Bloomberg’s TV Blitz on Guns Puts Swing Senators on the Spot

[onehandle]

Source: New York Times

The commercial is an unambiguous appeal to gun owners: a middle-aged hunter, rifle in hand, vows that he will fight to protect the Second Amendment. But in a sensible, father-of-the-house tone, he also urges voters to support comprehensive background checks, “so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can’t buy guns.”

The man behind the advertisement is not known for his kinship with the gun crowd: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the nation’s fiercest advocate of restrictions on firearms since the December rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Determined to persuade Congress to act in response to that shooting, Mr. Bloomberg on Monday will begin bankrolling a $12 million national advertising campaign that focuses on senators who he believes might be persuaded to support a pending package of federal regulations to curb gun violence. The ads, in a dozen states, will blanket those senators’ districts during an Easter Congressional recess that is to be followed by debate over the legislation.

In a telling sign of how much the white-hot demands for gun control have been tempered by political reality, Mr. Bloomberg’s commercials make no mention of an assault weapons ban once sought by the White House and its allies, instead focusing on the more achievable goal of universal background checks.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/nyregion/bloombergs-tv-blitz-on-guns-puts-swing-state-senators-on-the-spot.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. Good for Bloomberg!

I'm glad he's pushing on this issue.

[mpcamb]

16. I agree.

Make the issue-dodging weasels vote publicly.

[jonthebru]

2. I may be the one person who sees through Bloomberg's mask.

In one account he says that no one else is speaking out for gun regulation. Who the helk does he think he is? Oh yeah, he is a wealthy out of touch oligarch, that's who he is.
Notice folks he always goes it alone? He must need a supers sized bathroom to share with his enormous, humongous ego.

Want to get better firearm regulation? Want to get our elected reps to face Global Climate Change? Want to get our "leaders" to move towards the frickin' future?
Well, get to work on movetoamend.org for an amendment to get money out of politics and anticorruptionact.org to get a Federal Law to counter the influence of lobbyists and their legal bribes on our elected"representatives." And let a couple of those large banks fail... No more balancing the situation on the middle and lower income citizens, that must end!

One issue matters only in that there are a dozen or so issues that are just as important as any you can think of. And the Congress and Senate are frickin' bought off, lock, stock, and barrel.
All is not lost, but it almost is.

[baldguy]

22. Huge majorities want background checks & and assault weapons ban.

Bloomberg doesn't seem "out of touch" on this issue to me.

Nice try at a plug for a marginally related topic, though.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. Bloomberg is untrustworthy because he supports unconstitutional actions, including violating the 4th

and 5th Amendments by using his police force to stop-and-frisk law abiding citizens who have done nothing except be in the vicinity of his roving cops. Such action by him is also heavily targeted towards non-whites and violates the 14th Amendment.

At a minimum, his use of unnecessary and excessive violence against Occupy-Wall Street protestors also violates the 1st and 5th Amendments.

There's no way that Bloomberg wants to only bankroll legislation for universal background checks. He's using a bait-and-switch tactic to focus upon something that sounds innocuous but his real goal is to go far beyond that. Since his proven goal is to go beyond background checks, it would be reasonable to ask what his real short-term goals are. Is he going to ask for annual background checks? Is he going to add fees for such background checks? Are those fees going to be limited to reasonable amounts?

Now, because Sandy Hook is mentioned and Sandy Hook is being exploited for political purposes, there appears to be some DUers who will disregard his unconstitional actions actions mentioned above, and others, and cheer on a member of the super-rich who does not have our interests at heart and is not even a Democrat.

[bobclark86]

5. SHH!!!

He's doing something his former party agrees with for a change... it totally makes up for arresting stuck-up rich hipsters and stopping black people on the street

[SunSeeker]

8. His ads are just pushing background checks, which 90% of Americans agree with.

He can't pass the laws himself. And his money is not limitless. He is not a Koch brother. Plus, he has already backed off of his original agenda. As the article notes, he is not even discussing an AWB, which is unfortunate since I and 56% of Americans support an AWB.

Neither he nor anyone else (well, except for you) has ever talked about "annual" background check fees so they can take away everyone's guns. Sheesh.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. You think Bloomberg is Batman? Here's what you'll see when you take off his mask:

[SunSeeker]

10. I know Bloomberg is a 1%er. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

11. First you thought that Bloomberg is Batman? Now you think that he is a clock?

[SunSeeker]

12. No, you thought he was Batman.

That cartoon was not about Bloomberg. It was about the paranoid argument gun nuts make about how every attempt at gun control is an attempt to take everyone's guns.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

13. You say "It was about the paranoid argument ..." You win every straw-man argument that you make.

Only someone who is delusional would sincerely believe that so-called argument that they came up with.

[SunSeeker]

24. Well, at least you have KKKarl Rove on your side on this universal background check being a pretext.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/terry-moran-to-karl-rove-youre-scaring-people?ref=fpb

[Paladin]

17. Oh, Please.

I wish I had a $100 bill for every time DU pro-gun activists have used that "broken clock" thing in support of all the right-wing extremist shithooks doing your political bidding. Your side of the gun argument practically has a copyright on that hackneyed old saying. And there you go, getting pissed when it's used by the other side.....

[AnotherMcIntosh]

19. 2 sides? Are those who engage in dichotomized thinking liberals or conservatives?

I think that you've shown your true colors.

[Paladin]

20. I Got Your Dichotomy.

You DU pro-gun types may swear your allegiance to progressive principles all you want---the fact is, you're peddling a blatantly right-wing agenda on the one issue that seems to matter the most to you, 24/7. So your sniping about "dichotomized thinking" rings more than a little hollow---this being a Democratic site, after all.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. I think we all know the real gun control deabte issue rests squarely on

private jet owners sleeping in homeless shelters.

[Thinkingabout]

4. Thank goodness someone sensible is leading the way to get gun violence under control

As voters we need to let our Senators know we want and need background checks. He is trying to assist our right to freedom and right to live without fear the next mass killing the next time we go out in public. Gun violence is out of hand, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!

[coldmountain]

6. Don't make the good the enemy of the perfect, Bloomie ain't perfect

Don't make the good the enemy of the perfect, Bloomie ain't perfect but the NRA and other gun organizations are pure evil. Mainstream America needs a leader like Bloomberg to take on the even worse gun guys and their Koch brothers allies.

[Thinkingabout]

7. On his endeavor to curtail gun violence I stand with him.

We needed a strong voice at the top and funds to get the news out and he has both

[GoldenEagle16]

14. Right cause wrong person

we don't need 1% leading us. We need a progressive gun control movement that is a true mass movement of the people.

[Paladin]

18. And until such a movement is up and running, I'm with Bloomberg on this.

Looks like it will take a few more mass murders involving guns to get that movement organized, funded, and under way. I'll be part of that movement, but meanwhile I'll support what resources are available, 1% types included.

[GoldenEagle16]

21. So we give him all this influence and power

assuming that he will not also advance his anti-worker, anti-OWS, anti-civil rights positions?

He will tell you that stop and frisk was critical to reducing gun deaths in NYC - what makes you think you can control the monster you might create? He is not a progressive.

[Paladin]

23. Just a little reality check, here:

I am a single, disembodied voice on an online talk site. I don't think I'm in any position to turn Bloomberg into the sort of right-wing "monster" you're talking about. If you want to discourage support for Bloomberg's gun initiative in favor of movement purity at some distant point in the future, be my guest. I just think the price for such ideological absolutism is too high at this point.