On Wednesday, Mayor John Tkazyik explained in the Poughkeepsie [N.Y.] Journal that he and almost 50 other mayors have dropped out of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s group Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).
The reason they left? They all felt Bloomberg was using the organization to trample on the Second Amendment rather than to push for the stricter enforcement of existing laws. Tkazyik complained that:
MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda — violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and taking resources away from initiatives that could actually work to protect our neighborhoods and save precious lives.
Tkazyik wrote that he was determined to solve Poughkeepsie’s crime problem, and he joined MAIG believing that they could help him develop effective solutions to stem the tide of street violence that had enveloped the city. However, he soon realized that the organization was too radical for him. The mayor explained:
It did not take long to realize that MAIG’s agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns; that under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. I don’t believe, never have believed and never will believe that public safety is enhanced by encroaching on our right to bear arms, and I will not be a part of any organization that does.
The revelation that close to 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have abandoned MAIG certainly could be a national story, given the prominence of the organization and Bloomberg himself. But will the national media have the courage to report it? They are always reticent to cast gun control in a negative light. We will have to wait and see if they cover this development.
