Tipsheet

Michael Bloomberg's Super Bowl Ad Pushes Gun Control

Debuting during the Super Bowl, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg teamed up with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to push a new organization called "Mayors Against Illegal Guns." They describe themselves as "a bipartisan coalition of more than 600 mayors from across the country, to help crack down on illegal guns."

Watch the ad:

The coalition is pushing a variety of legislative action, including pushing for the defeat of concealed carry reciprocity, the Boren Amendment and the Tiahrt Amendment. Additionally, the number one issue atop their policy agenda is the Fix Gun Checks Act.

David Kopel said scathingly of the Fix Gun Checks Act, under consideration last year as S.436:

S. 436 violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due of law, the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law, and the Tenth Amendment's reservation of state authority over purely intrastate activities. S. 436 further violates the Tenth Amendment by imposing on the vast majority of states an extremely repressive system of restrictions on law-abiding gun owners which those states have already rejected.

Whatever good intentions might lie behind S. 436, the actual bill as drafted is grotesquely overbroad, and a Pandora's Box of the dangerous consequences that are the inevitable result of making it a felony for law-abiding Americans to possess and use firearms.

As always, having a noble-sounding name and good intentions don't make for good outcomes. It's always important to check out what someone has to say - especially someone as unfriendly to liberty as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.