Candidate Bloomberg’s Gun Proposals Have a New Twist: They Are Federal

Michael Bloomberg’s gun control proposals as a presidential candidate aren’t markedly different from those he has proposed or implemented as Mayor, with one big difference: They’d all be federal.

On November 24th, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his candidacy for President. Since then, he has spent tens of millions of dollars on ads across the country, bringing him to 8% in some recent polling. That position could qualify him to be on stage for the next Democrat Presidential debate on December 19th.

Yesterday, Michael Bloomberg appeared in Aurora, CO to talk about his gun control policies as a presidential hopeful. At this private event, Bloomberg mentioned the presence of so many red shirts, a nod to the garb worn by members of Moms Demand Action, the gun-control organization funded by Bloomberg’s organization, Every Town for Gun Safety.

Bloomberg also acknowledged the survivors of gun violence in the room. Because it was a private event, there was no one there to ask tough questions, such as why he proposes policies that have never been proven to reduce harm.

Bloomberg has been pushing gun-control for years, so was any new ground covered in this press conference? Would his policies be any different as President from his policies and plans as Mayor?

Bloomberg said he is running for president, to “stop this nationwide madness. He also said that he will end this “epidemic of gun violence once and for all.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines an epidemic as, “a recent increase in amount or virulence of the agent. So, to end an “epidemic of gun violence, we should be looking at an increase. But that is not the case. It’s also worth noting that 2/3 of all gun deaths in this country are suicides. While even one suicide is one too many, conflating the number of suicides with murders using a firearm is dishonest. For example, suicides by other means are never called “rope violence, or “pill violence.

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports between the years 1993 and 2018, both the raw number of firearm homicides, and the number of firearm homicides as a percentage of population, are both down. So where is the epidemic? 

Bloomberg emphasized that we need a president who will “do something. But what if “doing something makes the problem worse, not better?

Among Bloomberg’s specific plans:

• He would like to reinstate “assault weapon ban, although the Department of Justice can’t credit the previous version with any reduction in crime.
• He would like to increase the age to 21, to buy any form of semi-automatic firearm, although that move would prohibit young adults from lawfully defending themselves and their families.
• He would like to adopt 48-hour waiting period for every purchase, despite no proof that waiting periods save lives. In fact, waiting periods cost people like Carol Bowne their lives.
• He would like to enact a Federal Red Flag Law, although there are problems in states that have passed such laws because there is no due process. Even the ACLU opposes some of the laws. The ACLU!
• He would like to declare gun violence as a national public health emergency, but again, it’s on the decrease.
• In a strange turn in his Aurora, CO speech, Bloomberg said, “Let’s face it, a lot of politicians view this (gun violence) as a Black and Latino problem, and so they’ve just looked the other way. To me, it’s just disgraceful.
• But Bloomberg himself has previously said that he wants to get guns out of the hands of minority males between the ages of 15-25 to save their lives. We can all agree that children should not have unsupervised access to firearms. But law-abiding adults have a right to choose a firearm for self-defense. Bloomberg’s desire to deny that choice, solely based on race or ethnicity, is disgraceful.
• As a presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg proposes to force the whole country to live under the anti-gun rights laws that he enacted in New York. He is estimated to be worth $54 billion. He can afford all the armed security he’d like to have it surrounding him.
• For the rest of us, we are our own security force. Politicians who want to deny Americans the right to choose their own self-defense, have an uphill battle. Just ask Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke.