Billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg, the notoriously anti-gun ex-Mayor of New York City, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grassroots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence, according to The New York Times.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged to financially support gun control efforts in 2014 with $50,000,000
He hopes the new organization can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the entire progun movement, according to the April 16 Times report.
Bloomberg said gun control advocates need to learn from the NRA and punish those politicians who fail to support their agenda — even Democrats whose positions otherwise align with his own.
Bloomberg ran three times for his former mayor’s office, once as a Republican, once as a Democrat, and once as an Independent.
“They say, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to go after you,’ ” he said of the NRA. “ ‘If you don’t vote with us we’re going to go after your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids. And we’re never going to stop.’ ” He added: “We’ve got to make them afraid of us.” The considerable advantages that gun rights advocates enjoy—in intensity, organization and political clout—will not be easy to overcome, the Times admitted.
“Indeed, Bloomberg has already spent millions of dollars trying to persuade members of Congress to support enhanced background check laws with virtually nothing to show for it,” The Times continued.
“What is more, for many gun owners, the issue is a deeply personal one that energizes them politically,” said Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, who dismissed the mayor’s plans.
“He’s got the money to waste,” Pratt said. “So I guess he’s free to do so. But frankly, I think he’s going to find out why his side keeps losing.” Bloomberg’s blueprint re-imagines the way gun control advocates have traditionally confronted the issue. Rather than relying so heavily on television ad campaigns, Bloomberg will put a large portion of his resources into the often unseen field operations that have been effective for groups like the NRA in driving single-issue, like-minded voters to the polls.
Women, and mothers in particular, will be the focus of the organizing and outreach, a path that Bloomberg and his advisers have modeled after groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The plans call for a restructuring of the gun control groups he funds, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
They will be brought under one new umbrella group called Everytown for Gun Safety.
The strategy will focus not on sweeping federal restrictions to ban certain weapons, but instead will seek to expand the background check system for gun buyers both at the state and national levels.
The group will zero in on 15 target states, from places like Colorado and Washington State, where gun control initiatives have advanced recently and supporters of the confiscatory I-594 already have earmarked $12 million to win votes, to territory that is likely to be more hostile like Texas, Montana and Indiana. They have set a goal of signing up one million new supporters this year on top of the 1.5 million they claim they already have.
Then Bloomberg has another problem.
His previous efforts to buy gun control have touched off tensions with national Democratic leaders, because he has run negative ads against incumbent Democrats whom he views as insufficiently supportive of gun control. The Democratic leaders argue that Bloomberg threatens to hand control of the Senate to Republicans, which they say would doom any hope of passing gun control legislation.
