It’s been an eventful week on the gun control front. I’m sure Senator Diane Feinstein isn’t happy with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with his announcement that the assault weapons ban would be stripped from the gun control bill that is headed to the floor of the Senate. That isn’t to say there are not other things to be concerned about in the fight over gun control, but the assault weapons ban will be standing on its own merit, according to Senator Reid. And then, we have New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He seems determined to implement gun control (and other kinds of control, but that’s another story), no matter how much it costs.
There is only one way we are going to lose the battle over gun control and that is if public opinion sways in the wrong direction. That is what Mayor Bloomberg and Mayors Against Illegal Guns is trying to do with the $12 million in ads that are being purchased. They are trying to move public opinion and with that move, force Senators who are on the fence about comprehensive background checks into changing their votes.
(Huffington Post) New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to spend $12 million on a television ad campaign meant to pressure senators into backing gun control efforts, including comprehensive background checks.
The national campaign from Mayors Against Illegal Guns will target states whose senators are on the fence, according to the New York Post.
Bloomberg announced the ad buy Saturday — just days after Senate Democrats touted stronger background checks while acknowledging insufficient support to restore a ban on assault-style weapons to federal gun control legislation.
“These ads bring the voices of Americans — who overwhelmingly support comprehensive and enforceable background checks — into the discussion to move senators to immediately take action to prevent gun violence,” Bloomberg said in a statement issued by the group he co-founded in 2006.
The Fox News article goes on to describe two of the ads that will be playing in select states. Both of them feature men who support the 2nd Amendment, or so they say, but are quick to say that our rights come with certain responsibilities. The responsibility they specifically mention are comprehensive background checks. What is implied, but not stated, is that those comprehensive background checks are aimed at the purchases you and I, American citizens who are legally allowed to own and carry a gun, via the 2nd Amendment, would conduct. In other words, we would undergo a background check when we purchase a gun.
While that sounds innocent enough, stop and ask yourself this question. Let’s say we submit to a background check and fulfill our responsibility as an American citizen. Who will be doing the background checks on the criminals who have no qualms about not following the law in the first place? Isn’t that why they are called criminals? Should law-abiding American citizens be subjected to something that will do nothing to control what the very name of Mayor Bloomberg’s group says it is against? Remember, they call themselves Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Does that mean they want to go after illegal guns and the criminals who use them? Or does it mean Bloomberg is more interested in controlling the guns you and I are allowed to own?
The ads are scheduled to run in Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania. These are the states Bloomberg believes are divided on gun control and are vulnerable to the message the ads are trying to send. If you live on one of these states, I would urge you to call your Senators and let them know exactly where you stand on requiring you to undergo a background check to purchase a gun, when that background check will do nothing to prevent illegal guns from reaching the criminals. It’s a simple matter, really. Ask them whose side they are on.
