Mayor Bloomberg (Photo: Getty)

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.

Mayor Bloomberg went on to question the logic behind the NRA criticizing the amount of money he's spent advocating for gun control.

"The NRA has spent $100 million and they object to my ten million ... or whatever the number is," said Mayor Bloomberg. "They've had it their own way they keep trying to say what's going on from their point of view."

He went on to say the NRA believed "there is no other point of view." Bringing up the approximately $2.5 million he recently spent to back a pro-gun control House candidate in Illinois, Mayor Bloomberg said he was merely trying to present an alternative perspective. The mayor's candidate, Robin Kelly, was victorious in a race his aides said they had been able to turn into a "referendum on guns."

"In Illinois, I spent a couple million bucks and gave another point of view on terms of how people had voted, and the pub listened and then the public decided," explained Mayor Bloomberg. "Nobody's buying votes. What you are doing is, you're getting access with this money to tell the public the facts. For example, Joe Smith voted for, or Joe Smith voted against this bill and this bill does x, y, z or doesn't do a, b, c. And then, let the public decide."

When he responded to the ad campaign, Mr. LaPierre cited the mayor's previous anti-obesity initiatives and described the gun control efforts as part of a pattern of Mayor Bloomberg trying to use money to "impose his will on the American public." Another reporter at this afternoon's press conference asked Mayor Bloomberg why he thought Mr. LaPierre was focusing on him personally rather than the content of his commercials.

"He doesn't have an argument," Mayor Bloomberg said of Mr. LaPierre. "Standing there and saying, 'Oh, I think we should leave guns in the hands of people that kill everybody and put our kids in danger,' is probably not a good strategy for him. So, he's got to find spomething else to talk about."

Politicker then asked Mayor Bloomberg what he thought about the fact NRA robocalls against gun control legislation have been received by residents of Newtown, Connecticut, which was the site of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December. At this point, Mayor Bloomberg was in no mood to discuss the gun battle any further.

"Enough with the NRA," he said, attempting to move to another question.

However, we pressed the point and Mayor Bloomberg said the NRA "ought to be ashamed" for making their robocalls in Newtown.

"You know, sometimes people just dont express--don't use good judgement. I guess the word shameless sort of comes up," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Of all the places you shouldn't be doing robocalls, I would think most people would say that's not a good place to do it. They ought to be ashamed."

John Hickenlooper (Photo: Getty)

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.'"

When pressed, Mr. Keene declined to reveal the governor's identity. However, given all of the details already provided--a Western Democratic governor considering new gun policies whose recent meeting with Mr. Keene was covered in the press--it seems the executive in question very well could be Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who met with Mr. Keene last month. Google News searches of Mr. Keene's name and the four other Democratic governors west of the Mississippi River returned zero results.

Politicker provided Mr. Hickenlooper's office with a transcript of the comments and asked whether the N.R.A. leader's description was accurate. Megan Castle, Mr. Hickenlooper's deputy director of communications, replied succinctly without confirming or denying the alleged slight against Governor Cuomo.

"The governor did meet with David Keene," she said. "They had a good conversation."

The Journal News' map of gun owners' addresses.

In his interview on the Brooklyn GOP Radio podcast this evening, NRA President David Keene was asked about the controversial articles on Gawker and in the Journal News that contained lists of gun owners. Mr. Keene blamed the stories on cultural differences that he said exist between "elite media" and the rest of American society.

"The whole battle over the Second Amendment has little to do with crime or any of these things" Mr. Keene said. "It has to do with culture and the view that different people have about what kind of a country this ought to be."

Mr. Keene explained that he believes the media has adopted an anti-gun perspective because liberal reporters see gun ownership as antithetical to their values.

"It wasn't until the culture wars of the late 1960's, 70's and 80's that, all of a sudden, the Second Amendment became anathema to liberals who viewed it, really I think culturally, as a as symbol of an America they didn't like, an America in which people took responsibility for themselves and for the protection of their families, an America which didn't look to the state for the answer to all of its problems," said Mr. Keene. "And the media, the elite media, if anything, represents that view more than almost any segment of our society."

The Journal News' map of gun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties included their home addresses. Gawker's post was a list of gun owners in New York City that didn't have addresses, but the story's author, John Cook, said he tried to obtain that information and added links to sites where address information could be found. Mr. Keene claimed the media outlets revealing the addresses of gun owners had "tremendously terrible consequences."

"What happened there in New York with the posting of the legitimate, licensed pistol owners in Rockland County and others has had tremendously terrible consequences. As you know, now prison guards had their home addresses listed by that newspaper and are now under threat from prisoners and their allies outside," Mr. Keene said. "This was an incredibly irresponsible thing that was an attempt by this elite to demonize people who own firearms legitimately."

Gawker's post originally referred to New York City's gun owners as "assholes." Mr. Keene cited this as proof of the media's prejudice against firearms enthusiasts.

"In the minds of these people, folks that own firearms are evil," he said. "You saw how the--when the Gawker website listed all these people what they described them as. And I'm not going to repeat it on the air, but the fact of the matter is, that they see anyone who is involved in the shooting sports, who owns a firearm for whatever reason as somebody that they hate."

Mr. Keene said the media's demonization of gun owners resulted in him and NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre receiving "hundreds of death threats" in the aftermath of last months massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. He finished discussing the issue by reiterating his view that media bias against guns is caused by cultural differences and not any concern about violence.

"It's a result not of a concern about crime, but about the vast cultural differences between these elites and the rest of us in this society."

Politicker attempted to speak with Mr. Keene after his interview, but he declined to answer our questions.

David Keene (Photo: Getty)

National Rifle Association President David Keene gave a rare post-Newtown interview on the Brooklyn GOP Radio podcast this evening in which he responded to Governor Andrew Cuomo's vow to bring New York some of the "toughest" gun control laws in the country. Mr. Keene began by taking issue with Governor Cuomo's prediction that other states would follow New York's example and pass similar laws.

"I was amazed that he said other states will follow New York," Mr. Keene said. "They haven't done that in the past, there's no reason to believe that they will in the future."

Mr. Keene continued by noting "New York already has very tough gun laws" and predicting Governor Cuomo's gun control plan would not "make any difference one way or the other in terms of violence of any kind in the state."

In spite of his criticisms of the governor's policy proposals, Mr. Keene said he supported the elements of the seven-point plan that would affect criminals who use or try to purchase guns"

"Some of the things he proposed in terms of dealing with gang violence and criminals ought to be welcomed by everyone including gun owners ... Aside from the insane people that are involved in these mass shootings, most gun crime, most crimes involving firearms, crime period is committed by people who, in effect, are making a living by stealing purses, burglarizing houses and robbing people ... Anything that deals with gun crime by prosecuting people who misuse firearms in the commission of a felony is a good idea and that part's fine. But the idea of banning or restricting firearms from perfectly honest, legitimate Americans who have a right to defend themselves as per the Supreme Court and the Second Amendment, have a right to privately own firearms, is both constitutionally suspect and, from a policy standpoint, has been empirically demonstrated over time not to have any impact whatever on violence or crime."

When he outlined his gun control proposals in his annual State of the State address today, Governor Cuomo said his policies were aimed at curbing gun violence and would "respect hunters and sportsmen." Mr. Keene said hunting was not part of his concerns about the governor's policies.

"The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunters. Hunters use firearms. Hunters have every right to use firearms, as do target shooters, as do gun collectors, as do others," said Mr. Keene. "The fact of the matter is that the Second Amendment has to do with personal and national defense. It was put into the Constitution by the founders who considered it as important indeed as the First Amendment."

Politicker attempted to call Mr. Keene immediately after his interview with Brooklyn GOP Radio to ask him a few questions of our own. He declined to comment.

"I'm really not in a position right now," Mr. Keene said. "I'm in a meeting. I could talk to you tomorrow if you'd like."

Councilman Robert Jackson speaking at the press conference.

Last Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, frustrated with the current state of contract negotiations with the city's teachers union, caused a political dust-up when he compared the leadership of the influential United Federation of Teachers to the National Rifle Association. Now, other New York City politicians are demanding an apology.

“Teachers want to work with the best, and most of them are not in sympathy with the union,” Mr. Bloomberg had said before pivoting to one of his preferred talking points when he pushes for tougher federal gun laws. "The N.R.A’s another place where the membership, if you do the polling, doesn’t agree with the leadership.”

Michael Mulgrew, the President of the U.F.T., said he was so infuriated by this comment that he organized today's press conference on the topic.

"What he did Friday, comparing us to the National Rifle Association at this point in time is just wrong," Mr. Mulgrew declared. "The demonizing of teachers in New York City by this mayor has now reached an all-time low. It's just a very, very sad day."

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten further blasted Mr. Bloomberg for the comment in the context of the recent massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

"This was disgusting, the mayor was wrong," Ms. Weingarten exclaimed. "It is shameful for the mayor to use that kind of analogy in a collective bargaining spat....Do not denigrate either the teachers or the tragedy that just happened in Sandy Hook. And that's why I'm asking the mayor--asking the mayor!--to apologize."

Joining Mr. Mulgrew and Ms. Weingarten today was a small army of elected officials, including three of the four leading Democrats campaigning for mayor next year, using terms like "lowest possible insult" to describe the N.R.A. reference. The fourth, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, could not attend, but a Quinn staffer was present and handing out a statement condemning the comment.

Of course, apologies from Mr. Bloomberg are relatively rare, so Politicker asked Mr. Mulgrew if he actually expected to get one.

"I would expect to get the apology," he replied after a pause. "If he doesn't, so be it. We'll continue to move on."

(Photo: Getty)

In an announcement surprising many political observers, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre came out swinging against both the media and a host of other entities in the wake of the recent elementary school massacre in Connecticut. In today's extensive address, Mr. LaPierre further proposed immediately putting an armed security guard in every single school in order to guard students against future shootings. Needless to say, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has become one of the nation's chief  voices against the NRA's lobbying efforts, was unimpressed.

“The NRA's Washington leadership has long been out of step with its members, and never has that been so apparent as this morning," Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. "Their press conference was a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country. Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe. Leadership is about taking responsibility, especially in times of crisis. Today the NRA's lobbyists blamed everyone but themselves for the crisis of gun violence. While they promote armed guards, they continue to oppose the most basic and common sense steps we can take to save lives - not only in schools, but in our movie theaters, malls, and streets. Enough. As a country, we must rise above special interest politics."

At least two of Mr. Bloomberg's would-be successors have also sent out statements so far, Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. Both slammed the NRA and discussed Mr. de Blasio's call to divest the public pension from the gun industry.

“The NRA’s press conference was a bizarre misfire," Mr. Liu said. "The NRA’s grotesque proposal insults the memory of the innocent victims who were gunned down in Newtown, Connecticut. The gun lobby’s argument that our children would only be protected if schools had armed guards is a twisted vision of a future in which no one is safe. If we want our children to be safe at home or at school today, we need tougher controls over guns today. As my office stated on Tuesday, the NYC Pension Funds are reviewing their holdings in gun manufacturers and are considering all options, including divestment, to ensure that public pension dollars do not support weapons that can destroy a community in the blink of an eye."

“The NRA’s response to the tragedy in Newtown is a complete disgrace," Mr. de Blasio echoed. "Only the NRA would have the audacity to claim the solution to horrific school violence is to put more guns in our schools. Through divestment, through tougher laws and through a national movement, we are going to take the gun lobby head-on and win.”

Update (3:07 p.m.): Council Speaker Christine Quinn, another mayoral contender, sent out a press release on the topic:

“Seven days after those teachers and children were murdered in Newtown, Connecticut the NRA has broken their silence. I wish they had kept their mouths shut. All they did today was add more pain and heartache to those Newtown families. Their remarks are some of the most stupid, asinine, insensitive, ridiculous comments I have ever heard made in the public arena. All these remarks tell us is that the NRA does not seem to care about protecting our children. I do not understand how even with all of those little coffins being rolled out in Newtown, that the NRA believes the answer is more guns. All that would have happened if there were armed guards in Sandy Hook Elementary is that we would now have dead armed guards. Why do we need an army style gun in that school, a gun we send to Afghanistan? I think the NRA’s comments today were a clear and blatant attempt to throw salt in the wounds of families who lost their loved ones. As a human being, I am surprised and tremendously disappointed in what the NRA did today.”

(Photo: Wikimedia)

Earlier today, National Rifle Association C.E.O. Wayne LaPierre and other leaders from the gun group held a much-anticipated press conference to react to the ongoing controversy surrounding the shootings at a Sandy Hook elementary school one week ago. For those hoping for a grand speech, Mr. LaPierre certainly didn't disappoint. In the address, Mr. LaPierre pushed back hard against those calling for additional gun control measures while accusing the media of being "silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators" in the violence. He also seemed to hold a host of other entities and events responsible, such as Hurricane Sandy.

"Violent crime is increasing again for the first time in 19 years," Mr. LaPierre said. "Add another hurricane, terrorist attack or some other natural or man-made disaster, and you've got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization. And here's another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal. There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people. Through vicious, violent video games with names like 'Bulletstorm,' 'Grand Theft Auto,' 'Mortal Kombat,' and 'Splatterhouse.'...A thousand music videos, and you all know this, portray life as a joke and portray murder, portray murder, as a way of life. And then they all have the nerve to call it 'entertainment.' But is that what it really is? Isn't fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?"

Mr. LaPierre then accused the media of financially profiting from these digital forms of violence, which result not only in unfair coverage of the gun industry, but causes the bloodshed itself.

"In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing in an even more toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty right into our homes, every minute, every day, every hour of every single year," he continued. "A child growing up in America today witnesses 16,000 murders and 2,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18. And throughout it all, too many in the national media, their corporate owners and their stockholders, act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators. Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonize gun-owners."

Mr. LaPierre and the other NRA leaders at the press conference did not take questions at the press conference. Protesters twice interrupted the proceedings with chants of "The NRA has blood on its hands...ban assault weapons now!" and "NRA Stop Killing our children!" Though reporters in attendance tried to ask Mr. LaPierre to respond to the protesters, he continued with his remarks.

The N.R.A. head didn't only have criticisms, however, as he also proposed solutions, including eliminating "Gun-Free School Zones" and putting an armed security officer in every single school in America.

"With all the foreign aid the United States does, with all of the money in the federal budget, can't we afford to put a police officer in every single school? Even if they did that, politicians have no business and no authority denying us the right, the ability and the moral imperative to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harmed," Mr. LaPierre argued. "We can immediately make America's schools safer, relying on the brave men and women in America's police forces. The budgets--you all know this, everyone in the country knows this--of our local police departments are strained, and the resources are severely limited. But their dedication and courage is second to none and they can be deployed right now. I call on Congress today, to act immediately, to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation! And to do it now! "

In order to facilitate getting armed guards into American schools, Mr. LaPierre announced the launch of an NRA "National School Shield" program spearheaded by former congressman Asa Hutchinson that will help advise officials on how to properly secure their schools. He said this program will not be a strain on budgets because it will involve volunteer guards.

"This will be a program that does not depend upon massive funding from local authorities or the federal government. Instead, it will make use of local volunteers serving in their own communities," Mr. LaPierre said. "The National Rifle Association is the obvious choice to sponsor this program. "

With mounting calls for gun control measures, it remains to be seen whether politicians will be willing to take the NRA up on their offer to put armed volunteers in schools.

Additional reporting from Hunter Walker

The NRA Country logo.

After this morning's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, the National Rifle Association cancelled a planned Twitter promotion with country music rapper Colt Ford. A live "Tweet & Greet" with Mr. Ford was scheduled for 1 p.m. (Central Time) this afternoon on the "NRA Country" account. However, shortly after the event's planned start time, an announcement was posted on the NRA Country Twitter account that it would be rescheduled.

"Apologies for the inconvenience, but the @ColtFord Tweet & Greet will be rescheduled. Please check back for more info!" the announcement said.

We reached out to a spokeswoman for NRA Country to confirm that the cancellation of the "Tweet & Greet" was related to the shooting, which has already led to calls for tougher gun control legislation from several politicians. As of this writing, we have yet to receive a response.

NRA Country is a campaign launched by the gun organization that features country music artists "involved in causes that defend our values." In addition to Mr. Ford, artists involved with NRA Country include Blake Shelton, Rascal Flatts and Hank Williams Jr.

Mr. Ford is currently NRA Country's "Artist of the Month." Earlier this month, Mr. Ford visited the NRA headquarters and performed some of his songs. Mr. Ford described the concert at NRA in a YouTube video that was posted by NRA Country.

"That's the safest I've ever felt playing music," he said. "I've got a lifetime membership in the NRA ... I'm Colt Ford and I'm encouraging all my fans and all those country people out there to go sign up and be part of NRA Country."

Dale Stephanos

Early on a Friday morning last month, a deranged shooter walked into a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and sprayed enough bullets to injure 58 people and murder 12. A few hours later, Mayor Mike Bloomberg was set to go on his weekly radio hour with 710 AM radio host John Gambling.

No sooner had the host, who has met with the mayor nearly every week at the same hour for the last decade, said “Good morning,” than Mr. Bloomberg, his voice trembling with anger, slammed the nation’s political culture for sitting by while the bodies piled up.

“You know, soothing words are nice, but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country,” he inveighed.

Mr. Gambling suggested that perhaps now was not the time to be talking about gun control, with the nation mired in a political season and the candidates playing to caution.

“There’s something more important than getting elected, and that’s standing up and saying what you think is right. I mean, I listen to this all the time, everything—oh, it’s getting re-elected. Getting re-elected or elected isn’t everything...You’ve got to look your family in the eye, you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and say, this is what I really believe, and this is what I’ll do if I get elected,” the mayor responded.

Before the extent of the carnage was even known, Mayor Bloomberg had appeared on the CBS Evening News that night, Face the Nation Sunday morning, Morning Joe on MSNBC on Monday morning and Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN that evening.

Every time, it was the same thing: slamming Mitt Romney and Barack Obama for their silence on the gun issue and calling on the rest of the nation to start demanding answers.

After nearly two weeks of silence from the candidates, and some public figures, like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, even accusing the mayor of “trying to make a political issue” out of the shooting, Mr. Bloomberg granted an interview with The Huffington Post, a rarity.

There, he mocked elected officials for surrendering to the “aura” of the NRA, in which the gun lobby is seen as “so powerful, if you don’t go with them, they’ll take you out and destroy your ability to feed your family.”

And he told the website that he doesn’t really need to run for president to get his message out, since  “Just remember that I can, anytime I want, talk to you, write an op-ed piece and do those kinds of things.”

Indeed he can. The hours after the Aurora massacre marked an unprecedented media blitz by Mayor Bloomberg, who has generally preferred to space out his national media appearances. His post-Aurora appearances were the latest tactic in Mayor Bloomberg’s six-year battle with the gun lobby—and they have helped shape the contours of a gun debate in advance of the November elections.

Mayor Bloomberg’s attention was first focused on guns by the scene that played out and over and over in his first term in office, in hospitals across the city, during the darkest hours of the night: a police officer had been shot somewhere in New York, and the mayor and the NYPD brass rush to the hospital. Crime had remained low, despite post 9/11 concerns that a faltering economy would lead to a spike. But still, Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly remained bedeviled by a murder rate that seemed unable to fall below a certain threshold.

“It was intellectual, but it had a heart component to it that you don’t always see with Mike Bloomberg,” said John Feinblatt, who has served as the mayor’s Criminal Justice Coordinator throughout his tenure and as his chief policy director for the past term. “It’s the mayor who gets the real 3 am phone calls in the middle of the night and has to go to the emergency room and break the news that is going to break somebody’s heart.”

In 2003, two police officers were shot execution-style on Staten Island during an undercover operation to bust an illegal gun ring. At his second inaugural, in 2006, Mr. Bloomberg said, “Our most urgent challenge is ending the threat of guns and the violence they do,” and in a line that brought sustained cheers from the audience gathered on a cold January 1 at City Hall Plaza, “We will not rest until we secure all the tools we need to protect New Yorkers from the scourge of illegal guns.”

The mayor began by focusing his attention on the relatively easy task of tightening New York City’s gun laws, before turning to the slightly more difficult task of changing New York State’s laws, and finally the even-more-daunting mission of tightening gun laws nationwide.

A dozen or so of the nation’s mayors met at Gracie Mansion and formed “Mayors Against Illegal Guns”—backed by the mayor’s millions—to try to provide an alternative to the NRA. The group now boasts a membership of more than 700 mayors around the country, and has organizers working in Washington, D.C., and around the country (most often part-timers affiliated with an elected official who is part of the coalition.)

It has been slow going. Soon after the group formed, Mayor Bloomberg went down to Washington to try to persuade then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, a budget rider that makes it harder for law enforcement to trace illegal guns. Ms. Pelosi rebuffed him, saying that the politics of guns were terrible for Democrats.

As a result, progress has been glacial ever since, with Congress declining to renew the assault weapons ban or to close gun show loopholes that allow non-dealers to sell guns without running background checks. The biggest anti-gun victory has been the defeat of a bill that would force states that forbid concealed-carry permits to honor those permits across state lines.

“There has been a political calculation that it is better to run for cover,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “Mike Bloomberg makes a different political calculation.”

Time was, after a horrific mass shooting, the nation would engage in a few moments of collective grief. After last year’s shooting in Tucson that injured Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the mayor addressed a church in Brooklyn, and over the next few days held a City Hall press conference with other members of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, calling for tougher background checks. A few weeks later, he joined Martin Luther King III and victims of gun violence in the City Hall rotunda to repeat the call.

Mostly, though, the messaging was done by the crew often called on after such tragedies: survivors, family members and pols like Carolyn McCarthy, the Long Island congresswoman who ran for office after her husband was gunned down on the Long Island Railroad, and who has self-deprecatingly called herself “The Gun Lady” for the media’s propensity to drag her in front of the cameras every time there is a tragedy.

The mayor’s aides say that the his message has been consistent since he first started talking about guns, and it is only the media’s focus that has shifted.

“He talks about this stuff all the time,” said spokesman Marc LaVorgna. “The microscope is on the issue in a much bigger way during these instances. Look back at his remarks every single time there is a police officer shot, and every single time, he bangs Congress, he bangs the NRA, every time. These are being written at 3 am as we are sitting there in the hospital figuring out what we are going to say.”

Still, it is hard not to notice that there is a new urgency behind the mayor’s words, that he seems to be trying to make the fight against guns more visible.

“The fact is there is no one with any national stature talking about this,” said William Cunningham, who served as the mayor’s communications director during his first term. “Carolyn McCarthy has spent years talking about this, and no one pays attention. When Bloomberg talks, he has a big megaphone.”

Ms. McCarthy agrees.

“I work on gun violence constantly, but let’s face it, as this dies down, try to get on a TV show and talk about it, try to get on a radio show and talk about it. They are not interested anymore. He has the power to bring up the issue at any time,” she said. “He is speaking almost like a victim. He is speaking like a victim because he is the one that has to go the funerals and speak to the families.”

But the fact that he is not a victim changes the nature of the debate. When Ms. McCarthy—or anyone else who has been affected by gun violence more personally—goes to speak about the issue, the conversation can’t help but be shrouded in grief and tragedy. When the mayor speaks, it can’t help but be pointed and political, especially once he calls out politicians with specific criticism.

“I think one of our problems is that after a horrific shooting, everyone is very respectful and [thinks] there should be a moment of silence, but then that moment of silence should end,” said Jackie Hilly, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. “Having a mayor stand up and say, ‘This is crazy!’ is, I think, good.”

It remains to be seen, however, how much this more-aggressive approach will move the needle. Experts in the politics of guns say that what really needs to occur is for a politician to stand up aggressively against the NRA and live to tell about it at election time.

“Memories of lost elections loom large,” said Kristen Goss, a professor of public policy at Duke and the author of Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America. “There is still a perception that Al Gore lost Tennessee in 2000 because of gun control. It’s gotten to the point where there are going to have to be some elections where people took risks in favor of gun control and survived.”

And if a spate of mass shootings hasn’t changed many minds about gun laws, it remains to be seen how much can be done by Mr. Bloomberg, who, despite his official status as an independent moderate, is still widely perceived as the billionaire from the big city.

“I live among a bunch of farmers, and he is perceived as a big enemy of the gun culture, a powerful person with his own agenda who is not to be trusted,” said Brian Anse Patrick, a professor at the University of Toledo and the author of The National Rifle Association and The Media. “Just the way the news works: when Mike Bloomberg appears you already know what he is going to say.”

Kirsten Sheffield, a Logan, Utah, a woman who survived the Columbine shooting as a teenager, finds the mayor’s media presence distasteful.

“I tend to disagree with him on a lot of politics, so I don’t pay that much attention to him. I don’t feel like he needs to get involved. For him to think he is the expert and knows the solution makes me think he is politicizing the violence.”

dfreedlander@observer.com

twitter.com/freedlander

The American Rifleman's logo. (Photo: Twitter)

This morning, as the world reacted to the news of the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado that left 12 people dead, the American Rifleman, an official journal of the National Rifle Association, sent a rather insensitive message from their Twitter account.

"Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?" the tweet said.

The message quickly provoked outraged responses from hundreds of other Twitter users including Keith Olbermann and the Columbia Journalism Review. Within three hours, it was deleted and no new messages have been posted on the American Rifleman account.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told The Politicker the tweet was being "completely taken out of context."

"A single individual, unaware of events in Colorado, tweeted a comment that is being completely taken out of context," Mr. Arulanandam said.

View a screengrab of the original American Rifleman tweet below.

Update (4:54 pm): The American Rifleman account now appears to have been taken down entirely. 

(Updated with comment from the NRA 1:26 pm)