Exercising the Right
NYC Mayor With More Gun-control Propaganda
You know it’s a bad sign when you’re to the political left of Obama on gun control, but that’s exactly where New York City (NYC) Mayor Michael Bloomberg finds himself. The Mayor, whose huge personal fortune is only surpassed by the size of his ego, sent undercover NYC law-enforcement agents to Arizona in January. Apparently Bloomberg couldn’t stand having the Tucson shooting stealing the spotlight from his non-stop anti-gun pronouncements. Bloomberg dispatched his men with a mission to purchase guns at gun shows in an effort to highlight the allegedly lax regulations surrounding such purchases. One of the agents was able to purchase a gun after telling the seller that he probably wouldn’t pass a background check. The sellers are not supposed to sell guns to anyone they suspect would not be able to normally purchase a firearm.
This was all the Mayor’s office needed to issue another dire prediction of impending slaughter by guns purchased at gun shows. Bloomberg is a simple man and thus offers a simple solution to what he perceives as a problem of earth-shattering proportion: Invoking the tragedy in Tucson and a similar mass shooting at Virginia Tech, Bloomberg called for extending background checks to all guns purchased at gun shows. He conveniently ignores the fact that gun dealers at the shows already need to do background checks and that only individuals wishing to sell personal property can avoid doing background checks — much like being able to sell a gun through a newspaper advertisement. This dovetails nicely with the latest campaign from the anti-gun lobby, euphemistically referred to as “closing the gun-show loophole.” There’s only one little factoid that the people behind this campaign hate to mention: Jared Loughner, the suspect in the Tucson shootings, did pass a background check, as did the shooter in the Virginia Tech shootings. They did not purchase their guns at gun shows. But why let reality get in the way of a great PR moment?
Another oddity regarding Bloomberg’s action is that he used NYC taxpayer money, reportedly upwards of $100,000, to send agents into another state for the sole purpose of gaining media attention. Economist and political pundit John Lott, writing for Fox News, had Bloomberg’s number: “The ‘sting’ was a waste of money that misleads Americans and did nothing to reduce crime. Talk about an aggressive publicity stunt. Arizona officials had not been informed of the operation, which meant that any potential crimes uncovered by the New York City officers could not be prosecuted.... Background checks do not stop bad guys from getting guns. Instead, the Brady Act background checks for gun purchases, in place since 1994, are a problem for law-abiding citizens. Hardly ever do background checks deny guns to criminals. Over 99.9 percent of purchases initially flagged as being illegal under the law were later determined to be misidentified.... It is hardly surprising that not a single academic study by economists or criminologists has found that the Brady Act or any state background checks has reduced violent crime.... Mr. Bloomberg’s P.R. stunt did nothing to stop crime.... Hopefully, Americans won’t follow his policies and end up wasting lots more money on policies that divert police resources and time from things that do work.”
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