By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Michael Bloomberg (Screen snip, YouTube, CBS)
Social media erupted after reports began circulating that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire anti-gunner who bankrolled the Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying group, may consider a run for president in 2020.
According to an Associated Press analysis, the revelation amounts to a strong suggestion of a “glaring weakness of establishment-favorite Joe Biden and persistent fears that his surging rival, Elizabeth Warren, is too liberal to defeat President Donald Trump in a general election.”
The announcement also has some Second Amendment activists alarmed, and for good reason. Estimated to be worth more than $50 billion, Bloomberg in recent years has “weaponized his wealth,” according to many activists who attended the September Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix.
Last year, the New York Times reported that “organizations controlled and funded by Mr. Bloomberg spent more than $41 million on 24 House races, much of it on eye-catching ads rolled out on social media and broadcast on television in the crucial final days of the campaign.” A chart used as an illustration with that story noted, “Bloomberg PACs Backed 24 House Races. Democrats Won 21 of Them.”
Last November, control of the U.S. House flipped to Democrats, leading to current efforts by the Nancy Pelosi-Adam Schiff led majority to impeach President Donald Trump.
More recently, his Everytown for Gun Safety Action and Victory funds pumped $2.5 million into the Virginia legislative races, helping to put Democrats in charge of both chambers in Richmond for the first time in many years. Gov. Ralph Northam has used the opportunity to revive his gun control agenda.
Bloomberg has become especially disliked by Washington State gun owners for his support of restrictive gun control initiatives over the past five years. In 2014, according to data from the state Public Disclosure Commission, shows that Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety contributed $2.31 million to the Initiative 594 campaign. That was the measure requiring so-called “universal background checks.”
Two years later, Everytown was at it again, donating $550,000 cash and $43,993 in-kind to the Initiative 1491 campaign to adopt a “red flag” law in Washington.
That same year, according to a November 2016 Reuters report, Bloomberg “personally donated nearly $10 million” to a gun control initiative in Nevada patterned after Washington’s I-594 .
Last year, Everytown’s Action Fund donated another $450,000 to the Initiative 1639 campaign. That measure prohibits young adults ages 18-20 from purchasing modern sporting rifles or .22-caliber semi-automatic hunting rifles and is currently being challenged in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
According to Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, that lawsuit is in the discovery phase. SAF and the National Rifle Association are supporting the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, grassroots Evergreen State activists have launched an ambitious initiative campaign to repeal I-1639. Operating with no funds but plenty of manpower, activists are gathering thousands of signatures on petitions at nearly every gun shop, gun shows and other popular venues across the state. They are scrambling to get 300,000 signatures by Dec. 28, which translates to needing at least 5,500 signatures daily between now and then. One source associated with that initiative effort estimated Friday that about 80,000 signatures have already been gathered, which would mean the repeal effort has momentum.
Bloomberg was reportedly filing paperwork in Alabama Friday to meet the deadline for getting on that state’s primary ballot in March 2020.
Politico noted Friday, “Bloomberg has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Democratic causes in recent years, earning him goodwill among many progressive activists and especially those connected with climate change and gun control. His funding of the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action has given the left a powerful counter to the National Rifle Association.”
The former Big Apple mayor can self-fund a presidential campaign, and still have money left over to pour into more congressional races next year. If so, it could mean big trouble for the Second Amendment community, despite Trump’s success in filling federal court vacancies with pro-rights conservative judges. It is in the courts where the tide could eventually be turned against the gun control laws now being challenged by various lawsuits involving SAF, NRA or other gun rights organizations.
