Republican Mayor John Tkazyik announced on Wednesday he planned to leave former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), saying it promoted gun confiscation.
“I’m no longer a member of MAIG,” wrote Tkazyi in the Poughkeepsie Journal. “Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. … MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda — violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and taking resources away from initiatives that could actually work to protect our neighborhoods and save precious lives. Gun control will actually make a bad situation worse.”
Tkazyik’s departure makes him the latest of nearly 50 mayors who cut ties with Bloomberg’s organization.
“MAIG approached me with the promise that they’d assist me in developing effective approaches to clear our streets of criminals, get guns out of the hands of convicted felons, crack down on the drug trade and rid our streets of gangs that were terrorizing a city,” Tkazyik said, recounting the wave of crime that swept through his city.
“It did not take long to realize that MAIG’s agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns; that under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens,” he continued. “I don’t believe, never have believed and never will believe that public safety is enhanced by encroaching on our right to bear arms, and I will not be a part of any organization that does.” (RELATED: New York passes gun control, NRA membership skyrockets)