Mayors Against Freedoms Federal Blueprint Initial Thoughts

As mentioned yesterday I downloaded a copy of the Mayors Against Freedoms Federal Blueprint. I’ve not read through the entire thing yet since I’ve been busy but from what I’ve read so far I’ve come to a couple of conclusions.

1. The bastards are well organized and intelligent. Unlike the Brady Bunch and the Violence Promotion Center, these guys have actually done a lot of research on gun related laws. They know the laws and more importantly know the wording to make the laws look weak.

2. The paper doesn’t break down into mindless hysteria. It’s worked in such a way that they avoid the whole desire to ban guns. The paper doesn’t read anywhere of wanting a gun ban.

3. Their desires are scary. More or less they want to give the BATFE more power to investigate gun owners and gun dealers without any suspicion or probably cause.

4. They aren’t going after the guns directly. These guys are going after the dealers and gun shows where private citizens purchase their guns. Most of the recommendations I’ve read so far are means of restricting gun shows and sicking the BATFE on gun dealers without any real reason.

This paper is teaching me something, Mayors Against Freedoms is a lot more insidious than previous gun banners. They’ve spent time researching the laws and know how to word things ever so carefully as to make it look like they aren’t attacking guns. We’ll need to watch them and do everything we can to shut them down. Fortunately we have facts on our side so we can certainly win this fight.

If you know any mayors whom are in this group do everything you can to either get them out or elect somebody else. Likewise freedom of information requests for all communications they have had with the organization is a potential method of finding out what they are up to.

Mayors Against Civil Rights Secret Document

Snowflakes in Hell let us know that California Gun Laws has obtained a copy of Mayors Against Illegal Any Guns Blueprint for Federal Actions. God I love Freedom of Information requests. Head over to the site, register, download, read, and get angry.

I’m still diving through it but Snowflakes in Hell already got through it and made a nice list of what those pricks are planning. And let me tell you it has nothing to do with illegal anything.

Another Take on Bloomberg’s Gun Show Antics

Snowflakes in Hell has a nice little write up on Bloomberg’s latest little stunt. All in all it’s summed up greatly by the last paragraph:

What’s really disgusting about Bloomberg’s tactics, is none of these transactions and dealers shown here have anything to do with gun show loophole. It’s illegal to operate as a gun dealer, for livelihood and profit, without a Federal Firearms License. It’s illegal to knowingly sell guns to criminals. In all of these cases shown, they could be prosecuted under current laws. But he’s not going to tell you that, because the goal is to get rid of gun shows.

The so-called gun show loophole is more accurately known as a private individual selling their own property to another private individual. See the federal government claims the reason they have a right to control guns is due to the commerce clause. It’s stated in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution and states:

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

It relates to powers of Congress only. It grants Congress the power to regulate inter-state commerce. The claims are wide and varied but suffice to say since guns are usually built in one state and sold in another if falls under inter-state commerce according to the federal government. Since it falls under inter-state commerce they feel they have the power to regulate it as much as they can. This is what state laws like Montana’s Firearms Freedom Act are all about. They state guns produce, sold, and used inside the state of Montana should be free of federal regulation. Likewise if you are selling your gun to another person in the state it’s not inter-state commerce and hence the reason the federal government is unable to regulate it. Since these type of sales are exempt from federal regulations they do not require the seller to perform a NICS check,which would be illegal anyways.

I’ve covered this in my Truth About Guns podcast but I will state in here as well. Bloomberg and his posse are saying we should require private sellers to run background checks on buyers. The problem is private individuals are not legally allowed to do so only Federal Firearm License holders are allowed to access it. From the FBI itself:

Authorized use of the NICS is limited to the purpose of obtaining information on whether receipt of a firearm by a prospective transferee would violate federal or state law.

FFLs, their officers, employees, agents, and/or other representatives are permitted to request background checks of the NICS only for the authorized purpose.

Accessing or using the NICS, or permitting access or use of the NICS by another, for any unauthorized purpose is a violation of federal law, sanctions for which may include criminal prosecution; a civil fine not to exceed $10,000, and/or cancellation of NICS inquiry privileges.

So FFLs, their officers, employees, agents, and/or other representatives are permitted to request background checks. Likewise allowing any other person to access the NICS is punishable by a fine up to $10,000. The only way to access the NICS system is to get an account and in order to do that you need a Federal Firearms License.

Since it’s impossible for a private dealer to access the NICS system they can not run a background check. Hence the only way to legally require a background check is to force all sales to go through a licensed dealer. This is to say in order to sell your own property you would require the involvement of a third party. That is akin to saying it’s not your own property. Imagine if you had to go through a dealership every time you wanted to sell a car.

Since car accidents kill more people than guns every year (by a wide margin) wouldn’t it make sense to require a federal license to sell automobiles? That way a background check could be performed on potential buyers and if they had a past history of criminal behavior you could deny them access to one of the biggest means of death in this country. See how stupid it sounds when applied to cars? Why is it any different from guns? Remember automobiles are involved in far more deaths every year.

The bottom line is the anti-gun crowd wants to abolish gun shows. Not because they are a potential source for criminals to get their guns (very very VERY few criminals get their guns from gun shows, Snowflakes in Hell has the information on that). No it’s because that’s where those of us fighting for our right to keep and bear arms congregate. The only way to stop a movement is to break up the crowd. The anti-gun crowd is trying this through multiple angles such as pitting hunters against those of us who use guns for self defense.

Likewise I believe they are jealous since they lack a show type to congregate. Maybe they should start having anti-gun shows. I can see it now a place full of like minded people not buying guns. They could have tables empty and devoid of firearms and firearms accessories. I’m sure that would get a huge attendance.

Bloomberg Stepping on the Fed’s Toes

Mega douche Mayor Bloomberg is at his antics again. This is coming from Says Uncle. He sent his thugs into several out of state gun shows and had them purchase firearms from private individuals. His thugs went to non-dealers (that would be private individuals like myself and probably you) and purchased firearms while apparently admitting they were from out of state and couldn’t pass a background check.

This type of “investigation” (I use the term loosely as no police were actually working on this) falls under the territory of the FBI and ATF whom apparently have told Bloomberg to knock it off before. Says Uncle has several links to stories involving Bloomberg stepping on federal agents’ toes and muddling up their investigations.

Says Uncle also has a followup post explaining very clearly that no loophole exists. The purchases and sellers both broke the law. Simply breaking the law doesn’t constitute a loophole, it constitutes breaking the law:

My issue with it is the fact that the investigation illustrated that you can break the law by breaking the law. If a person purchases a handgun out of state, they break the law. They have a webpage set up and a report in which they state they bought guns out of state (page 17). That’s illegal. Also, they engaged in straw purchases, also illegal.

So Bloomberg’s thugs broke the law while demonstrating the law can be broken. To me this seems to require police to arrest the persons committing illegal acts. See police officers can break the law as part of a string operation (which Bloomberg is calling this) in their jurisdiction. But Bloomberg’s thugs don’t appear to be police and if they were they would be New York cops and therefore out of their jurisdiction. I think the ATF should practice their history of abuse on those so called investigators.

Coming from a gun show this weekend where an out of state person tried to purchase a handgun at the table I got me Glock 30 from I can say dealers usually don’t go for this. In the case I witnessed a person had a California ID and tried to purchase a pistol and the dealer told him no way in Hell. Maybe it was one of Bloomberg’s thugs in action. If so they obviously didn’t get any takes since they never mentioned Minnesota as a state where they were operating.

Also I apologize that there isn’t a direct link to the story but the site with the actual story requires registration to read it. As a personal policy I don’t link to sites that pull that kind of shit.

Sure We’ll Lighten Up After You Stop Lying

Snowflakes in Hell brings us a rather amusing piece provided by the “un-bias” media. The media is telling the NRA (that would be us) to lighten up on the mayors. We all know Mayors Against Illegal Guns is an organization purposely named in a deceptive manner to increase their numbers. Over 50 mayors have been stricken from their roster already. The NRA has been pushing hard against them every since Bloomberg decided to push hard against the NRA.

Here’s my response to the media’s request. Sure we’ll lighten up the second you and Bloomberg’s posse stop lying about the purpose of the organization and who is in it.

Connection Established Between Bloomberg’s Posse and the Brady Bunch

Wow Sebastian and Bitter from Snowflakes in Hell do amazing work. They have been taking the war to Mayors Against Illegal Guns faster than anybody else I know of. A great post there made by Bitter establishes the connection between Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Brady Campaign. This is a big deal since Bloomberg is trying to make it appear as though his posse isn’t an anti-gun organization but a group only against illegal guns. Of course we know that’s not true.

Keep up the good work you two.

In New York Dictators have More Right than You

Welcome to Mayor Bloomberg’s home, New York. Here the only people allowed to carry guns are the police, criminals, and foreign dictators. The latest episode of No Agenda started out with Adam Curry talking about the gun toting body cards of Libya’s own dictator. It seems Moammar Khadafy travels with an entourage of 40 to 50 armed women. Furthermore they will be in Manhattan for the United Nations General Assembly.

I hope you feel good about New York now because you, as a regular citizen, have less rights in that city than foreign dictators.

More Proof Mayors Against Illegal Guns Isn’t

One nice thing about the fight against Mayor Bloomberg’s posse is they keep handing us ammunition (don’t mind the pun) to use against them. Even though the group says they are against illegal guns they really mean they are against gun ownership in general. Case in point Bloomberg spoke about against the bill that would allow you to bring your gun on Amtrak trains so long as you follow a process very similar to how you do it on airplanes. And of course he provides this great hypocritical quote:

Bloomberg says he’s not trying to infringe on anyone’s rights.

“This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment right to bear arms and everything to do with keeping our country safe from terrorists,” he said, according to the Post.

No Bloomy this has nothing to do with terrorism. See he fails to realize the fact that this isn’t allowing people to just bring their guns on board but to do it in a manner similar to how airports do it. In other words in checked luggage separate from passengers. But here is the real kicker if you were allowed to bring your gun on board in carry on luggage if some terrorist scumbags tried something you could defend yourself and the rest of the people on the train by using your gun to stop the bad guys. Of course this also has NOTHING to do with illegal guns and EVERYTHING to do with legally owned guns. Senator Roger Wicker explains what this bill is really about:

“Americans should not have their Second Amendment rights restricted for any reason,” Wicker said in a statement. “Particularly if they choose to travel on America’s federally subsidized rail line.”

Exactly, if I’m traveling on a system that is receiving tax money from the federal government they no longer have a right to deny my constitutional rights while using their service. See Amtrak isn’t a private entity they are a government subsidized entity and that in my opinion changes the rules completely.

Oh well this is yet another article you can show to any mayor who is a member of Bloomberg’s posse as an example that the group isn’t fighting what it’s name suggests.

Bloomberg’s Posse is a Little Screwed

So the NRA has a fact sheet on Bloomberg’s posse calling themselves the Mayors Against Illegal Guns. In this fact sheet is a list of mayors who have quit that is pretty long. Under that is a list of people who are not actually mayors of the localities as the group advertises. I count 28 names under that section which is quite a few incorrectly added names to their member role sheet.

This list is very complete and even has a section for mayors in the group who were convicted of crimes. I must say if Bloomberg wants to use his deceptively named group to attack the NRA he better start an offensive quickly. The NRA is curb stomping them with facts, which we know anti-gunners have a hard time with. Then again I think Bloomberg’s biggest failure here was the name he selected for his group. Although it did help initial membership by claiming it was against illegal guns as the groups true purpose is exposed many mayors are leaving. Don’t deceive your base membership, they won’t like it.

The NRA certainly is doing a good job with the fact sheet alone and pointing out the futility of Bloomberg’s posse and their crusade against guns.