Posted: 2/14/2007 8:28:42 AM EDT
|
Copy from the Shooting Wire Bloomberg's Coalition In Trouble? The Shooting Wire has learned a third mayor has bowed out of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun mayor's coalition. Rio Rancho, New Mexico Mayor Kevin Jackson, a self-described "constitutionalist" and career Army veteran has told Gun Week that he believes strongly in getting guns out of the hands of criminals, but draws the line at disarming law-abiding citizens. Jackson says he's certainly in favor of disarming criminals, but "not at the risk of losing our Constitutional freedom." Jackson's withdrawal from Mayor Bloomberg's "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" comes without his having attended a single meeting of the group of what may be as many as 150 mayours. Some, like the Second Amendment Foundation's Alan Gottlieb is applauding Jackson's decision. "Mayor Jackson is a good man," says Gottlieb, "who wants to do the right thing for his community and walking away from Bloomberg's organization certainly meets that standard. His military background makes him a leader, and we think other mayors need to fall in behind him and let Mayor Bloomberg and his anti-gun cronies wallow in the mud they want to sling against firearms dealers, gun makers and gun owners." Bloomberg's self-guided "sting" operation against firearms dealers outside New York remain under investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and a recent announcement that none of the dealers he targeted and allegedly caught performing illegal firearms transactions will be prosecuted would seem to indicate that Mayor Bloomberg's "sting" may turn into a political embarrassment rather than the political coup he and his political advisors had allegedly believed could be used to catapult the Mayor into national prominence. The Second Amendment Foundation's Gottlieb says there's no group of people more concerned with disarming criminals than the 80 million or so law-abiding gun owners in America. However, the moves by Bloomberg and other anti-firearms mayors across the country are seldom restrictive on illegal gun ownership and virtually certain to curtail the rights of law-abiding business owners and private citizens. After all, criminals are not concerned with observing the restrictive purchasing limits, undue waiting periods and other covenants that anti-firearms proponents always seem to feel essential in curbing crime. |