Michael Bloomberg

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SAF Sues Bloomberg (Updated)

April 6, 2011 by 2 Comments

This just in:

SAF FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST
BLOOMBERG OVER GUN PERMIT FEES

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that alleges New York City’s $340 fee for a permit to keep a handgun in the home is “excessive andimpermissibly burdens the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”

SAF is joined in the lawsuit by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and five individual New York City residents. Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

“Under state law,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “the maximum fee for issuing a New York State handgun license is $10, but the law exempts citizens living in New York City. That exemption allows the city to charge an exorbitant fee for the license, which discourages city residents from exercising their civil rights while violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

“For decades the City has charged its residents exorbitant license fees that far exceed the fees charged by other states and cities that impose them,” said attorney David Jensen, who is representing the plaintiffs. “The effect of this is to force a punitive tax on New York City citizens who choose to own firearms in compliance with the law. But people have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and the City cannot simply impose fees for the sake of burdening law-abiding gun owners.”

“The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association was founded 141 years ago in New York City and we are proud to participate in an action to help restore the Second Amendment rights of all New York City residents,” said NYSRPA President Tom King.

In its lawsuit, SAF notes that the $340 fee is not used to defray administrative costs, so there appears to be no purpose for it other than to discourage people from applying for a permit. The excessive fee, according to Gottlieb, puts the exercise of a constitutional right solely within the financial reach of the wealthy class, essentially turning a civil right into a privilege for the rich and well-connected.

“New York is one of only two states that require a permit just to keep a handgun in one’s own home,” Gottlieb said. “Citizens in the other 48 states would consider that an outrage. The city’s residence premises’ handgun license amounts to a charge of more than $100 annually to keep a handgun in one’s home, which is ridiculous. Mayor Bloomberg is essentially taxing the fundamental right to defend one’s self in his or her own home. We cannot think of anything more egregious than perpetuating a fee structure that puts a financial obstacle in the way of citizens who want to protect their homes and families.

“We believe the only recourse is to take this issue to the federal court,” he concluded. “Billionaires like Mayor Bloomberg can be cavalier about a citizen’s rights, but we can’t, and we won’t.”

UPDATE: SAF has added two more plaintiffs to the complaint which can be found here.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation announced this morning that it has filed an amended complaint in federal district court against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City of New York over exorbitant gun licensing fees, adding two additional plaintiffs who came forward asking to be part of the legal action.

SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb said with these additional plaintiffs, there are now seven private citizens who have joined SAF and the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association in the lawsuit.

“We are being overwhelmed with calls following yesterday’s announcement about the lawsuit,” Gottlieb acknowledged. “We want to assure everyone that they do not need to be part of the lawsuit in order to benefit from a victory.

“SAF truly appreciates the wave of enthusiasm and support from New York gun owners,” he continued. “We need to move forward right now, and if people would like to support our lawsuit with a tax-exempt contribution to SAF, we would welcome that.”

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. Plaintiffs are represented by attorney David Jensen.

“Almost immediately after the lawsuit was filed,” Gottlieb said, “our phones started ringing as people wanted to join the lawsuit. We simply cannot take on more plaintiffs at this point and further delay the process.

“We do not want New York’s outrageous $340 license fee to continue one more day than it has to,” he explained. “Imagine if this was a poll tax. How many New Yorkers would be storming city hall right now, demanding their voting rights? The city’s excessive gun licensing fee amounts to the same egregious assault on every citizen’s right to self-protection in their own home.”

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Mayors Upset Over OMB Delay Of Multi-Rifle Reporting Requirement

February 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

With the announcement from OMB that they are delaying the multi-rifle reporting requirement until February 14th, Mayors Bloomberg and Menino are upset. Reading their statements in the context of Operation Gunwalker shows how out of touch they have become.

I really don’t think ATF recognizes an emergency but rather an opportunity to push their agency even if a Border Patrol agent is killed in the process.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2011
No. 16

STATEMENT OF MAYORS AGAINST ILLEGAL GUNS CO-CHAIRS IN RESPONSE TO WHITE HOUSE DELAY OF ATF POLICY ON REPORTING BULK SALES OF SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT RIFLES

White House Office of Management and Budget Rejected an Emergency Rule Proposed by The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) to Require Certain Gun Dealers Along the Southwest Border to Report Bulk Sales of Rifles, Including Military-style Semiautomatic Rifles.

The Rejection of the Emergency Rule Could Delay the Implementation of the ATF’s Proposal for Months

Statement of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

“The White House decided that the illegal trafficking of thousands of semiautomatic assault rifles from the U.S. to Mexico is not an emergency, our coalition of over 550 mayors strongly disagrees. These guns are fueling violence that has claimed more than 30,000 lives and putting our law enforcement officers at risk. ATF recognizes the emergency but we need the White House to give the agency the support it needs do its job effectively.”

Statement of Mayor Thomas M. Menino

“ATF’s emergency proposal to require reporting of bulk sales of long guns would give law enforcement meaningful intelligence about gun trafficking from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels. According to the Justice Department’s Inspector General, these long guns make up nearly half of the guns recovered in Mexican crimes. ATF has said an overwhelming majority of these guns are traced back to the United States. It is disappointing that the Administration will not act swiftly to give ATF the investigative tools it needs to help stop these crimes.”

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About That Gunshow Loophole

February 3, 2011 by

Andrew at Vuurwapen Blog has a very interesting post today entitled “There is nothing special about a gun show”. Given that he is in Arizona and Mayor Bloomberg is trying to regulate Arizona gun shows even though New York City is 2500 miles away, it points out some interesting things that the media seems to forget.

Bloomberg’s stunt, less than a month after the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, does raise an interesting question, at least to me. Why do anti-gun activists, such as Bloomberg, continue to focus on “issues” such as gun shows after mass shootings – when murderers like Loughner, Cho, and Hasan all purchased their firearms legally, undergoing background checks?

We were told when the 4473 came into effect that background checks would protect the innocent – why do they regularly fail to prevent homicidal maniacs from legally acquiring firearms? Given the abject failure of past anti-gun legislation at doing anything but preventing law abiding citizens from acquiring firearms, ammunition, and accessories, why should we believe that “just” closing this “loophole” – or “just” taking away “those” magazines – will have any real effect?

Read the whole blog post. I’d also suggest putting the Vuurwapen Blog on your list of daily reads. Andrew has some of the best info out there on AR’s among other things.

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Bloomberg Challenges Obama On Gun Control

February 2, 2011 by 1 Comment

Michael Bloomberg, not satisfied with conspiracy to commit a felony in Arizona, is now pushing Obama on gun control according to the Washington Post.

And he is now on a media blitz to push Obama on the issue. The White House has said Obama will soon “address” the issue of gun control, but it has been vague on exactly what he will say or whether he will propose any additional funding or new laws.

“The president should stand up” on gun issues, Bloomberg said in an appearance Tuesday on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” He added, “It’s one of the issues he can build a legacy on.”

I’m not sure that Obama wants his legacy to be a one-term President.

Here is the video from the Rachel Maddow show. The discussion of gun control starts at about the one minute mark.

If any prosecutor had the gumption enough, he ought to seek an indictment of Bloomberg for conspiracy. If the private investigator buyers are non-residents of Arizona and Bloomberg funded them, no matter what his good intentions were, this is conspiracy to violate Federal gun laws which is a felony. However, I doubt any charges will ever be brought against Bloomberg.

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Bloomberg Back To His Old Tricks

January 31, 2011 by 5 Comments

According to a story in the New York Times, Bloomberg sent undercover investigators to the Crossroads of the West gunshow in Phoenix, Arizona the weekend of January 22-23. The story isn’t clear on whether these were private investigators or actual NYPD undercover cops.

The goal of these investigators was to purchase firearms from private sellers without a background check. As you can guess, they succeeded.

In two instances, the New York undercover officers specifically said before buying a gun, “I probably couldn’t pass a background check,” but were still sold guns, city officials said.

In a third case, an investigator bought a Glock pistol and two high-capacity magazines like the ones used in the Tucson shooting. Such purchases were made without any background check but were perfectly legal.

Bloomberg plans to release the results of his “investigation” today. I’m sure he’ll make a big deal out of it. What will be missing from any discussion is that the purchasers broke Federal law in purchasing handguns in another state without going through a FFL.

Now, I think a couple of those sellers were stupid as it sounded like an entrapment situation. Given this was in a border state, I would be surprised if the BATFE didn’t have undercover agents at the show pursuing Operation Gunrunner. Instead of muckraking investigators from New York City trying to make hay for Bloomberg, they could have been dealing with an ATF agent trying to pad his arrest statistics.

UPDATE: The New York Daily News also is covering this story in their typical idiotic way. According to their story, Bloomberg used private investigators to make the purchases. Of course, the Daily News refers to the sellers as “Arizona gun dealers” as opposed to private individuals giving the impression that they are being sold off the books from a FFL.

Bloomberg promises to have video of the transactions at a news conference.

This all leads to an obvious question – does being a billionaire mayor and gun banner absolve you from conspiracy to commit a felony?

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Is NYC Trying to Avoid Being the Next Target?

October 27, 2010 by

Sebastian at the Snow Flakes In Hell blog had two posts yesterday about New York City and Mayor Bloomberg. One post detailed the proposed reduction in fees to obtain a gun permit in the city and the other looked at New York’s “reasons” for denying a permit. Both of these are worth a read.

I’m sure that NYC will be sued eventually on Second and Fourteenth Amendment grounds. I just don’t think it will be until some of the other cases currently in litigation advance beyond the competing motions stage. Of course, the New York City Council could pass some new egregious gun restriction like Chicago and then I think the suits would fly.

However, I don’t think a full frontal assault on NYC and their laws, in my opinion, is the course that Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation will take. It isn’t that “the Alans” won’t sue big targets – they will – but I think they want to have all the pieces in place when they do sue. One of those pieces has got to be Kachalsky v. Cacace which is working its way eventually to trial in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A precedent set in this case would then be valid in NYC because they are in the same judicial district.

Strategy and not just mere tactics is what will win our battles with the anti-gun, anti-civil rights forces. Just filing a case because you can – see for example the third Chicago gun case, Second Amendment Arms et al v. Chicago et al – is not the way to go about it.

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Gun Owners Against Illegal Mayors

August 24, 2010 by

First there was Michael Bloomberg’s group Mayors Against Illegal Guns. And, given the legal problems of many of the mayors in that group, we have Gun Owners Against Illegal Mayors. If you would like to read the rap sheets of some of these gun control advocates, go here.

While they may be against guns, some of them appear to be pro-embezzlement, pro-bribery, pro-perjury, pro-extortion, and, incredible as it may seem, pro-child porn.

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Billionaires Giving Away Wealth

August 5, 2010 by 1 Comment

The evening news shows were all abuzz with the story that 40 billionaires had signed a pledge to give away the majority of their wealth to charity. What they do with that money is, of course, entirely their business.

One of the billionaires is NY City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg is quoted as saying,

“If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing — by far — is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children,” Bloomberg said in his pledge letter, which was posted on the Giving Pledge’s website.

“A better world for them and their children.” Hmm. That sounds suspiciously like “do it for the children” which seems to be one of the more prevalent rallying cries of the gun banners. I would not be surprised to see Bloomberg to use some of his donations to push as much gun control as the courts will let him get away with.

After all, he accused Obama of dragging his feet on gun control earlier this year.