by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The Seattle Times is reporting that anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s “Everytown for Gun Safety” gun control lobby is donating another million dollars to the burgeoning Initiative 594 war chest in in Washington state, in what amounts to an effort, says gun rights advocate Alan Gottlieb, of a few wealthy elitists to “buy the election.”
With this contribution, Bloomberg joins Evergreen State billionaires Bill Gates, Nick Hanauer, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer in providing more than half of the campaign budget to pass the 18-page gun control measure sponsored by the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. That’s not all the money being spent to push so-called “universal background checks” in the Evergreen State, either.
Another billionaire-funded group, the Center for Gun Responsibility, has been running television spots for the past few weeks clearly aimed at drumming up support for the initiative, without identifying the measure in their advertisements. Those ads are supposed to end by the first week of September. Gottlieb, facing a daunting attack on gun rights, issued a press release immediately after the story broke:
“Today’s revelation that Michael Bloomberg’s “Everytown for Gun Safety” lobbying organization has donated another million dollars to the already-swollen Initiative 594 campaign war chest confirms that a “handful of billionaires” are intent on buying the November election, and along with it, the privacy rights of Washington State citizens, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.
“It’s looking more like ‘Every Billionaire for Gun Control’ wants to buy this election,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Voters should be very concerned when wealthy elitists like Bloomberg believe that their civil rights are for sale.
“If they can buy your gun rights today,” he questioned, “what other rights will they go after tomorrow? Maybe your right to drink soda, or decide what you want to eat. Or maybe they will try to buy your right to petition the government, or your freedom to assemble and associate with like-minded friends and neighbors.”
Bloomberg is not the only billionaire backing I-594, the 18-page gun control measure on the November ballot. Advertised as a so-called “universal background check” proposal for gun sales, I-594 goes much farther, requiring data collection on all handgun transfers, including loans and gifts to friends, neighbors and in-laws with only a few narrow exceptions for immediate family members.
Even people who have concealed pistol licenses, and have passed background checks, are not exempt from this unworkable measure, nor are police officers and sheriffs’ deputies.
“The state’s largest and most respected law enforcement organizations, representing more than 7,500 rank-and-file officers, oppose I-594,” Gottlieb noted. “The billionaires are trying to drown the opposition with a flood of money. In addition to Bloomberg, billionaires Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer and Nick Hanauer have invested small fortunes in their juggernaut campaign to buy the election.
“No one elected these people to control your life,” Gottlieb warned. “That is especially true with Bloomberg. I’ll remind every citizen of the state that you have a vote in this election, and Michael Bloomberg doesn’t, because he doesn’t live in Washington. He just wants to buy it.”
Gottlieb is chairing the campaign to pass competing Initiative 591. It is a grassroots effort that involves sportsmen and women, gun collectors, target shooters and law enforcement.
