By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
When billionaire presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg appeared on a “Town Hall” program at Fox News in Manassas, Va., he should have anticipated some heat from the audience that included angry gun owners.
But the exchange got so heated that anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum cut to a commercial break while things calmed down.
The unidentified audience member challenged the former New York City mayor to explain why he had armed security while at the same time pushing gun control for average citizens. The question brought applause from the audience. The man asked, “How do you justify pushing for more gun control when you have an armed security detail that’s likely equipped with the same firearms and magazines that you seek to ban the common citizen from owning? Does your life matter more than mine or my family’s or these peoples’?”
“The Second Amendment gives you the right to bear arms,” Bloomberg stated blandly.
The candidate told viewers about 40 to 50 threats come in every week, so he has retired police officers as his armed security detail. He pays for this security.
Bloomberg is widely known as the man who bankrolled the gun prohibition lobbying group Everytown for Gun Safety. He insisted “nobody is gonna take your right to bear arms.”
“The Supreme Court said you can have reasonable restrictions,” he said. “The only restrictions which I’m in favor of is to prevent us from selling guns to people with psychiatric problems, criminals or people that are minors.”
Several audience members were not satisfied and began protesting loudly.
Bloomberg has been banking on his big spending in primary states to put him on the political map. With the departures of Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg from the race to offer quick endorsements of former Vice President Joe Biden, and billionaire Tom Steyer also stepping aside, the race has narrowed.
Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting passage of several new gun control laws in Virginia, a fact Commonwealth gun owners were almost certainly aware of prior to the Fox News Town Hall. Bloomberg’s Everytown spent $2.5 million in Virginia to help flip the General Assembly to Democrat control, and the new majority immediately began crafting gun control laws. Gun owners in Manassas were obviously not impressed.
According to the ABC story, “The backlash, in one of the nation’s most pro-gun states, could impact the 2020 election.”
ABC quoted Mitchell Tyler, co-owner of a gun store in Roanoke, who suggested Virginia gun owners are “a sleeping giant” that has been awakened.
“Gun owners are a threat to politicians at the ballot box,” Tyler observed. “That is where we’re most dangerous. Because of this groundswell in sanctuary cities and counties, I think you’ll see Virginia go red this year in the presidential election.”
But the months between now and November amount to a political eternity. Much can happen.
