Mayor Robert Romano has supported legal gun ownership most of his life.
He got his first pistol -- a .38 special -- when he joined the city's Police Department in 1974 and currently owns four registered handguns. He believes people have the right to own guns, but must do it legally.Now, the cop-turned-mayor's stance on illegal guns is drawing fire from the nation's most active gun-rights group.
Shortly after taking office last fall, Romano joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of hundreds of mayors across the country dedicated to enforcing proper gun ownership.
The NRA is very effective in bringing about political change. When they decided to attack the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, what they did was mail postcards to their members in selected areas urging them to make their disapproval of the mayor known. So powerful is this mechanism of the democratic process that the overall number of mayors belonging to the group dropped. It seems to me this is a type of lobbying trick that has nothing to do with what's right or what's best. It doesn't even concern itself with what the majority want. It only seeks to achieve an agenda. Here is Mayor Romano's response.
"People that obtain guns illegally or carry guns illegally, that's what I'm against," Romano said. "I don't want people to think I'm against legal guns. I'm not."He has made that clear to the dozen or so local NRA members who have contacted him since receiving the NRA's mailing last week.
The NRA urged its New Jersey members to call, e-mail and write Romano and other mayors to ask them to support law-abiding gun owners and publicly disassociate themselves with the coalition.
The tactic has worked, with dozens of mayors dropping their association. Romano, though, says he won't be swayed.
He is one of 38 mayors in New Jersey remaining in the coalition -- a drop from 43 last week.
"As a mayor, we should be consolidated together to fight against illegal guns because that's the biggest issue police are fighting today," Romano said.
Who could have anything but respect for a man like that? He says the Mayors Against Illegal Guns is not an anti-gun organization, but rather it's anti-crime. What's your opinion? Do you think it's possible that the Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Brady Campaign and the others are actually doing what they say they are doing, which is trying to find ways to reduce the gun violence? Do you think it's possible that these people are well-intentioned in their efforts?
Isn't it clear that the NRA, on the other hand, is only interested in accomplishing an agenda, the agenda being, to block and resist anything and everything that has to do with gun control? Or, are they well-intentioned as well?
Please leave a comment.
What's your opinion?
If Mayor Robert Romano isn't against legal guns, why is he the member of a group that is against legal guns?
ReplyDeleteMayors Against Illegal Guns was one of the loudest voices against the Thune Amendment. That doesn't stop illegal guns. That only stops legal guns.
And you can't pin this one on "states rights", because MAIG head honcho Michael Bloomberg frequently disrespects states rights by sending his hired thugs to gun stores around the country in efforts to trick people into breaking the law.
Isn't it clear that the NRA, on the other hand, is only interested in accomplishing an agenda, the agenda being, to block and resist anything and everything that has to do with gun control? Or, are they well-intentioned as well?
ReplyDeleteGood intentions and an agenda of "block[ing] and resist[ing] anything and everything that has to do with gun control" are not at all mutually exclusive.
I think, though, that you give the NRA too much credit--with their mantra of "enforce existing gun laws" (rather than "repeal all gun laws") and their support for the heinous NICS "Improvement" Act, they've shown themselves to be rather dubious champions of gun rights.
Do some research before you post...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stentorian.com/2ndamend/dirty.html
This one is a freebie, next time do it yourself.
Sounds to me like this Romano is not really a gun rights supporter. Especially if he so blatantly supports registration.
ReplyDeleteMikeB--if I have time, I think I'll borrow this story for my blog. If I do, I'll drop you an email. I'd like to write more on this guy but work and family are trying to interfere with gunblogging--I bet they win out.
The only reason I don't respect this mayor is because he's just another anti-gun shill claiming to be "pro 2nd amendment" even though he's against people owning guns.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't want people "illegally" carrying guns, and to that end he supports making it illegal for anyone to carry a gun.
He's for legal gun ownership, but supports so many laws to make gun ownership difficult, expensive, and legally dangerous (talk to NJ gun owners about how easy it is to run afoul of the law doing things legal in almost every other state and end up in serious legal problems) that no one but the most committed few can afford to own guns, and then they are in constant legal peril.
Basically he's a total political weasel, one of many anti-gun people who "support" the 2nd amendment so long as no one owns guns.
And when the NRA sends out a mailing getting their unpaid members (voters) to take action,it's not a "lobbying" trick, it's informing voters of issues and giving advice on how to take action. That's known as grass roots activism. It's at the heart of any democracy.
The anti-gun groups would love to do this as well, but with no members, little voter support, and nothing but money from wealthy anti-gun groups like the Joyce foundation ... the best they can do is try to influence congress with their money and get a few anti-gun bloggers to shill for them as though the agenda they are pushing for makes some kind of sense.
And WE in the NRA oppose these laws because we want gun ownership to be easy, legally safe, and effective for self defense (so we can actually take those guns out of our house and have them for self defense, rather than all these laws that make sure we won't have a gun even though criminals always will).
Howabout the fact (I know you have problems w/ those) that MAIG was adding names of people who were NOT members w/o their consent?
ReplyDeletehttp://daysofourtrailers.blogspot.com/2009/09/down-memory-hole-maig-edition.html
If I set up a group "Americans for Gun Safety"", promoted both gun safety and gun skill classes, and advocated the repeal of gun control laws that give criminals the upper hand--would that be a gun safety organization?
ReplyDeleteIf I did the same thing, but called it "Americans for sensible gun control"--does that make it a gun control group?
Mayors against illegal guns actions show them to be against guns in general.
Thanks for all the comments, guys, especially that link to the fascinating Stentorian site which kaveman provided.
ReplyDeleteI just spent some time over there and concluded that when I want unbiased straight information on the gun debate, that's the place me.
I think you guys have the MAIG wrong just like you've got the Brady Campaign wrong. These people, like Mayor Romano, are courageous individuals doing exactly what they say they're doing. And they do it in spite of tremendous opposition by the NRA.
I think you guys have the MAIG wrong just like you've got the Brady Campaign wrong. These people, like Mayor Romano, are courageous individuals doing exactly what they say they're doing.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, their motives are irrelevant to me. The fact that they want to make the already intrusive gun laws more intrusive is enough to make them my enemies.
And they do it in spite of tremendous opposition by the NRA.
The NRA's resistance is not "tremendous" enough for my tastes (for NRA members here, that's not a shot at you--I'm a life member myself--it's a criticism of the organizational leadership).
What's that MikeB? No comment on them adding names w/o consent?
ReplyDelete"I think you guys have the MAIG wrong just like you've got the Brady Campaign wrong. "
If that's what you think then we're definitely on the right track by opposing them.
What's that MikeB? No comment on them adding names w/o consent?
Thirdpower, I commented on that on another thread. Basically, I think, if that really happened, it's no different than anybody trying to inflate the size of their organization to increase their clout. It certainly has nothing to do with the message which is about guns. But, you insist on diverting from that focus and going after Bloomberg personally for his supposed crime.
ReplyDelete