Bloomberg NH stop stirs 2020 rumors
Will Michael Bloomberg, the Daddy Warbucks of the gun control movement, who recently changed his political party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, run for president in 2020 as has been rumored? Only he may know the answer, and he’s not saying yet.
But his visit to an anti-gun rally in Nashua, NH, organized by Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, both organizations funded by the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has stirred speculation by the Boston Sunday Herald that he will likely be a candidate since New Hampshire also happens to be the first state on the presidential primary circuit.
Brooklyn official pledges to carry while at worship
Not all New York City officials disdain guns.
As the nation reeled from the Oct. 7 synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the borough president of Brooklyn — whose county is home to more Jews than any other in the country — said the next day that he would begin carrying a gun whenever he attends religious services.
“From now on,” said the borough president, Eric L. Adams, a retired captain of the New York Police Department, “I will bring my handgun every time I enter a church or synagogue,” the New York Times reported.
Adams, a Democrat and 22-year veteran of the NYPD, made his remarks at a news conference outside a Jewish family services center in the Midwood neighborhood, home to one of New York City’s highest concentrations of Orthodox Jews.
The Times ended the story by noting that the city’s Police Department already instructs active officers to carry their service weapons while off duty, with few exceptions. Retired officers are allowed to carry concealed weapons under federal law if they pass a marksmanship test and are certified by their police department.
Perhaps the Times found justification for Adams’ comments in the fact that he was a retired police officer, but he’ll probably be shunned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill DiBlasio for being so candid about guns for protection.
Hoopster’s NFA rifle stolen from gun shop parking lot
And we thought most professional basketball stars began their careers in college, but then college educations aren’t what they used to be.
For example, the Miami Heat’s Hassan Whiteside discovers what happens when you leave a $50,000 suppressed full auto rifle in an unlocked Rolls-Royce…even if it’s in the gun shop’s parking lot.
Here’s how the Washington Post reported the screwy story.
“Let’s say you purchase something that costs $50,000. Not a car or a boat or anything sizable like that, but rather something that’s portable. A nice piece of jewelry, perhaps. What’s the first thing you do with it when you’re not using it? You lock it up, right?
Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside did not lock it up, and it wasn’t a $50,000 piece of jewelry. Rather, he had a just-purchased National Firearms Act Colt M16 rifle and suppressor stolen from his unlocked Rolls-Royce in July.
Believe it or not, nobody made this story up.
Andy Slater of 640 AM in Miami has the scoop after reviewing the police report. On July 5, Whiteside purchased the rifle, ammunition, a rifle bag and a silencer at a Miami gun shop and then went for a workout at the University of Miami, leaving his Rolls unlocked. But the next day at home, he noticed that the weapon and the rifle bag were missing and called the police, thinking it had been stolen at the workout. But a review of security footage ruled that out, and then Whiteside remembered that he also had left his car unlocked at the gun store with the rifle inside. Going off that, police determined that the firearm had been stolen there after Whiteside went back inside the store for a moment.
On July 23, Slater reports, police recovered the rifle and the silencer in a stolen vehicle in North Miami.
“I have a license for the gun that was stolen from me over the summer,” Whiteside said afterwards in a team-issued statement, per the Miami Herald. “I should have secured it better and I’m glad it was recovered. It won’t happen again. It is now locked in a safe and I only use it at the gun range.”
Whiteside did not violate any Heat team rules, the Herald reported. The NBA’s collective-bargaining agreement only prohibits players from carrying firearms “at a facility or venue owned, operated, or being used by a Team, the NBA, or any League-related entity, and whenever a player is traveling on any NBA-related business.” The agreement also mandates that gun-possessing players provide their teams with proof of legal registration or licensing at the start of each season.
The agreement apparently doesn’t say anything about overpaid professional athletes exercising common sense about the reasonable care they take of their toys.
Gun violence research private funding announced
Congress may have blocked CDC funding for gun policy research, but there is always private money available.
The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, administered by the Rand Corporation, is a philanthropic fund that will support scientific research on gun policy, announced on Nov. 15 that it will release its first request for proposals in early January 2019 and award up to $10 million in research funding during its first round of grant making. The collaborative also announced the appointment of an advisory panel that will guide the group’s efforts.
The request for proposals will seek researchers’ ideas for projects designed to broaden agreement on the facts associated with gun policy, and support development of fair and effective policies that recognize individuals’ rights to own guns. The collaborative will award between $20 million and $50 million in research funding on these topics over the next five years.
The committee held its first meeting in November and received comments about priorities for gun research from several groups, including Everytown for Gun Safety, the National Rifle Association, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and March for Our Lives.
