Victoria Madrigal on 
DCMP on 
Dana Porter on Through the Brady Center I have learned about an organization of over 450 mayor’s who are trying to rid their cities of illegal guns. Amazingly, the NRA is targeting many of these mayor’s and spreading lies about the organization. All of the mayor’s of Ohio’s major cities belong to this group.
The group is called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. It is a non-partisan organization devoted to keeping illegal guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill, and juveniles.
However, all across the country, mayors who belong to the organization have been harassed by people clearly associated with the NRA. The NRA had notified their members about ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ and asked them to contact their mayor’s and ask them to disassociate themselves from the group.
Here’s and example of harassment that happened to Sumter, South Carolina Mayor Joe McElveen.
NRA members in Sumter have recently received notices telling them their mayor had “joined a national anti-gun group,” which “was founded and is funded by activist anti-gun billionaire and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.”
The notice also listed McElveen’s home address, phone number and his e-mail address and tells people to “please call, e-mail and write Mayor McElveen today and ask him to support law-abiding gun owners by publicly disassociating himself with Michael Bloomberg and ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns.’ Help him make the right choice between protecting our Second Amendment rights or continuing to be associated with those who actively oppose and undermine your firearms freedom.”
This proves that the NRA is incredibly irresponsible. The mayor’s are not against legal guns, they are promoting laws designed to stop illegal possession of guns. Since the NRA opposes this organization, it means they support the ownership of illegal guns.
The NRA believes all progressives want to take there guns away. Progressives know this is not true. We are for responsible gun laws.
But opposition to ‘Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns’ leads me to believe that the NRA is for no gun control laws at all and will not be happy until every American owns numerous firearms no matter what the circumstance. Safety be damned.
[...] What this blogger is reporting would certainly seem to indicate that: Through the Brady Center I have learned about an organization of over 450 mayor’s who are trying to rid their cities of illegal guns. Amazingly, the NRA is targeting many of these mayor’s and spreading lies about the organization. All of the mayor’s of Ohio’s major cities belong to this group. [...]
Hi Maniac,
Unfortunately, I think you’ve been duped, as have many mayors who joined MAIG thinking that the name of the organization truthfully represented its position.
The truth is that it does not. Ask yourself why an organization whose endgame is elimination of private firearms ownership would go to bat for an organization that does not share that goal?
Why did MAIG fight the Thune amendment? Allowing those that are law abiding carriers of fire arms in State A do not become a menace simply by crossing the line into State B-how does fighting reciprocity in any way combat illegal guns when the citizens that would be subject to reciprocity agreements are statistically one of the most law abiding demographics in the nation? The answer is that it does not do anything to combat gun crime.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/09/21/2009-09-21_mayor_bloomberg_rips_congress_for_plan_to_let_guns_on_amtrak.html
How is keeping guns out of checked bags (to wit, bags that passengers have no access to) fighting illegal guns?
It’s fairly well documented that Mr. Bloomberg’s group has been adding mayors without their knowledge, (example here: http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/2009/09/18/how-maig-seems-to-operate/) and many mayors when presented with his groups actual positions drop out. Some 50 mayors have left the group in recent weeks.
Any sensible gun control law must first respect the fact that the right to keep and bear arms is a civil right, as much as voting, the press, religion or assembly. Consequently, any restrictions must have a narrow purpose and not place an undue burden on those that have done nothing wrong. It is not that we support “no control”, but there are powerful groups (like Brady, VPC, MAIG etc) that will twist any reasonable control to further their agenda of total civilian disarmament.
If you are concerned about the effect firearms have on public safety, I would encourage you to read the works of John Lott and Gary Kleck. Having the average individual with access to arms for defense is not as scary as it may seem after you see the data.
Cheers,
Scott
Mayors Against Illegal Guns unfortunately IS an overall anti-gun group. Bloomberg is well known for his stance against the Second amendment and pretty much like the Violence Policy Center, Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a misnomer with the intent of misguiding their true intentions.
Take MAIG’s stand against the Tiahrt Amendments. As per their website:
“The amendments restrict cities, states and even the police from fully accessing and using Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) gun trace data, which can show where illegal guns are coming from, who buys them and how they get trafficked across state lines and into our communities.”
The fact as stated in the Tiahrt amendment is that ensures that trace data is available to federal, state, and local agencies “in connection with and for use in a bona fide criminal investigation or prosecution. What it does not do is allow any politician with a bone to pick against gun owners to trace firearms-related information to use as in, let’s say tort lawsuits by Mayors of certain cities in the North East USA… yes Bloomberg is mad about that.
Now here is the funny thing, the Tiahrt Amendment has the full support of the BATF and the Fraternal Order of Police. Why? Because it keeps valuable Law Enforcement information from the wrong hands that might endanger Law Enforcement officers or their cases.
Now, Mayor Bloomberg himself with the support of MAIG initiated “investigations” into alleged wrongdoings by Gun Stores by sending investigators to do Straw Man purchases out of state. Not only was this illegal (He has no jurisdiction outside NYC or is a Federal Agent) but he managed to interfere into BATF operations to the point he was warned by them to step aside. He was eventually sued by a gun store for defamation.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-16-831197344_x.htm
I can go on mentioning other strong arm techniques Bloomberg and MAIG have used but I do not want to abuse the courtesy of your blog.
Bloomberg believes any gun that is not in his personal armed security force is illegal. He is one of the biggest hypocrites in a profession that is full of hypocrites.