By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.
The head of one of the nation’s largest grassroots gun rights organizations ripped former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, now an anti-gun billionaire perhaps planning a presidential run as a Democrat, over his weekend apology for enforcing a controversial “stop and frisk” program while he was in office.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) wants to know where his apology is to the 100 million American gun owners he has habitually demonized and would penalize for merely exercising their Second Amendment rights.
According to published reports, Bloomberg told a church group in Brooklyn, ‘I got something important really wrong” with the controversial “stop and frisk” policy.
Reacting to Bloomberg’s remarks, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said it’s not the only error the former Big Apple mayor made.
“You also got my gun rights wrong,” Gottlieb declared. “For years, Bloomberg has treated the constitutionally-protected Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens like they are a regulated privilege. He’s weaponized his vast wealth to erode those rights in every corner of the country by supporting anti-rights initiatives and anti-gun politicians. He has waged a war on people who have committed no crimes, harmed nobody and merely wish to be left alone to mind their own business. To protect our guns and 15 round magazines, we need to ban Bloomberg’s billion round checkbook before he assaults our Second Amendment with it.”
Bloomberg created the Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying organization, which now encompasses Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. He has contributed to political campaigns and the Everytown Action Fund spent a reported $250,000 to help sway the Virginia legislative election to Democrats earlier this month.
“Mr. Bloomberg,” Gottlieb demanded to know, “where is your apology to 100 million gun owners? When will you stand before a microphone and acknowledge the moral bankruptcy of your crusade to quash the Second Amendment?
“We know the word ‘bankruptcy’ is a term billionaires don’t like to hear,” he acknowledged, “but honest firearms owners don’t like such terms as ‘registration’ or ‘licensing’ or ‘waiting periods.’ Just because you have deep pockets and a fat bank account does not give you the right to say gun owners have no rights. Nobody appointed Michael Bloomberg as the arbiter of rights and freedoms protected by the Constitution.”
Bloomberg reportedly told his church audience that “far too many innocent people” were stopped by police, questioned and frisked if officers suspected that person might have committed or was about to commit a crime.
“Bloomberg’s confession belies his treatment of American gun owners as second-class citizens,” Gottlieb said. “If anyone deserves an apology, it is the law-abiding firearms owners whose rights Bloomberg has tried to trample while he enjoys the perks of a wealthy lifestyle, including armed security that keeps a healthy distance between the former mayor and the people he treats with such disdain.”
