When former Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his intention to plow tens of millions of dollars into his civilian disarmament campaign through Everytown for Gun Safety, it was clear the ballistic bully boy was playing political hardball. So far so bad. Bloomberg made a major misstep when he reacted to the recall of  pro-gun Colorado Dems by portraying Colorado Springs and Pueblo as “roadless” rural outposts. In fact, Bloomberg’s support has become political fodder for his chosen candidates’ opponents. Everytown’s announcement of their “Gun Safety Champions” won’t motivate anti-gun voters (if such a thing exists) but it will help get out the pro-gun vote (which exists). Click here for the drop down list of Bloomie’s 16 faves, all of whom are lauded for supporting .  . .

“commonsense gun violence prevention laws, including comprehensive background checks for gun sales.” None of whom are ID’ed by political party. Guess how many Republicans? One. All will be blessed with bloody shirt waving TV ads like the one above.

Meanwhile, gun control lovin’ usatoday.com reports Everytown’s 2014 campaign to elect politicians committed to curtailing Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms is hitting the road.

The campaign includes what supporters call a “Gun Sense Voter” road show with stops in Oregon, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, Maryland and Connecticut over the next three weeks. The tour, led by Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, also will visit Seattle where Everytown is pushing a state initiative that would expand background checks for firearms purchased online and at gun shows.

“We want gun safety to be an issue that people vote on,” said John Feinblatt, Everytown’s president.

If ever there was a perfect example of “be careful what you wish for,” that would be it.

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43 COMMENTS

    • I can’t believe they used the Clackamas Mall shooting as an example for one of these videos, considering that would-have-been-a-mass-shooting was thwarted by a “good guy with a gun” (guy w/ concealed carry permit carrying legally). Of course, with comments turned off for all of their videos and stats for thumbs up/down hidden, I guess it really doesn’t matter.

      PLUS!!!… plus, plus, freaking plus… what in the F’ing Hell do background checks have to do with this instance, in which the perpetrator used a STOLEN firearm to commit his crime!?!?!?! Why the heck am I listening to a guy espousing his support for background checks ostensibly because his brother-in-law was shot by a guy who stole the gun that was used?!?!

      How disingenuous is this crap. Of course, expand this to nearly every single mass shooting going back to before Columbine and we all know that background checks wouldn’t have stopped nary a one. They all either passed background checks and would have continued to do so under any proposed legislation, or they stole the firearms used. Period.

      • Nick Meli did not stop the Clackamas shooter. No armed good guy has ever stopped a shooting. The chocolate ration has always been five grams.

        • Well say hello to Dr. Lee Silverman of Darby, PA, or all the other people who saved their own lives with guns by shooting criminals who would have otherwise gone on to terrorize other people.

        • Thank you, was lost on me too and was about to jump Rok.

          See you at the two-minutes-hate.

          P.S. – (just a question) If this Everytown group has taken a penny from foreign sources to overthrow the Constitution of the United States does that rise-to-the-level of Sedition?

  2. What, Bloomie has no favored Texas candidates? And only one for Louisiana–Mary Landrieu, of course. Let’s hope her opponent makes sure everyone knows the New York Nanny-in-Chief thinks Mary is just grand.

  5. Nope. Not giving Bloomberg and his minions the click. I guess I’ll never know since I refuse to visit any of his websites.

    • You missed… NOTHING! Click on the comments under the USA Today story (link above) for some interesting blowback to Hizzoner the Midget’s campaign.

  6. Interesting…you go to the “gunsensevoter.org” website and see the Bloomie candidates, but only 8 of them. To see more you have to click the “Load More Candidates” link.

    Not clear to me if that’s 8 together, 7 together and one in the pipe….maybe an 8-candidate cylinder (since most of what they do is spin around in circles anyway).

    If only he allowed higher-capacity web pages, it would be more convenient. I don’t like having to stop everything to load more candidates. How about some common-sense web page management, Mike?

  7. I see Shannon is mostly visiting states that are already lost-causes, gun-rights-wise. Not a single Southern state on the itinerary, nor any non-coastal Western state. Looks like they are more interested in propping up the fiction that they have some influence than they are in actually making any inroads in enemy territory. Please, Shannon, can’t you come here and stump for Wendy? She might let you hold Ann Richards’ shotgun so you can show folks how you really, truly, support the Second Amendment.

    • What is Shannon? She is a PR flack. What do PR flacks do? They try to drum up media attention and create as much of an impression of widespread market/community support as possible for their client.

      PR flacks rarely go to hostile or neutral venues to do that. And Shannon desperately needs a win, or even a showing of more than a couple-dozen people.

      On Huffpo today (couldn’t help myself) she claimed to have 2 million “dedicated supporters.” So she’s under pressure to produce them. Hence, the appearances in friendly venues.

      • She’s like a guy I prosecuted for DWI once, his excuse was he had gotten into a fight before leaving the bar and that’s why he looked so woozy. Before he got off the stand his attackers had grown in number from one or two to a whole crowd who beat him with clubs and kicked him while he was down. He just kept adding numbers and weapons each time he repeated the story. And every time she is asked, Shannon adds a few hundred thousand “supporters”.

  10. If I had Bloomberg’s money I’d just take awesome vacations, golf almost as much as Obama, and start my own company that would make high quality 22 LR at a reasonable price.

      • I would impress Shannon with my private jets and multiple homes around the world. . . .

        ok – who am I kidding. If I had Bloomy’s $$, she would be so uninteresting and I would be kicking it with Gabrielle Union, Beyonce, and Kim Kardashian in Versailles. (sigh)

        • Well, let’s “think” as a gun control advocate… if Gun safety would be my main concern and if I had Bloomie’s money, I’d build a program for a mandatory FREE gun course for any new gun owner, including safety and self defense. Making sure guns are stored safely, out of reach of kids, and anyone would be well trained to be able to use his/her gun.

          And then I’d look at real gun issues (let’s be honest, no one ever said there’s no issue) and I’d start with gun and drug trafficking, gangs, kid education, mental illness and so on…

          But then I think… well, if I had Bloomie’s money, I’d probably be smart, right? So, I would have a look at real numbers… regarding the number of deaths in the US every year, and not just gun deaths, right? So, I’d just start looking at the 750,000+ deaths due to heart attacks deaths… And I would probably become a “junk food control” advocate and I’d fight against fast foods chains to have better healthy food.

          And of course, I’d look at the 120,000+ car accident deaths a year. Next in the line, I’d look at the 70,000+ diabetes deaths a year. And I’d look at the 40,000+ suicides deaths a year (most of them done by firearms). And I’d look at alcohol with the 25,000+ deaths a year. I know I couldn’t really ban alcohol, history tells us some already tried and it failed.

          And I forget a lot of deaths such cancers, alzheimer, etc… but I’d leave that for the science. I’d only be concerned about things I could actually change to save people… quite a lot actually, because I’d have already save over 1 Millions Americans every year by doing all of that…

          Then, and only then, I’d have a look at the 8,000 homicides per firearms a year and since I’d fight against gangs, drugs and guns trafficking, I’d already reduce 80% of that number… Finally, and just because I’d be rich and I would really be concerned about the safety of “Everyone” in “Every town”… I would have a look at the 2,000 (or less) real homicides per firearms a year and would compare it to the 1 Millions lives I’d just have saved this year… I’d think: Ok, not perfect, but well… I haven’t done a bad job this year and at least 1 millions people can thank me for that!

          But apparently, once we can rich, we don’t have the same vision anymore, we don’t look at numbers the same way and our priorities change… We’re starting to only focus on the 2,000 people and quickly forget the 1+ million other people.

  11. I’ve already asked the “gun-sense champions” in my state if they will be accepting Bloombergs money and endorsement.

    No answer yet. But I encourage everyone to to the same. And as publicly as possible!

    Politicians hate this kind of spotlight, especially coming up to an election.

  12. Why I will not be voting for Kitzhaber this November? Many reasons too numerous to list. Well, that is as long as the state sends me my absentee ballot on time.

  14. To all you whining that RF spends too much time on the “stay at home mom”- he DOESN’T. Know thy enemy.

    • It’s tough. On the one hand, I just want to write her off as a JV team nuisance value. On the other hand, I don’t want to look like a complete ass just a short time later if she should happen to get her act together and evolve into a potent force with some actual accomplishments.

  16. This finally got me to write my Governor (Kitzhaber.) I doubt it will do much good, but I had to try. Here’s what I wrote:

    Dear Governor Kitzhaber,

    I just watched the newest (September 22 2014) promotional video message published by Everytown for Gun Safety endorsing your reelection campaign. It has caused a strong reaction in me urging me to write to your office to let you know that I completely disagree with its message. I do not want any additional restrictions on firearms, ammunition, accessories, etc.

    The message from the “Everytown” campaign has finally motivated me to take up a political cause again. Unfortunately, this is not moving in a favorable direction for your campaign. The ad features a man who lost a son in the Clackamas mall shooting last year. It calls for “common sense” gun reforms and mentions background checks specifically. The man also states that he is a gun owner, but believes more should be done and that he supports you for governor because of your support for “common sense gun laws”.

    I felt the need to write to you because this is wholly opposite to my wishes. Rather than try to make a reasoned, coherent argument for or against what was said in the ad, I’ll just lay out what my priorities are as a voter this fall.

    I want a candidate that will leave guns and all connected elements alone. I want a candidate that will do nothing whatsoever to change the status quo in Oregon. I want a candidate that will veto any changes that come out of the rest of the legislature and just leave gun owners alone for a while. I will vote for a candidate that pledges to do just this. I don’t ask for repeal of any existing laws or “loosening” of any existing procedures. I just want to be left alone from fear of additional restrictions on a form of recreation that I enjoy.

    I ask you as my current governor and my likely future governor. Please ignore the calls from the “Everytown” group and just steer clear of the gun issue. Focus on jobs and healthcare. Focus on roads and schools, not guns and politics. The vast majority of gun owners are good, caring people. We don’t want to be a political issue, we just want to enjoy ourselves and not worry about someone deciding it’s not what they feel comfortable with. Please stick to the issues that include us all, not the ones that marginalize many to comfort a few.

    Thank you,
    **** *****

  17. Notice she is going to places where it isn’t likely she’ll encounter opposition in the audience. It’s all staged like any number of daytime talk shows. She’s not going anywhere near Florida, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Arizona, Virginia, or any other state where firearms ownership and carry is not really restricted. And it’s not out of fear of “gun toting loons” either, it is all about control. Which is MDA and all the other Bloomberg-financed organizations ultimate goal. They want to shape society into one uniform shape that they determine is “right”.

    She’s afraid of a serious, reasonable debate, like anyone involved in PR is. A lot of PR flacks say their bit, and then all follow-up questions are either met with dead silence or “no comment”. I can’t take anyone in public relations seriously. Paid liars, essentially.

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