Mayor Bloomberg is to the 2nd Amendment what George Soros is to free market
CHUMLEY: NYC Mayor Bloomberg commands impressive, nationwide attack on 2nd Amendment
Washington Times, Chumley, March 2, 2013)
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/2/chumley-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-commands-impressive-na/
excerpt:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is to the Second Amendment what billionaire investor George Soros is to the free market: A resounding death knell.
Recall Soros, in 2009, when he announced a $50 million campaign, complete with creation of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, to reform teachings about the economy so that the free market was painted as a failed experiment.
Now fast-forward to 2013, and here comes New York City’s Bloomberg, with an estimated net worth of $25 billion and similarly lofty goals aimed at dismantling another of America’s cherished principles — this one, the right to keep and bear arms.
His approach is multi-tiered.
Bloomberg created Independence USA PAC in late 2012 to “support candidates and causes that will help protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence, improve our schools, and advance our freedoms,” he said, on the PAC website. And he’s putting his money where his mouth is. The PAC records eight donations in October and November 2012 for a total receipt of $10.04 million — all contributed by Bloomberg, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Gun control has become a main focus; the PAC just paid $2 million for anti-gun advertisements in Chicago, where the race for Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s House seat has entered high gear.
“I happen to have some money, and that’s what I’m going to do with my money — try to get us some sensible gun laws,” Bloomberg said, in a widely reported statement in which he expressed anger at the National Rifle Association’s influence with legislators.
But that’s only a drop in the bucket of the mayor’s campaign against guns. And the most open one.
Bloomberg created the Mayors Against Illegal Guns in April 2006 to fight for “common-sense reforms that combat the flow of illegal guns into our cities and towns,” according to the mission statement on the nonprofit’s website. Since, the group’s membership has grown to “more than 850 mayors from 44 states,” the website touts. Yet few of these members back their membership with financial contributions. Nearly all of the $3.38 million donations to the group’s fundraising arm, Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund, reported for the period of January 2011 to August 2012 came from one source: Bloomberg.
. . .
Again, Bloomberg’s spokesman did not respond for comment. But the picture drawn by FEC and IRS filings seems clear: Bloomberg’s push against the Second Amendment is a well-funded, well-organized, and multi-faceted effort carried out by players with long-standing professional loyalties to the mayor. The fight back for constitutional rights needs to be just as crafty, and coordinated.