Bloomberg’s band of criminal mayors have all signed a letter to the President asking him to ban semi-automatic firearms.
You know what this means, right? It’s time to add your local MAIG mayors to your letter-writing list. Only, instead of making the generic pleas to not support gun control, ride their butts about why they sent letters to the White House calling on Obama to ban your firearms.
Remember, most of the mayors don’t know that Bloomberg is signing their names to letters to Washington & in newspaper advertisements. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t expressly approve it, their signature appears on the letter. Hold them accountable.
Hmm. I did not see anything in the page linked specifically asking for a ban on “semi-automatic firearms”…. just the usual call for banning “assault weapons” (whatever that means – no definition provided) and “high capacity ammunition magazines” (whatever those are, again no definition or number provided.)
They specifically said, “The time has come to review the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and draft a new law that is clear and enforceable and will take these weapons out of our communities.” That means semi-automatic firearms as previously defined in federal law. By their statement that the firearms must be taken out of communities, that could reasonably interpreted to mean confiscation, too. That’s not unreasonable since we know that some lawmakers are pushing for confiscation in serious legislation here in Pennsylvania.
ok, fair enough.
Instead of focusing on the instrument of evil, we should focus on evil itself. How we do that is a complex but important. For now, here is a list (incomplete for lack of time) of mass shootings that took place in countries with tighter, in some cases much tighter gun laws than any state in America:
1994, Aarhus University, Denmark. A student goes on a shooting spree in a cafeteria. He manages to shoot four people, two fatally, with an illegal shotgun.
1994, Stureplan Plaza, Stockholm, Sweden. A man is denied entrance to a bar, goes home, retrieves an illegal assault rifle, comes back and guns down 24 people. Four die, many others are seriously wounded.
1994, Falun, Sweden. A military officer uses his service weapon, an AK-5 assault rifle, to shoot eight people in downtown Falun. Seven of the victims die.
1996, Dunblane, Scotland. A former scout leader shoots 17 people to death in a school, 16 of whom are children. This massacre happened after Britain had tightened its gun laws in response to the 1987 Hungerford massacre.
2002, Erfurt, Germany. An expelled student returns to his former school and starts killing teachers. He leaves 16 people dead, including a police officer who responded to the scene.
2006, Ermsdetten, Germany. A former student comes back to his high school, shoots five people to death and leaves a sixth victim wounded.
2009, Winnenden, Germany. A 17-year-old high school student goes on a shooting spree at his school, killing 15 people.
2009, Espoo, Finland. A man shoots four people to death in a shopping mall, using an illegally acquired handgun.
2010, Cumbria, England. Strict British gun laws passed after the Dunblane massacre, making it illegal for civilians to own handguns, do not stop a man from going on a shooting spree in Cumbria. After several hours, his final tally is 12 dead and 11 wounded.
2011, Liege, Belgium. A gunman, breaking Belgium’s tight gun laws, kills three and leaves dozens other wounded in a town square during Christmas shopping.
2011, Oslo, Norway. A man kills 77 people, most of them at a youth camp, using an illegally acquired firearm.
2012, Berlin, Germany. A man whose girlfriend has received an apartment eviction notice kills four people before taking his own life.
2012, Toronto, Canada. Tight Canadian gun laws did not prevent a shooter from killing one and wounding seven at the Eaton shopping mall.
2012, Toronto, Canada. A gunman leaves two dead and 23 wounded at a party in a private home in Toronto.
If someone cannot get hold of a gun and still wants to commit atrocious acts of violence, they can do what a student in Ansbach, Germany did: use Molotov cocktails and an ax. Or use a knife, as in the Osaka school massacre in Japan, which claimed eight children’s lives and left 15 other people wounded.
Knives have also been used in mass violence attacks at schools in China (the latest claiming 22 victims).
The perpetrator of the largest one-man mass murder in American history did not fire a single bullet. He used farm fertilizers to create a bomb with which he killed 168 people. Among his victims were about as many children as died in the Connecticut massacre.
The worst mass murder in U.S. history was perpetrated by a group of conspirators who used box cutters and airplanes to take three thousand lives.
Cars do not drive drunk. Knives to not stab. And guns do not kill. People do. When we realize this; when our focus is on evil itself and not on its instruments; then – but only then – can we begin the long journey toward ridding our society of senseless violence.
I can only hope my fellow “shall not be Infringed” friends are also calling and emailing their Senators and Congress criters, both state and fed.
If not…………”…being necessary to the security of a free State,..” is about to take a severe hit. When Amendment II is made toothless, you can kiss what little remains of Amendment IV and V goodbye. Then watch as Amendment I fades into obscurity.
MY advice…. for every firearm related purchase, you also make two calls or, send two emails too your congress and senate reps, both State and Federal.- Paul W.
ps… If the teeth are pulled from the 2nd A, all that remains is another hunter’s permission slip.
By the way, here’s a list of Pennsylvania mayors who belong to Bloomberg’s little group. Quite stunned to see some of the cities listed. Write early and often!
http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/members/members.shtml#PA
[Poorly formatted list that made the page too long to reasonably read further comments removed. -Bitter]
Sorry ’bout that.
I just emailed my mayor (300+ k city in the South). He actually wrote back within a few minutes with a gracious note. Doesn’t plan to quit MAIG, but he said he wasn’t anti-gun either. Whatever- now that we know he reads his email, it’s time to recruit some emailers!
That response immediately raises the question of whether schizophrenia is grounds for removal from office.
Ronald V. Dellums has not been mayor of Oakland in a long time. The current mayor is Jean Quan.
We should insist that Bloomberg and the other big city mayors immediately do the one thing they have in their power to do – order their police forces to switch from semi-automatics to revolvers. Get their semi autos off the street. Let the police go first.
I am offended by this group calling for “solutions”. They have been elected to positions of leadership and now wish to push the problem off to someone else to solve. “Mr Mayor: Step up do what it will take protect your children in your town. Don’t cry “money”. Make a choice if you have to – Cheerleading and 3rd year modern art or security!!!.
BTW: Where is the heat on school boards who in fact have the primary responsibility for security?
“Make gun trafficking a federal crime” I’m confused, I thought that was ‘a federal policy’. (F&F)
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I’m pretty sure the 2 MO mayors that I recognize (St Louis area) would support the letter and then some.
St. Louis Co just signed in an LGBT thingy (anti-hate crime). There are a few firearms clauses within that, that nobody but the NRA seemed to know / care about. My take on it is that you basically wouldn’t be able to navigate through the county with a firearm on you w/o violating the law, unless you’re > 100 yards up in a helicopter.
Well, Missouri premption; going beyond the state’s restrictions WRT to open carry and discharge is allowed within limits, but otherwise the state is locked down.
Of course, assuming our Missouri Plan nominated judges don’t just judicially nullify it like they did our Castle Doctrine.
Thanks to a comment, I see Bloomberg is lying like a cheap rug. Quoting his “letter”
“They are also disproportionately used to kill law enforcement officers; approximately one out of five law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty is killed with assault weapons.”
For 2009 there were an extraordinarily high 71 law enforcement officers feloniously killed in the line of duty. 63 with firearms. 50 of the 63 officers shot to death were killed with a handgun compared to just 7 with a rifle. If ALL 7 were Sport Utility Rifles that would not come close to one in five. But if even one was an SUR a clipping search failed to turn it up.
Bloomers Illegal Mayors web site claims:
“Of the 69 police officers killed with firearms in the United States last year, only one was shot with an assault weapon, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. So far this year, the nation has seen only one assault-weapon police fatality.”
Normally, FBI numbers list 40 to 50 LEO’s shot to death in the line of duty. Since the item mentions John Timoney the year should have been between 2006 and 2010. But if so, the FBI data gives the Illegal Mayors claim the lie.
And as usual, the best thing to do is inform ourselves, and then blast the ignorati in the media who trust Bloomberg’s lies.
Stranger
Alaska doesn’t have any Mayors anymore.
I wrote one in another town I’ve lived in thought!