans who weathered such moments.  

“The first 30 days are interesting,” said Alex Horton, who spent 15 months in Iraq as an Army infantryman, including during the 2007 troop surge in Baghdad and Diyala Province.

Today, he works for the Department of Veterans Affairs. "I’ll call it the unraveling. That first week back you’re still high on everything, kissing your wife or girlfriend, sometimes seeing your kids for the first time. But then the tension starts to build.

“You experience culture and weather shock, and notice your senses are heightened,” said Horton, adding that another common theme — albeit something he did not go through — involves disrupting the daily routines established by a spouse and kids during a service member’s absence, and consequently, dealing with strained relationships. 

Distant from family
To that point, two veterans interviewed for this story, including Horton, said they suffered romantic breakups after returning from combat, and two got divorced. 

Jessica Mcgowan / for NBC News

Former Marine Paul Menefee, an Iraq war veteran, shows off his spiritual tattoos at home in Union City, Ga., on Feb. 15. The "Blessed" tattoo is one many Menefee has gotten after his two tours in Iraq.

"Trying to get back to my regular life was hard because I wouldn’t talk much to anybody. I didn’t want to talk about what went on in Iraq, didn't want to describe the details," said Paul Menefee, a former Marine who was deployed twice to Iraq and fought in the Battle of Fallujah in late 2004. 

"Things that happened, I didn’t want to remember. I was trying to cope in my own way, not deal with the images in my head," added Menefee, who eventually divorced his wife. "I was distant from my wife, mother, cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles. At Sunday dinners, I pretty much stayed off to myself."

Old habits came home, too. During his first 30 days back at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Menefee grew jittery in a Wal-Mart checkout line because other customers were queued up behind him. He left the store immediately. He avoided nightclub outings with friends because the bar crowds seemed unpredictable.

He chose seats in the backs of restaurants so he could watch all the patrons and map each exit. At home, he kept his blinds drawn, his door locked and always looked left then glanced right when passing a hallway or an open corner. 

On interstate highways, Menefee — a truck driver in Iraq — often pulled four lanes to his left if he spotted a blown tire or crumpled, food wrapper lying on the right shoulder: The types of hiding places in which insurgents routinely planted IEDs in Iraq. While driving in an American city, he would take an early left or an abrupt right if he saw garbage or roadkill on an approaching curb.

"You don’t realize that (your senses are) very fine-tuned to your environment, everything from hearing things to seeing things," Horton said. "I imagine this is what blind people feel with their other senses. You rely on them so much (in combat), they have no business being that acute in the civilian world."

"When I got into a car and drove on a highway for the first time," Horton added, "I was white knuckled."

For former Marine Christian Gutierrez, who returned from Iraq in spring 2008, the open road at first carried a mix of old caution and fresh freedom.

During quick trips to the grocery store, he frequently would exit his car then quickly circle back, thinking he'd left his rifle in the front seat, momentarily forgetting he didn't carry a weapon anymore. 

"But I love cars and love driving. So I drove a lot because it was my time," Gutierrez said. "That moment was your moment. You had control of your car. You had control of that moment."

'Lucky I didn't die'
Soon, he bought a motorcycle to further feed that rush of independence, to expand his new-found personal space — and because combat left him with another sharp bit of wisdom: Your moments on this planet may be few.  

"Being back taught me that if I want to do something, I’d better do something right now. You never know," he said. 

That same compulsion drove Iraq veteran Laura Cannon to use her first 30 days home to mark, she said, "the beginning of a new life for me," a time in which she stepped away from both Evangelical Christianity and the strict rules under which she'd been living since enrolling at West Point.  

"I knew that if I didn't make drastic changes, being at war would be the last adventure I would ever experience," said Cannon, a former Army infantry member who was part of the 2003 Coalition invasion. "Surviving a war completely changed my perspective. I needed to start living for me. So I made a mental list of goals to accomplish. No. 1 — lose my virginity. I was 24 for God's sake!"

During her first month home, Cannon also bought an SUV, broke up with a boyfriend, dyed her hair blonde, visited Ground Zero, posted a personal best in a 5K race, and found time to "party my ass off with my war buddies — heavy drinking."

In Iraq, "there was (stuff) blowing up everywhere. I'm lucky I didn't die. I hadn't done enough with my life," she said. "I had survived a war. I had a second chance to live differently. I was not going to let others control me anymore. It was time to make more adventures and maybe get some baggage along the way. I was so far behind. Lots to catch up on."

"The rapid pace at which I compensated for my repressed life, especially in the first 30 days after the war," Cannon added, "were completely catalyzed by combat." 

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Cleopatra Cowley, mother of the Chicago teen shot and killed just a week after performing at President Barack Obama’s inauguration, is featured in a new public service announcement calling on Congress to reform the nation’s gun laws.

In the ad, paid for by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Cowley advocates for universal background checks on all gun sales.  "Tell Congress to support commonsense reforms so no more innocent children are killed. And no parent has to go through this heartbreak."

Cowley’s daughter, Hadiya, has become the one of the most recognizable faces in President Barack Obama’s efforts to curb the country’s gun laws. First Lady Michelle Obama attended the 16-year-old’s funeral earlier this month.

Cowley herself has also become a leading figure in the fight to pass stricter gun control laws. She and her husband sat next to the first lady during last week’s State of the Union address, where the president told her story as part of his attempt to call on Congress to act.

“Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house," Obama said of Hadiya.

The president again told Hadiya’s story during a visit to Chicago later in the week.

The 30-second ad begins with scenes from the president’s inauguration with Cowley narrating that it was “the happiest day” of her daughter’s life. The ad then quickly flashes to a picture of her daughter’s casket.

A day before the State of the Union, Chicago police announced two suspects were charged with murder for Hadiya’s death. Hadiya was with her friends at a park near her school, and police believe the suspects mistakenly they were a rival gand.

Speaking to NBC News after the suspects had been arrested, Cowley said, “My baby deserves a revolution and I pray that what happened her to her will have an impact.”

Earl Curtis, Blue Ridge's president and owner, said law abiding gun owners are buying weapons that they fear might be banned; at the top of the list the AR-15 rifle and the Glock 22 handgun.

However, he's having trouble getting guns to sell.

"Usually we would get anywhere from 10 to 20 guns a week as far as ARs," he said. "Now we get about one or probably one a week if we're lucky."

The phenomenon of busy gun shops is born out by record FBI data on background checks required for gun purchases, the best barometer of gun sales which increased to record levels over the last two months.

Leading up to and after the Dec. 14 tragedy in Newtown, Conn., checks were hitting all-time highs. Background checks inDecember topped 2.78 million, an all-time record, and January came in at just under 2.5 million—-the second highest month ever and a million more than any previous January.

Complete coverage of 'Flashpoint: Guns in America,' an NBC News special report 

Last fall, before the Newtown tragedy, Smith & Wesson reported a record $136 million in sales, a 48 percent increase from a year ago. Sturm Ruger's sales topped $118 million, a 50 percent increase.