The U.S. Senate voted down a bipartisan deal to expand background checks to gun shows and internet sales today, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t happy.
“Today’s vote is a damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington,” Mr. Bloomberg declared in a statement condemning both parties for their inaction. Read More
Over the weekend Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a $12 million ad campaign dedicated to pushing senators to back legislation that would expand background checks against gun buyers. This ad blitz was the latest salvo in the expensive attack on illegal guns the billionaire mayor has focused on in recent months and it prompted National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre to accuse him of trying to “buy America.” At a press conference this afternoon where he was announcing a new program to help connect low-income city residents with job opportunities, many of the questions Mayor Bloomberg fielded from reporters were about his war of words with the NRA. Mayor Bloomberg first addressed the response he’s received after announcing the ad campaign and said an “enormous number” of people have thanked him for the commercials.
“Nobody’s going to walk up to me and say bad things, so I’m not so sure that I can actually represent, but I’ve just had lots and lots of phone calls, text messages, emails, people in the street … that are just so thankful that somebody’s willing to stand up and to counter the NRA,” he said. Read More
When Governor Andrew Cuomo quickly passed tough new gun control measures in January, he faced a raft of criticism for skipping the standard deliberative period and allegedly ignoring the more minute legislative details. The criticism recently found new substance with the bill’s apparently unworkable 7-bullet magazine requirement, which Albany is now working to reverse. And, on his weekly radio show with John Gambling, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that “one criticism” may indeed have merit.
“This is true of a lot of things,” Mr. Bloomberg said after accusing an unrelated City Council bill of having unintended side-effects. “You asked before about the magazines in Albany. We just got to start to thinking a little bit more about the implications of things before we rush to legislate and rush to legislate everything.” Read More
When the smoke cleared at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in the wee hours of a Friday morning last July, 12 people were dead, 58 were injured and Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in New York, readying an assault of his own.
The campaign that Mr. Bloomberg and his “gun team” came up with in the hours and days after Aurora involved carpet-bombing Washington with millions from the mayor’s immense fortune and a media blitz that would be deployed following the next massacre.
“He was so frustrated by the lack of conversation around this issue … that he decided to force the conversation himself,” Howard Wolfson, deputy mayor for government affairs and communications, told Politicker. Read More
Earlier today, National Rifle Association President David Keene went on Fred Dicker’s radio show to tout yesterday’s pro-gun rally in Albany. As they are both wont to do, Mr. Dicker and Mr. Keene took a number of shots at Governor Andrew Cuomo and the gun control legislation he passed earlier this year. At one interesting moment in the conversation, however, Mr. Keene went further by saying another unnamed Democratic governor shared some of their anti-Cuomo views.
“You know Fred, I was out in the West recently and had to meet with a Democratic governor because a lot of the state legislatures are considering all kinds of different laws and legislation on firearms,” Mr. Keene said. “As I went into his office, I said, ‘Governor, before we get started, I have to tell you that the press has been asking me why I’m meeting with you.’ He said, ‘What did you tell them?’ I said, ‘I’m meeting with you because you’re not Andrew Cuomo. And you should take that as a compliment.’ He looked at me and he said, ‘Believe me, I do.’” Read More
Earlier this afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden attended a gun violence conference a few miles from the location of last year’s infamous Newtown school shooting massacre. And Mr. Biden, who has led the White House’s push for stricter policies on guns in the shooting’s wake, passionately argued that gun control is no longer the untouchable “third rail” in our political system. Indeed, Mr. Biden took his contention in the opposite direction and said politicians are now compelled to engage the issue.
“Our understanding assumption is–in American politics today–[is] that this is kind of a third rail of politics,” Mr. Biden declared. “That if you take this on, somehow there will be a severe political price to pay for doing it because that’s what happened in the past. That’s what happened in the past. People say–and you read, and people write about–the political risk and why they’re unacceptable to take on. I say it’s unacceptable to not take these on. It’s simply unacceptable.” Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a lengthy statement responding to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last night commending the president’s education proposals, call to raise the minimum wage and commitment to gun control.
“President Obama put forward a bold, comprehensive agenda in his 2013 State of the Union Address that continues to rebuild our nation’s economy and strengthens the middle class,” the governor began. “The vision President Obama presented tonight is one we embrace here in New York. The President laid out an agenda for a vibrant American future, where we work together to bring jobs back from overseas, train our young people to have the skills they need to succeed in the workforce, and ensure those who work long and hard hours can provide for their families.” Read More
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has emerged as one of the nation’s loudest gun control advocates in recent months. Unsurprisingly, in his response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last night, the mayor focused on the Commander in Chief’s push for stronger gun control laws including background checks and a ban on high-capacity magazines.
“Tonight, President Obama made a clarion call to fix the nation’s broken gun laws,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement. “In a chamber filled with both survivors of gun violence and the men and women of the United States Congress who have the power to improve our gun laws, President Obama implored both parties to come together on an issue that has the support of the vast majority of Americans: keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.” Read More
In his State of the Union address this evening, President Barack Obama addressed several hot-button political issues including climate change, immigration reform and gun control. Overall, the president’s speech struck a populist tone, but when bringing up his proposals to address some of these more controversial issues, he characterized them as making good business sense. Read More
Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin is officially in damage-control mode after declaring “Hitler would be proud” of Governor Andrew Cuomo for fast-tracking gun control legislation through Albany.
“We were told to shut up and vote and that’s what this is all about,” Mr. McLaughlin said at a press conference today announcing a bill to limit the governor’s ability to issue “messages of necessity” to skip the normal deliberative process. Governor Cuomo has used the technique to pass several controversial bits of legislation including his gun control plan and last year’s infamous “big ugly” flurry of deals on redistricting, pensions, casino gambling, teacher evaluations and a DNA databank for criminals.
“Just don’t question it and vote. That’s basically the message here,” Mr. McLaughlin continued. “If that’s not dictatorial, I don’t know what is. Hitler would be proud, Mussolini would be proud of what we did here, Moscow would be proud, but that’s not democracy.” Read More
