Despite no longer being a mayor in 2014, Bloomberg says he will still be a part of MAIG and continue funding the group.
This isn’t too shocking since MAIG has already been trying to pass off other non-mayors as mayors.
Author: Bitter
MAIG Mayor Purposefully Puts the Poor in Danger
Imagine a situation where an armed robber breaks into your home, but maybe you do or don’t have a means to defend yourself. What you do have is a phone with access to 911, and let us pretend for a moment that the local cops can get there in time to save you. What would keep you from using the phone in that situation?
Well, thanks to the efforts of Bloomberg-ally and MAIG Mayor Tom Leighton, you might lose your home if you call the police. You may face permanent eviction if you dare call the police while in danger. If you live paycheck-to-paycheck and can’t afford another place to live, then maybe you hide in the closet and hope for the best instead of calling the police.
See, this MAIG mayor has instituted a “one-strike ordinance†that allows his city to shut down any property for up to six months (without a hearing or notice) if the property is ever the site of a single gun or drug crime.
Another town instituted a similar rule that, instead of shutting down a property, fines the landlords as punishment, and a victim of domestic violence was threatened with eviction after the police were called to help her. When the boyfriend showed up again and stabbed her in the neck, she was too fearful of losing a roof over her young daughter’s head to call the police. Even as she was bleeding from her wounds, she pleaded with her neighbors not to call the police on her attacker because she and her daughter would be the ones punished and left without a home.
That case has resulted in litigation, and despite seeing the impact of this rule on a domestic violence victim, MAIG Mayor Leighton stands by using the one-strike ordinance, even if the ultimate result is to punish the poor for calling police when trouble lurks in their neighborhoods.
By supporting efforts to disarm citizens, Leighton forces them to rely on police. Now he’s punishing those who do rely on the police and who cannot afford to move if their landlords evict them because they dared call the police while in danger.
Politics in Law Enforcement Procurement
The mayor of Jersey City is mandating a gun control survey be completed by every vendor bidding on firearms or ammunition contracts for the city. The answers to the survey will be considered as much as price, safety, and other specs of the firearms and ammunition.
Assuming that they get any gun control surveys back at all, the likely result in this will not be pretty for the actual officers in Jersey City whose lives may well depend on their firearms and ammunition. Their guns will no longer be selected based on meeting needs of the officers, but on willingness to support select political agendas.
Of course, that assumes that the police will even find vendors willing to support gun control in order to win the contract of one department. The reaction of the consumer market will not be pretty if it is announced that a particular manufacturer responded to the survey with enough anti-gun remarks to win support of the Jersey City mayor and his Bloomberg-backed allies in MAIG.
New England Mayor on Gun Control Groups
A mayor in New England speaks out on MAIG’s efforts to control gun crime owners in a column called “Enough is Enough.” You might want to read his take on MAIG before commenting…
On a related note, Thirdpower notes some fuzzy math by MAIG and its claimed membership in Illinois.
Multiple Gun Control PACs, Same Backer
I guess the gun control groups have decided that the best strategy they have now is to create multiple groups to create the appearance of increased support for gun control. When I saw this headline from this morning, I was confused:
Gabrielle Giffords sets up gun control PAC
Giffords already set up a gun control PAC. The newest gun control PAC headed by the same couple as the other gun control PAC is using a new name – the Rights and Responsibilities PAC.
Bizarre Carry Permit Situation in Beaver County
There are accusations that discounted or free licenses to carry are being granted to political friends and supporters of the Sheriff of Beaver County, and the story just gets weird from there.
From the various reports, it apparently started when a citizen sitting in a public area of the public office recorded a conversation between the Sheriff and a Constable that revealed he was undercharging for permits for selected people. The recording became public, and the Sheriff’s first response appears to have been to call the District Attorney and demand that there be an investigation for violation of the wiretap laws and leaking of confidential information rather than address the real problem of using licenses to carry in this manner and possibly shorting the county its share of fees.
It turns out that the DA found there was zero expectation of privacy between the individuals given their roles as public officials and where they had their conversation, and nothing confidential was leaked. So, the Sheriff now appears to claim that it was all above board because he was purposefully handing out the licenses in order to see if one of his secretaries who had recently filed a grievance against the office was leaking information. However, the person who benefited with the discounted license was apparently never informed prior to the event that he was part of such a plot and had to pay up later. Needless to say, there are people who doubt the after-the-fact claims of a secret investigation.
It appears the DA has turned the evidence related to the issuance of discounted licenses to carry over to state authorities, and a source tells the local paper that a grand jury has been called related to some sort of investigation into the Sheriff’s office.
They also report that the state Auditor General’s office found the Sheriff may not be charging the appropriate fees mandated by the state for carry licenses or writs of execution, which now means the County Controller is also investigating.
It’s very odd, indeed. Even if the licenses are being issued according to the law in regards to background checks, it is very troubling to hear that there are concerns that discounts and freebies are being used to benefit political supporters while those who aren’t so well-connected are forced to pay the higher, state-mandated price.
MAIG Pulls Gov’t Workers to the Private Sector
Now this is really funny. When a gun owner in the Sunshine State started using sunshine laws to get ahold of the communications between a public worker whose main job was actually to work for MAIG, Bloomberg pulled her into the private sector to work for him directly so those pesky taxpayers can’t see how he’s trying to force their government to do his bidding.
It seems that Florida’s public records laws were a little too much for NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-gun Mayors Against ilLEGAL Guns to bear. At the end of her one year contract, the former Orlando city employee who actually worked for MAIG became a direct employee of MAIG.
Go check out All Nine Yards for more on the latest round of emails they turned up from the tax-funded Bloomberg employee. He seems to enjoy their hypocrisy on the amazing benefit of federal regulation when it comes to gun control, but their horror at the idea of federal interference when it comes to protecting Second Amendment rights.
Massachusetts Gun License Delays
The issue of Massachusetts gun licensing delays is getting attention from non-gun sources, and they highlight the reports of nearly 1,000 gun owners who have had their licenses delayed past the point of the state breaking its own laws.
The article highlights a Senate Democrat who notes that this squarely falls on the shoulders of the Deval Patrick administration, and they include the fact that Attorney General Martha Coakley is refusing to investigate why the state government is violating the law, nor will her office even answer public questions on the matter.
Sadly, this isn’t new to Massachusetts gun owners. The government there has had a history of delaying licenses that are needed in order to continue lawfully possessing your guns. It was an issue when I lived there and had to get my gun license.
Halbrook on Historic Gun Registries
National Review posted a column from Stephen Halbrook that comes from his latest book that looks at how German gun registry laws were used to disarm political opponents and Jews around World War II. What I find most interesting is that in less than 36 hours, it’s already generated more than 500 comments. Clearly, it’s a topic that gets people talking and reading.
Vague Political Speech Restrictions on Government Property
There’s a gun-related case in the Arizona Court of Appeals today that deals with overly vague content-based speech restrictions on government property. The Goldwater Institute and ACLU are siding with pro-Second Amendment folks who submitted various advertisements for the Phoenix mass transit system only to see some of them turned down on content restrictions against politically-related advertising and others with similar messages and links accepted.
It’s a case that isn’t just about considering federal First Amendment protections/restrictions on speech, but also may define the state’s constitutional limits on the freedom of speech. The ACLU has apparently argued that state courts have never ruled on the issue of content-based restrictions on government property or provided legal tests to determine when such regulations may be allowed.
The pro-speech/gun side is arguing that the rules are so vague and arbitrary that a reasonable person could not be expected to know when their advertisements may be approved or might be turned down. Attorneys for the city claim that if they can’t have these vague rules that apparently only city bureaucrats understand, then they will be forced into an “all-or-nothing approach — allow no advertising or allow all advertising.”