By James W. Porter II, President National Rifle Association
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was once asked by NBC’s David Gregory how much he was willing to spend to spread his vision for gun control to every corner of the nation.
“I think I have an obligation as an American and as a citizen, as a human being, to help others. Smoking is gonna kill a billion people this century. I put $600 million of my own money into trying to stop the tobacco companies … That’s one issue. Who knows with this?”
Bloomberg’s comparison of the Second Amendment to smoking totally gave his game away. What he really believes is that our culture of freedom is harmful to us and should be liquidated a step at a time.
Private ownership of arms by peaceable Americans is not akin to smoking. It is intrinsically a wonder of liberty protected by the Bill of Rights that empowers individuals to defend home, family, community and country. It is the great equalizer against violence from all quarters.
Bloomberg recently declared, “I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.” Yet, at the same time, he has cynically claimed, “I don’t think there’s anybody that’s defended the Second Amendment as much as I have.”
He says this as to the meaning of his Second Amendment versus ours: “You can read it to say [our Founding Fathers] only talked about militias, or you can read it to say they wanted guns in your pocket. I don’t know, that’s up to you.”
What he really means is “up to Michael Bloomberg and my money.”
Michael Bloomberg isn’t just another citizen—he is the 13th richest man in the world. NRA’s total annual budget is chump change to him.
With the creation and personal funding of a cabal of urban political machines, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) and his self-funded multi-million dollar super Political Action Committee, Bloomberg is obsessed with becoming a dictator over the Second Amendment.
In his self-absorbed orbit, Bloomberg is so rich and so arrogant that laws simply don’t apply to him.
Money bought Bloomberg his mayorship, with millions spent in self-funded campaigns, immune from the campaign finance laws he demanded for others.
Though New York City’s mayoral office was covered by a term limit law enacted through public referendum, Bloomberg swept it aside with a vote of his puppet city counsel.
Using taxpayer funds and city personnel and facilities to press his private political agenda on guns, MAIG’s vitriolic website runs off city equipment, and government staff act as gun-ban operatives.
Bloomberg even used city resources to impose his will over lawful firearm commerce through court action using a hand-picked federal judge in Brooklyn. Bloomberg installed what amounted to his private gun control—by court order—in many corners of the nation.
Bloomberg sent out teams of city-paid detectives to other states where they willfully violated federal firearm laws to demonstrate that criminals could do the same. His agents committed multiple federal felonies at licensed dealers and got away with it.
That felonious activity was put in motion to propagate false claims about the flow of guns into New York City even though Bloomberg knows there are federal laws covering every aspect of criminal and illegal firearm commerce in every corner of the nation.
Bloomberg’s complicity in the non-enforcement of existing federal laws has allowed carnage on the streets of New York, leading to the deaths and wounding of thousands of innocent victims.
In terms of 2012 enforcement of federal gun laws against violent criminals, New York ranks 89th of 90 federal prosecutorial jurisdictions.
But enforcing federal laws would give lie to Bloomberg’s claims that what the nation needs is New York City-style gun control. He talks about only going after “illegal guns” but, in his vision, guns you and I own would be declared “illegal” and become contraband. In New York City, any gun possessed by a peaceable citizen without permission of Bloomberg’s government is an illegal gun.
Bloomberg doesn’t just hate guns, he hates us for being free to possess them.
Michael Bloomberg is an elitist without peer who, as mayor of New York City, has banned table salt, trans fats, noise, traffic and big sodas—for starters.
His all-consuming agenda would control the individual liberty of choice for ordinary Americans whom he believes are too stupid to possess such freedom.
Bloomberg can buy the media and buy government, but he can’t buy freedom. It is not for sale. As members of NRA, we are the one power that stands between Bloomberg and the tyranny he would inflict all across America.
