Over the weekend, a shooting in Brooklyn, New York left three people dead and two police officers wounded. Instead of focusing on the criminals who pulled the trigger, Bloomberg is calling for more gun control:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tuesday blamed illegal handguns for a shooting that killed three people and wounded two police officers a few blocks from the route of the annual West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, saying federal officials have not had the "courage" to take steps to control gun use.
Bullet fragments hit one police officer in the left arm and chest Monday night. He was hospitalized but was expected to survive. Another officer was grazed by a bullet. Two shooters were killed along with a bystander, 56-year-old Denise Gay, who was shot while sitting on a stoop with her daughter nearby just two doors down from the exchange of gunfire.
Bloomberg said Gay's death was "a senseless murder, and another painful reminder I think of what happens when elected officials in Washington fail to take the problem of illegal guns seriously."
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the gunman who killed Gay had an extensive criminal history, including criminal possession of a firearm and assault and drug charges.
"This is a national problem requiring national leadership," Bloomberg said, "but at the moment neither end of Pennsylvania Avenue has had the courage to take basic steps that would save lives."
Note to Bloomberg: guns don't shoot themselves. As shown above, the shooter had an extensive criminal history. This isn't an issue of gun control, this is an issue of criminal control. I'd also like to point out that carrying a weapon concealed is also illegal in Brooklyn unless granted special permission by law enforcement and the government to do so, which leaves innocent people as sitting ducks to violent criminals.