James Schiliro, MAIG Mayor of Marcus Hook PA

I suppose if we're going to judge the NRA by some of it's board members, we have to accept this story as a criticism of the MAIG.

What do you think?

The Pendulum is Swinging Towards Gun Control

Politico

A powerful anti-illegal-guns group has attracted more than 400,000 new members since the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown, Conn., a spokeswoman told POLITICO Thursday, swinging back several hours after the National Rifle Association also claimed big membership gains.

“Since Newtown we’ve had more than 400k people join Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” said Erika Soto Lamb, the communications director for the organization, in an email. “Our Demand A Plan petition now has more than 900,000 petition signers.”

The Bloomberg and Menino Super Bowl Video

M: It's the PATRIOTIC thing to do.
B: You can be a GIANT help.

The MAIG Open Letter

The Mayors have published an open letter to the President and Congress urging them to do the right thing.Penigma. via

Dear Friend,

Right now, Congress and President Obama can complete a 43-year struggle to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and close out America’s history of tragic shootings.

After the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, Congress passed new legislation to stop criminals, drug users, and the mentally ill from buying guns. Years later, Congress added a background check system to strengthen these laws.

But the flaws in this system have been exposed again and again, first in the massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech, and now in Arizona.

Our leaders in Washington have a crucial opportunity to bring the nation together and call for common sense steps to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Please sign our petition and let them know that it’s time to fix the broken background check system.

Send a message to President Obama and Congress to Fix Gun Checks.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns deals with the impact of gun crime every day. So as Congress and the Obama Administration begin crafting a proposal to fix gun checks, we have two recommendations to stop dangerous people from getting their hands on guns:

1. Get all the names of people who should be prohibited from buying guns into the background check system.
2. Require a background check for every gun sale in America.

It's hard to believe, but even in the wake of a mass gun murder that shocked our nation, there are those who still oppose fixing this broken system. That’s why we’re counting on supporters like you to raise your voice and strengthen our call for action.

Add your name to Fix Gun Checks today:

http://www.FixGunChecks.org

Lives depend on whether people like you will speak out at this time of crisis. Make sure you join our call today and keep up the pressure on our leaders in Washington.

Thanks for getting involved,
Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Bloomberg's Blueprint

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the 40-step plan of Mayor Bloomberg's to improve New York even further. Sebastian already posted about this even before its official release, expressing serious concern about the impact on gun owners.

“Every day in our county, 32 Americans are killed by gun-wielding criminals — that’s a Virginia Tech-scale tragedy happening every single day,” said coalition co-chair and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “Enacting these 40 recommendations will save lives — and each can be done administratively, without action by the Congress. America’s mayors look forward to working with the Obama Administration to better enforce the laws already on the books.”

This is one of the pro-gun crowd's concerns. The fact that no Congressional action would be required worries them, I suppose because proposals like that may be easier to implement. But, haven't the same gun folks complained that enacting new laws is wrong when we already have so many on the books? Haven't I heard frequent overtures from them that we should just enforce the laws we have?

... 96 percent of NRA members and 94 percent of gun-owners surveyed agreed that “Criminals who possess, use, and traffic in illegal guns should be punished to the maximum extent of the law.” The full survey results are available on the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website.

Since its inception in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from just 15 mayors to more than 450 members.

Are the opposing sides of this argument really so different from one another? When talking about punishing violent criminals aren't we all on the same page?

What do you think about the growth of the MAIG? In spite of those attempts on the part of pro-gun people to focus attention on some of the members who'd gotten themselves in trouble, it looks like the organization as a whole is thriving. Do you think Bloomberg will take over from the Brady Campaign as the leading organization in the gun control movement?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The Terror Loophole

The Washington Post reports on the latest initiative by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).

The first aims to close the so-called "terror gap" in existing gun laws by prohibiting any one on the country's "no fly" list from being allowed to purchase a gun. Such a prohibition would allow the FBI to stop "people who are too dangerous to get on a plane from buying guns and explosives," said New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a co-founder of the mayors group. This proposal is a no-brainer.

There has been quite a lot written by the pro-gun crowd in opposition to this proposal, using lots of inflammatory language about freedom and rights, but doesn't the MAIG proposal make good sense? No one is suggesting the federal government should be allowed to keep open-ended lists of political enemies and to abuse the system in any way, but the idea of preventing "people who are too dangerous to get on a plane from buying guns and explosives," seems fairly simple, does it not?

The NRA vs. Bloomberg

WNYC News reports on the latest in the battle between the NRA and Mayor Bloomberg's MAIG.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a known gun control advocate, and has built a national platform to stem the flow of illegal guns into cities and towns. The group he co-founded in 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has grown from 15 to 526 mayors. Its success has raised the ire of gun rights groups, most notably the National Rifle Association.

The showdown between the NRA and Mayors Against Illegal Guns is playing out across the country: in blogs, on the editorial pages of newspapers, and at countless gun clubs.

Now there's a number I hadn't seen before. I've been reading 450 and dropping. Now after some losses the count is 526.

Mayors who decide to leave the MAIG generally do so as a result of pressure from the NRA. When too many of their voters express the NRA opinion, some mayors decide to get out. It's politics. Some don't give in to those threats and bullying tactics.

Bill Barnett is the mayor of Naples, Fla. - and a gun owner - and says he received nearly a hundred emails and angry phone calls from people who'd gotten the NRA mailer. He says the mailer distorts the coalition's goals: "It amazed me that someone would read the postcard and it was almost like Pavlov's dogs, that they would say, if they said this is the truth, then this must be the truth."

And Barnett says he's staying in the mayors coalition.

Mayor Barnett is referring to the NRA claim that Bloomberg plans to take more and more rights away until gun rights all but disappear in America. It's a fear tactic that Barnett says is untrue. But I can attest to the fact that it is extremely diffuse on the internet. The pro-gun crowd is nothing if not united all singing the same tune, or is that barking in unison like so many Pavlov's dogs.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Reporting Lost or Stolen Guns in Pennsylvania

The Beaver County Times on-line reports on the growing movement of laws in Pennsylvania requiring reporting of lost or stolen guns.

Aliquippa Mayor Anthony Battalini wants to give his city’s police officers every possible tool available when it comes to stopping gun violence such as the recent shootings in the city’s Plan 12 neighborhood.

And he said he thinks an ordinance that requires residents to report lost or stolen firearms might be a good way to do just that.

“I have some questions about how it could be enforced, sure,” Battalini said. “But even if it gives our officers a heads-up about weapons that might be out there, it would have to help.”

What could possibly be the objection to something like this? The article goes on to say the NRA has been fighting this "in court and out." But we already knew that, didn't we? Doesn't it sometimes seem the pro-gun crowd will oppose any and all legislation concerning guns regardless of its merits? That's the way it seems to me. In this particular case though, there's another reason.

Even Battalini, whose city hasn’t formally considered a similar ordinance, has been the subject of an NRA campaign because he joined the state’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition.

“I’m a gun owner, and I’d never do anything to take guns out of the hands of people who own them legally,” he said. “This doesn’t have anything to do with gun control, and it doesn’t have any effect on legal gun owners.

“The thing with the NRA is that they’re not the ones who have to talk to the mother of a kid who’s been killed by a gun,” Battalini said. “I’ve had to do that. Where is the NRA then?”

Joining the MAIG is generally enough to become a target of the NRA, even if you're a gun owner and supporter of the 2nd Amendment. The pro-gun folks sure are a contentious lot, they even like to fight among themselves.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

MAIG Ad Campaign

Via Protest Easy Guns. If so many are in agreement, why do you think nothing is being done about this?

Bloomberg's NYC - Safest Big City in America

The Gotham Gazette reports on the falling crime in New York City, asking how and at what cost.

"Crime is down," is a phrase New Yorkers are getting used to hearing. The notorious peeks in crime during 1970s and '80s, when the city was thought of as dangerous and neglected, gave way in the late 1990s to a steady decrease that has given New York's politicians something to crow about. Mayor Michael Bloomberg certainly hasn't been shy about taking credit for the increased perception of safety on city streets.

"At the end of 2001 the consensus was that crime could not go any lower," said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne, "but now we are down 35 percent lower than any of the Giuliani years, and the Giuliani administration built its reputation around crime fighting."

In fact, Browne said, if current trends continue, New York is on track this year to have the lowest homicide rate since 1962, when modern record keeping began.

The Deputy Police Commissioner credits Bloomberg's crusade against illegal guns. His organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has waged a full-out assault on the influx of guns into New York from out of state, and Browne said the impact can be felt on the street.

"Stopping the flow of illegal guns into the city has been extremely important," said Browne.

The Gotham Gazette article expresses concern on two fronts. Police on the streets have increasingly used a controversial policy called "stop and frisk." It's controversial for the obvious reasons, blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately selected for the treatment. Yet, supporters say it gets results. The other concern is the ever-increasing electronic surveillance present in the city. Privacy is not what it used to be.

What's your opinion? Are these small prices to pay considering that New York can now boast of being the safest big city in the country? Do you think Bloomberg deserves credit for this? Are his questionable sting operations paying off in his home territory?

Do you agree that the strict gun laws in New York are partly responsible for the improvement?

What's your opinion?

The Only Real Mayor in Texas

In the Star-Telegram's Editorials and Opinions, there a short section about Mayor Richard Ward of Hurst Texas. We've discussed him before but at that time it wasn't clear that he was the only member of MAIG in the entire state of Texas.

Mayor Ward credits the MAIG for stopping national reciprocity for concealed handgun licensees. He's stated that the "bullying tactics" of the NRA simply did not work on him. One of those tactics is to continually describe the so-called gun-show loophole as something other than what it is.

Gun-show loophole legislation is gun control disguised as crime control. A Department of Justice study of federal prisoners convicted of gun-related crimes found that only 2 percent of the guns were purchased at a gun show.

The truth is the term "gun-show loophole" refers to any transfer of a firearm done privately without a background check. Sometimes this happens at a gun show, but not always. It has nothing to do with a gun show specifically, it has to do with the lack of background check on the person buying. So the above quote is extremely misleading. The fact that only 2% of guns were purchased at a gun show has nothing to do with the "gun-show loophole."

It seems to me Richard Ward is the only mayor in Texas with the courage to admit this practice is wrong and needs to be stopped. But, I can't believe he's the only one who feels that way. Maybe others will be encouraged by his example and come forward.

Alice Tripp, legislative director, Texas State Rifle Association had some interesting comments about Mayor Ward.

Today our freedoms are under attack. Liberals have attacked the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with vigor, usually through misdirection and hiding the liberal agenda behind some innocent-sounding program or legislation. The latest is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s "Mayors Against Illegal Guns."

Now, where have I heard that before? It sounds awfully familiar, that blah blah blah about the liberal agenda and the paranoid notion that gun control folks have more in mind than crime reduction.

I believe the mayor of Hurst has been duped. MAIG is nothing more than a liberal anti-gun lobby that has attacked the Second Amendment and the rights of law-abiding citizens at every turn. You can understand my shock when I saw my hometown mayor as a member of this socialist anti-American group. Strong words but yet accurate words.

And of course, here are the real buzz-words, "socialist anti-American." That should rouse the troops. And apparently it does. Not one other mayor dares to stand up, at least so far.

What's your opinion? Is Mayor Ward being duped? Is he that gullible? Or do you think he's a remarkable man who can stand up for what he believes even against overwhelming disapproval?

Please leave a comment.

Mayors Against (Illegal) Guns

Thanks to our regular commenter cj, I had a chance to read this article on the Tallahassee.com site.

Naples Mayor Bill Barnett expected a hard recoil when he joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but the fusillade of angry mail and phone calls startled him.

“We’ve been absolutely bombed with protest,” he said. “I’m not a radical and I don’t get involved in a lot of causes, but I joined this group because it seems like a reasonable organization.”

The National Rifle Association has taken aim at the coalition of some 450 mayors -- 45 of them in Florida -- alerting gun owners that the group will lobby Congress to end “reciprocity” among states that issue concealed-weapons permits, tighten restrictions on sales at weekend gun shows and weaken privacy protections for gun owners.

Former NRA President Marion Hammer is now one of the most influential lobbyists in Tallahassee. He explains the reason for such a strong response from gun owners: the MAIG group really wants to spread New York-style gun control far and wide.

Now, that's not what I've been hearing. I've been hearing that the mayors really want to eliminate and eventually confiscate guns, to eradicate them to the great detriment of the gun owning public. What President Hammer said is quite different, though.

Tallahassee Mayor John Marks, another member of MAIG had this to say.

“The three things to remember are, it’s designed to keep criminals from having illegal guns, there’s no intent whatsoever to deny or infringe on any law-abiding citizen’s Second Amendment rights and we want to do everything we can to assist law enforcement,” said Marks. “That’s all there is to it.”

The mayors are lobbying Congress, mainly because they want background checks done at gun shows, just like they're done in retail stores, and because “each state should respect the other states” by not making states that ban concealed weapons honor licenses from states that allow them.

What's your opinion? Are the Mayors Against Illegal Guns hostile towards gun owners like some say? Do you think it's possible to have "New York-style gun control" far and wide and still not interfere with the rights of lawful gun owners?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Another Mayor Against Illegal Guns

The Rutland Herald published a feature article written by Mr. Casey Jennings. It seems to be a brief attack of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, its founder Mayor Bloomberg and the local Mayor Chris Louras of Rutland Vermont. Mr. Jennings describes the MAIG like this:

Essentially, it is a front group for a handful of rabidly anti-Second Amendment mayors who founded it, which in fact lobbies for gun control and misrepresents itself as a "reasonable" group going after illegal activity.

Of course he mentions the sting operation, supposedly sponsored by Bloomberg to investigate straw purchases of guns in other states. Jennings says "they acted illegally and were guilty of a felony crime." Well, I doubt that's true since they were never charged with a crime in spite of the gun crowd's tireless efforts at repeating the incident.

There's the mandatory rehashing of the failed attempt at concealed carry reciprocity.

Currently, some states do not even allow non-residents to carry a gun for protection. New York is one such state. It is impossible for any nonresident of New York to carry a handgun in that state legally, and in much of that state, close to impossible for residents.

One of the commenters, of which there are several good ones, pointed out something that struck me about that above description. "Some states don't even allow..." It made me laugh.

What's your opinion? Do you agree with Mr. Jennings' description of the MAIG? Do you think they acted criminally in the famous undercover incident? Do you think the reciprocity law is still a possibility, that we haven't heard the last of it?

Please leave a comment.