MAIG

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How Would You Feel About MAIG Regional Coordinators Paid With Your Tax Dollars?

May 21, 2012 by 2 Comments

You’d probably feel just the same way I do – angry, disgusted, and, if it were my tax dollars, pissed off.

From the All Nine Yards blog:

Here’s a great way to reduce overhead and be effective at running a national organization dedicated to infringing on the gun rights of everyday people all at the same time… Have cities hire your people for you so that tax payers pay for ¼ of your people’s salary and benefits, most of their operational costs, and all of their other resources! It also embeds your people as leaders in city government so that you don’t have to lobby there!

Sounds like another conspiracy theory from the tinfoil hat brigade… Right?

Back in March, while researching the repeal of some anti-gun ordinances, I stumbled across an Orlando City Council agenda item that grabbed my attention. It was, on its surface, just a mundane action item for the annual contract renewal of a city employee. But this city employee’s job title was, well, unique…

“Approving Employment Contract for the Grant-Funded Position of Mayors Against Illegal Guns Regional Coordinator.”

Sean Caranna has uncovered this rat’s nest and it isn’t limited to Orlando, Florida. He has found similar regional coordinators embedded in city governments in Maine, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as well other place in Florida.

Sean’s well-research and well-documented post is a must read. After you read it – and stop cursing – forward links to it to all your friends.

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When Editorials Read Like A MAIG Press Release

March 24, 2012 by 4 Comments

The Stamford Advocate ran an editorial yesterday that could have been a press release from Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. For all I know, it was.

The editorial entitled “More guns arrive and the bullets fly” seems to be in response to the news that firearms manufacturers lead by Connecticut’s Sturm, Ruger were having record sales.

It is the incredibly permissive gun laws in this country that allow millions of new guns to be purchased in the United States each year. And it is the incredibly permissive gun laws in this country that abet the illegal flow of many of those guns into American cities that do not want them, that are trying to keep them out.

While they acknowledge the Second Amendment exists, they still cling to the collective-right interpretation despite the Supreme Court’s rulings in D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago which affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual right.

In the years since that was passed, courts have made many precedent-setting decisions that have expanded gun rights. But how did “A well regulated militia” come to mean “everyone can build a private arsenal big enough to invade a mid-sized nation”?

They then move on to suggest that there should be restrictions on how many firearms a person should be allowed to own. Of course, they call it coming to “our senses” and “reasonable limits” which they never define. This, they say, would prevent criminals and street gangs from obtaining weapons with which to kill cops and kids or something like that.

They conclude their press release editorial by stating:

It is the legal gun trade that supplies the illegal gun trade. Until we place some sensible limits on the first, ones in keeping with the spirit of a “well regulated militia,” we will never begin to get a handle on the second. And law-abiding citizens’ best defense against bullets flying into their homes and into their bodies will continue to be sheer luck.

Of course this is a ludicrous claim and one for which the editorial board of the Stamford Advocate should be ashamed. However, in the rarefied and elite world of Stamford, shame is an antiquated concept suitable only for the little people.

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Quote Of The Day

February 4, 2012 by

The quote of the day comes “Jazz Shaw” at Hotair.com who calls Mayor Michael Bloomberg the Nanny State King for his anti-smoking, anti-salt, anti-trans fat, and anti-gun efforts.

After discussing the Super Bowl ad by Mayor Mike and Mayor Mumbles (as Weer’d calls him) for their group of Illegal Mayors, he makes this comment about concealed carry in the Empire State.

It may come as a surprise to some readers to learn that you actually can get a concealed carry permit in New York legally. However I believe you’re likely to see an actual Bigfoot in the Hudson Valley before you find one of those permits.

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Dog Bites Man Or Is This Really News

January 24, 2012 by

In news from Greater Boston, comes a press release that the mayor of the City of Peabody has joined Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors.

Peabody Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. announced yesterday that he has joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition of 600 mayors committed to keeping guns out of criminal hands.

Having a mayor from relatively anti-gun Massachusetts (or as JayG calls it, the Volksrepublik) join an anti-gun group of mayors is not news. It is just the same old tired gun prohibitionists rehashing the same old tired news.

However, if Mayor Bettencourt had resigned from MAIG and said he was pushing for real shall-issue concealed carry for Massachusetts, now THAT would be news.

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Blah, Blah, Blah….Waaa!

November 17, 2011 by 5 Comments

Mayor Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayors are not happy. They want you to know that. That is why they have released this whining press release bemoaning the fact that the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed HR 822 today.

“Ten months after a disturbed man carried a concealed weapon to shoot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, six fatally, the House voted today to gut state laws on who can carry concealed, loaded guns in public. This was an absolutely embarrassing display of putting special interests and fund raising ahead of public safety.

“A majority of the House ignored the advice of police, prosecutors, domestic violence experts, faith leaders and more than 600 mayors who made clear that this measure will put police and communities at greater risk. Many members also cast aside their usual respect for the authority of states to decide how to protect public safety in their communities.

“With unemployment over nine percent and Congress taking no action to create jobs, it is astonishing that catering to the Washington gun lobby is the top priority for House Republicans. The vast majority of actual gun-owning Americans oppose this bill: 82 percent of them want states, not Washington, to decide who can carry concealed, loaded guns in public.

“We applaud the Democratic leadership, particularly Chairman Conyers, for waging a principled fight against this bill, and offer thanks to Republican members who stood up for police and public safety, including Representatives Peter King, Michael Grimm, Bob Turner, Dan Lungren, Robert Dold and others.

“The debate now moves to the Senate, which had the sense to reject this measure in 2009. We urge them to do so again.”

In their call to states rights, Mayors Michael Bloomberg of New York and Thomas Menino of Boston remind me of a certain Alabama governor who famously said in his inaugural speech “and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” You just need to replace the word segregation with gun control and you have essentially the same argument that George Wallace made in 1963. Wallace repudiated his words late in his life saying they were one of his life’s biggest regrets. I doubt Bloomberg and Menino will ever repudiate their anti-gun rights bigotry.

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Bloomberg Brings The Dead Back To Life (Updated)

November 9, 2011 by 2 Comments

Bitter at Shall Not Be Questioned has a post on the late mayor of Freeland Borough, Pennsylvania, Tim Martin, who had been a member of MAIG. Mayor Martin passed away on September 2, 2010 due to cancer. Nonetheless, he has either been listed in advertisements or has signed letters to Congress and the President since that time on behalf of Mayor Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayors. I didn’t realize that Bloomberg had such supernatural powers!

In fact, not only do they claim him as a member, but the deceased mayor has signed his name to at least two advertisements, three letters to Congress, and one letter to the President sent by Michael Bloomberg’s office. Now, just how on earth is Bloomberg getting a dead man to sign his letters? And why are media outlets running advertisements that are clearly fraudulent?

Go to Shall Not Be Questioned to see all the items that Mayor Martin signed from the grave.

UPDATE: It looks like Mayor Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayors don’t like being exposed for frauds.They’ve responded with a statement saying that they had left a message with the late mayor’s office but never had a call back.

I guess MAIG must be taking their cue from the way the Book of the Month Club and all the assorted CD clubs used to work. Those clubs would ship you the book or CD unless you responded saying you didn’t want it. I wonder how many other mayors “signed” letters or “approved” ads with their names in it without ever having said yes or no.

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600 Mayors! Oh, My!

October 20, 2011 by 6 Comments

Mayor Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayors are pulling out all the stops to try and derail HR 822 – the National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. They placed a full page ad in USAToday asking people to call their Senators to oppose the bill. They are saying “This federal mandate would threaten the safety of our communities by putting loaded guns in the hands of people who are too dangerous to qualify for a local permit.” (Sebastian does a good job examining this in the context of Philadelphia.)  Moreover, this ad was signed by 600 mayors from around the country.

That many mayors sounds impressive until you start digging deeper. There are six mayors from North Carolina that signed the ad. They include:

Mark Chilton, Carrboro, North Carolina
Mark Kleinschmidt, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Bill Bell, Durham, North Carolina
John L. Cowan, East Spencer, North Carolina
Charles Meeker, Raleigh, North Carolina
Victor Varela, Ronda, North Carolina

The mayors of Carrboro and Chapel Hill would sign anything that was liberal or anti-gun. Their voters are either college professors, university staff, or college students with a smattering of well-to-do retirees tossed into the mix.

I will grant that Raleigh and Durham are the second and fourth largest North Carolina cities. They have also had a very large influx of migrants from New York and New Jersey who have brought their anti-gun biases with them.

This leaves us with East Spencer and Ronda.

East Spencer has a population of 1,534 and is over 80% African-American. Contrast that with the adjoining town of Spencer which has a similar population but is over 70% white. It is unfortunately obvious that these two towns were separately incorporated due to racial considerations. Unfortunate, too, is that many African-American politicians purposely ignore the racist roots of gun control.

Then there is the town of Ronda in Wilkes County which has all of 455 people living within its town limits.

All told, these mayors represent 7.5% of the population of North Carolina and only two of its major cities. Why should either Richard Burr or Kay Hagan pay any attention to these six mayors given how few people they actually represent?

The slogan of this campaign – “Stop the Washington gun lobby and their allies in Congress from taking away your state’s right to decide who can carry a concealed gun” is reminiscent of what the racial segregationists were saying in the 1940s and 50s. It could just as easily be rewritten to read “stop the Washington civil rights lobby and their allies in Congress from taking away your state’s right to decide if black people should be allowed to eat at whites-only lunch counters”. We are dealing with civil rights in both instances. The Second Amendment is an enumerated civil right and includes the right to self-protection and self-defense. It is a shame that so many mayors want to keep their citizens disarmed and servile just like the segregationist mayors of the Jim Crow South.

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Is Charleston Looking To Chicago For Inspiration On Target Ranges?

October 3, 2011 by 6 Comments

Bob Chase owns a furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina which has a mostly vacant warehouse in a semi-industrial section of the city. According to the Charleston newspaper The Post and Courier, he’d like to convert this 6,000 square foot building into an indoor shooting range which seems a reasonable use in a city that has no indoor ranges. There are ranges in North Charleston and Summerville and outdoor ranges in the Francis Marion National Forest and Summerville.You can see the building in the picture below.

The problem for Mr. Chase is that he wants to open his range in a city headed by a member of Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. Mayor Joseph Riley has been mayor of Charleston for 36 years and a member of MAIG since 2009.

Mr. Chase had been meeting with city officials over his plans to open a range in the shadow of the on-ramp to the Ravenel Bridge which crosses the Cooper River. You can see this in the screen cap from Google Maps below which shows the street view as seen from the front of his warehouse.

On September 13th, the Charleston City Council passed the first reading of two ordinances that would regulate ranges and the discharge of firearms within the city. (More on this meeting a bit later.) Mr. Chase was given no indication from city officials over their plans to move these ordinances and feels somewhat blindsided by their actions.

Chase said he had been meeting with city officials to discuss the project but had no idea the ordinances were coming. “They really met with me just as a ruse,” he said. “I feel it’s disturbing the city would not follow the rules it has.”

Chase said he supports the mayor, but added, “I don’t have the authority of picking and choosing the laws I follow, so why should they?”

By moving as they did to start consideration of new ordinances, the Mayor and City Council  have foreclosed any grandfathering of Mr. Chase’s property and he will be subject to the new zoning ordinances if they are adopted. As the following from the Minutes of the September 13th meeting of City Council illustrate, their move on the ordinances was a rush job.

Councilmember White said, “I’m going to abstain from the vote and I just wanted to explain why. I don’t normally abstain, generally speaking, but I don’t have enough time to digest this and with all due respect. I recognize we sometimes have time constraints to deal with, but I’m just going to abstain without further information at this time.”

Mayor Riley said, “I can understand, I apologize for that. I was just nervous, that
if we didn’t have enough regulations in place, something might get through that we
would regret. So, it’s just to make sure we have that. “

The Mayor recognized Councilmember Hallman.”

Councilmember Hallman said, “Is there a pending permit for an indoor shooting range on Meeting Street that necessitates us voting on this tonight, versus deferring it and discussing it at the next meeting?”

Mr. Keane said, “We have the expectation that we could have one soon, so we
really prefer to get an ordinance. We can go through the ordinance if you’d like tonight, to explain it to you, if that would be helpful, if we can get first reading tonight, then we can continue to discuss it before it gets final reading. We’ll have public hearings and it will come back. But we’d like to have something pending in case we do get a permit. We could get one tomorrow.”

Mayor Riley said, “If there’s a pending zoning ordinance, and if someone were to
apply, while the ordinance is pending; if what they seek is not allowed in the ordinance, the pending ordinance would keep that from happening until the pending ordinance was disposed of. So, that was the thought.”

After the City Council had the first reading on two proposed ordinances, they were sent them to the Charleston Planning Commission for public hearings. The first ordinance would make indoor shooting ranges a permitted use but would require a conditional use permit if located within a light or heavy industrial zone. Moreover, it would impose additional conditions for indoor shooting ranges. While not mentioned in the proposed ordinance below, the article in the Post and Courier reports these conditions would be a location “at least 1,000 feet from the nearest church, city park or home.”

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 54 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF CHARLESTON (ZONING ORDINANCE) BY AMENDING THE TABLE OF PERMITTED USES IN ARTICLE 2 LAND USE REGULATIONS TO INCLUDE INDOOR SHOOTING RANGE AND OUTDOOR SHOOTING RANGE USES IN THE TABLE OF PERMITTED USES, TO MAKE INDOOR SHOOTING RANGE USES A CONDITIONAL USE WITHIN THE LIGHT INDUSTRIAL AND HEAVY INDUSTRIAL ZONE DISTRICTS, TO ADD CONDITIONS FOR INDOOR SHOOTING RANGE USES IN SECTION 54-207, AND TO CLARIFY THAT OUTDOOR SHOOTING RANGE USES ARE PROHIBITED WITHIN THE CITY OF CHARLESTON PURSUANT TO SECTION 5-213 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF CHARLESTON.

As can be seen in the zoning map below, this ordinance, if passed with the conditions mentioned, would preclude locating a range in Mr. Chase’s mostly vacant warehouse.

The second ordinance that passed it first reading amended the city code dealing with the discharge of firearms within the City of Charleston. It removed four current exceptions including one that allowed shooting galleries. I think it might be argued that a shooting range might qualify as a shooting gallery. It replaced these exceptions with an exception for indoor shooting ranges.

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND SECTION 21-213 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF CHARLESTON TO DELETE SUBSECTIONS (1), (2), (3) AND (4) AS EXCEPTIONS TO SECTION 21-213 THAT GENERALLY PROVIDES THAT NO PERSON, EXCEPT IN CASES OF URGENT NECESSITY, SHALL DISCHARGE OR CAUSE TO BE DISCHARGED ANY FIREARM IN THE CITY, THEREBY ELIMINATING THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS TO THE PROHIBITING OF THE DISCHARGING OF FIREARMS IN A SHOOTING GALLERY; (2) PURSUANT TO THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE MAYOR OR PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR; (3) TO THEATRICAL OR LIKE PERFORMANCES; AND (4) TO MILITARY OR SIMILAR DISPLAYS AND TO FURTHER AMEND SECTION 21-213 TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FOR DISCHARGING FIREARMS IN AN INDOOR SHOOTING RANGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW ON LANDS WITHIN THE CITY THAT ARE ZONED TO PERMIT SUCH USE.

In addition to Mayor Riley, opposition to the range comes from Councilman Robert Mitchell (District 4) and Councilman Jimmy Gallant III (District 5) who represent this area of Charleston. They were the ones who made the motion and second to approve the ordinances in question. Councilman Mitchell, in particular, is opposed to the proposed range. He made that quite clear according to the Minutes of the Council meeting.

Councilmember Mitchell said, “I heard about it and that’s part of the District that I and Councilman Gallant is representing, partially. I don’t think it needs to be in the Peninsula City of Charleston. I don’t believe something like that needs to be in the Peninsula City of Charleston. It’s an indoor firing range. But the problem I having it in that area with a lot of shootings, I don’t need something to be opening that up. I believe something like that can either be in the area, an industrial area like we did with the tattoo parlor, if you may. In an industrial area if you want to open something, they have one on Cross County Road, the same place I went to the shooting range, but it needs to be in an industrial area, but not in the Peninsula City. I don’t believe that.

The range that Mr. Mitchell refers to is ATP Gunshop and Range in Summerville which is located in another municipality. He was also quoted in the Post and Courier as saying another reason he opposes it is that there is “so much shooting anyway with individuals in the community.”

If one had access to a GIS system for Charleston, it would be quite interesting to see if any areas exist within the city that are not within 1,000 feet of a house, a church, or a city park. If this restriction amounts to a virtual ban on indoor ranges within Charleston, I think Mayor Riley and Charleston City Council would be on dubious legal ground. The City of Chicago found this out when their ban on target ranges was ruled void by the 7th Circuit in Ezell v. Chicago. In that decision, the court held that “the right to maintain proficiency in firearm use (is) an important corollary to the meaningful exercise of the core right to possess firearms for self‐defense.” While Ezell was decided in the 7th Circuit and Charleston is located within the 4th Circuit, judges look to other circuits for guidance. Mr. Chase had made it very clear that if he is precluded by the new zoning ordinances from opening his range, he will go to court. It could get expensive for the taxpayers of the City of Charleston.

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I’m Shocked – Rahmbo Joins MAIG

August 22, 2011 by 2 Comments

The AP is reporting that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has joined Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. I am shocked, shocked I say by this news.

In a statement, Emanuel says almost half of the guns recovered in Chicago come from outside Illinois. He says Chicago has to work with other cities to fight gun trafficking and pass federal legislation.

It is interesting that such important news as this was first reported on a Sunday afternoon. Moreover, the release still isn’t up on Emanuel’s City of Chicago website nor even MAIG’s website.

Chicago officials are also reporting that “more than 80 percent of murder victims last year were killed with a gun.” The victims must have been hanging around outside all those shooting ranges in Chicago. Oh wait, there weren’t any as the Chicago Gun Law forbid them and the 7th Circuit hadn’t ruled in favor of Rhonda Ezell until July of this year.