I really didn’t pay much attention to this guy until recently. He’s the mayor of New York, and judging from his actions, a publicity-chasing, self-aggrandizing meathead pursuing a personal vendetta for political gain.
He’s decided that the high rates of gun crime in New York have nothing to do with a largely incompetent police force, a failing educational system, the staggering disparity between the very rich and the very poor, or the fact that law-abiding citizens are robbed of the right to self-defense. Nope, he claims that it’s due to a flood of weapons being purchased in other states and trucked in.
In order to bolster his political ego rid his fine city of crime, he’s taken to suing gun dealers in other states.
“Wow,” you might think, “doesn’t that cross all sorts of jurisdictional lines? Doesn’t it trample States’ Rights? Isn’t this way beyond his authority or scope?”
You’d be right. Of course, that hasn’t stopped him. After all, he’s talking about running for President, so I suppose he needs practice in trampling civil rights.
Here’s the scheme (I’ve already talked about the sources of criminal guns elsewhere). He’s going after the straw-purchases and the dealers who “allow” them. Of course, in the current climate, you’d be REALLY hard pressed to find a gun dealer willing to allow that to happen under his nose.
Knowing this, Bloomberg has sent undercover agents into gun shops in several states in an attempt to impersonate straw purchases. When these agents succeed, he claims to have merit to bring legal action.
Thing is, gun dealers don’t sleep with supermodels in beds of money. Most are struggling small-business owners like any others, with bills, payroll and rent to make. They can’t afford to go out of state to defend themselves against the kind of legal muscle the Mayor of New York can summon forth. So what do they do?
They admit defeat, even though they’ve not been proven to do anything wrong, and they settle. The alternative is too costly for most. Money buys justice these days, and they just can’t afford it.
You’ll notice that we’re talking about civil action, not criminal action. None of these businesses have been cited by the ATF or any federal agency in a criminal capacity. In fact, the ATF is somewhat less than happy with Mr. Bloomberg’s fiesta of lawsuits. He’s stepping on some pretty big toes.
(Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin may also have some collusion in this. Remember that come next election.)
In any case, the big question is, “what about the people making these ‘straw purchases?'” Knowing that using law-enforcement for this sort of thing amounts to entrapment, he’s hired private detectives to do the job. In the case of Atlanta, he’s using Tanya Marie Nooner.
Essentially, Ms. Nooner has been entering gun shops and committing Federal felonies left and right in the cause of serving Mr. Bloomberg’s idea of “justice.”
Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this?
Mayor Bloomberg has committed, admitted to, and boasted about conspiracy to commit felonies.
He has aided and abetted people committing Federal crimes.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure public servants aren’t supposed to do that sort of thing.
In any case, one of the dealers has refused to comply and is suing Mr. Bloomberg, Ms. Nooner, the City of New York, and anyone else involved in this mess. Good for them; I wish them well. We’ve got an election coming up, and I’d like to see the fallacies of the Gun Control lobby dragged into the light.