Gun Laws & Legislation

Bloomberg’s magical misery tour

Guns and Gear Contributor
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By David Codrea, GUNS Magazine

That New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, principal stakeholder in Mayors Against Illegal [read “Your”] Guns, was expecting a bumpy ride for his 25-state, 100-day “No More Names” bus tour was evident from the start. Rather than post an itinerary with stops, dates and times, the project’s website required interested parties to provide contact information in order to “Get the latest updates about the tour [and] be the first to know when it’s coming to your town.”

Their obvious intent was minimize the chances of gun rights supporters having time to organize spotlight-stealing counter-demonstrations to piggyback off Hizzoner’s investment and get media play for their talking points, too. Not that much organizing has been needed to counter the “crowds” the tour has managed to attract to date, where closely-cropped publicity photos mask the pathetically sparse attendance.

“I was in Raleigh … giving a talk to Grassroots North Carolina,” economist and author John Lott wrote on his blog. “Apparently just that day MAIG was having their bus tour in Raleigh and … the GRNC was able to get more people at the event than could MAIG.”

This was but one of many Bloomberg embarrassments. At its stop a few days earlier in N.H., while reading off their list of “victims of gun violence,” the group called out the name of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

“He’s a terrorist!” the Union Leader reported several protestors shouting back, objecting that someone killed in a gunfight with police would be used to justify citizen disarmament. And Tsarnaev wasn’t the only problematic inclusion.

“A preliminary analysis of the list of shooting ‘victims’ … finds that one in 12 are crime suspects killed by police or armed citizens acting in self-defense,” the Washington Examiner reported. “The review of 617 killings found that 50 were suspects in crimes ranging from assault to murder…”

If that weren’t enough, Bloomberg’s group suffered from two highly-publicized defections.

“The mayors of Rockford, Ill., and Nashua, N.H., have decided to leave Mayors Against Illegal Gun,” U.S. News & World Report noted. “Independent Mayor Lawrence Morrissey … and Republican Mayor Donnalee Lozeau … both said the group’s name is misleading.”

Compounding ethical lapses were media reports that New York City servers were being used to host the MAIG website, that city employees were being used to administer it, and that city staffers were being sent out of state to lobby on its behalf.

The Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and “Gun Talk” radio host Tom Gresham “sent a Freedom of Information Law request to the office of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, asking for all records relating to the Bloomberg administration’s involvement with Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” Senior Editor Dave Workman announced on TheGunMag.com.

At this writing, the request is being reviewed by the city’s Public Advocate. It’s probably wishful thinking, but if they do the right thing, they’ll drag the lame duck authoritarian control freak out of the driver’s seat and throw him under his own bus.

Thanks to the team at GUNS Magazine for this contribution. We appreciate their support and please support them by visiting their site http://gunsmagazine.com.