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OK, maybe that’s not so breaking. At least to most readers here, who knew damned good and well that the nanny who used to occupy Gracie Mansion would like nothing better than to grab Americans’ guns. Still, it’s nice to get confirmation from a former MAIG mayor. John Tkazyik, mayor of Poughkeepsie, New York, isn’t just picking his feet and occupying the office. He found time in his busy day to pen a column for the Poughkeepsie Joural (which you can’t read without a subscription…as if) to explain why he quit the petulant, pint-sized plutocrat’s anti-gun org . . .

In the mayor’s piece, freebeacon.com quotes him thusly:

I’m no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And I’m not alone: Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did. 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.

[…]

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.

Everyone here who’s shocked by this revelation, please take one step forward. Anyone? No? That’s what we thought.

MAIG has never been about only going after “illegal” guns. It’s been about restricting and eventually preventing civilian gun ownership. It may sound like an NRA fundraising letter, but enumerated right or no, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Glaze and their newly-purchased telegenic sock-puppet, Shannon Watts want to eliminate Americans’ natural, civil, Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms…and eventually confiscate their heaters.

That mayor Tkazyik finally realized that fact is a step in the right direction. You have to wonder how long it will take before more MAIG members – those who aren’t otherwise occupied defending themselves against felony charges – do the same and renounce their affiliation. There’s no time like the present.

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55 COMMENTS

    • Unfortunately, things are worse than that. The suburban counties adjacent to NYC are very populous and not exactly pining to bring the NY State gun laws in line with those of, say, Vermont. Even in Upstate New York, outnumbered as it is already, there are places like Rochester, Buffalo, and Albany.

  2. I love it when somebody pulls the mask away – if only briefly. This will surprise few here at TTAG, but it’s nice to to know some mayors took MAIG’s campaign funds and turned away.

    Because who deserves an icepick in the back more than MAIG? Tell me, WHO?

  3. This is my shocked face…..oh well, bring it on. I’m not afraid to die. Way this country’s headed to hell, it would be a favor and a relief.

    That is all, you may carry on.

    Tom

  6. He probably got some nice campaign contributions from the antis but now that the Safe Act has roiled up everyone above NYC (and not in Albany) politicians realize they’re going to pay at the polls for supporting Bloomberg.

  7. Same sort of deal as MADD. At one time, they used to be against drunk driving.

    Now their agenda seems to be prohibition… again.

  10. This is the whole article of anyone wants to read it

    I’m the mayor of one of the largest cities in the Hudson Valley, just 90 minutes north of New York City. I’m a life member of the National Rifle Association and a former member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, or MAIG, started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.

    I’m no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And I’m not alone: Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did. 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. Gun control will actually make a bad situation worse.

    I was first elected mayor of Poughkeepsie in 2007. At the time, it was a city that had grown weary of burying its young. Homicides were so commonplace that a newspaper without a murder story was news. Gangs roamed downtown streets and neighborhoods, terrorizing law-abiding citizens and selling drugs in broad daylight. As the drug wars escalated and gangs battled over turf, kids were killing kids.

    I vowed to do everything in my power to make our streets and neighborhoods safer. MAIG approached me with the promise that they’d assist me in developing effective approaches to clear our streets of criminals, get guns out of the hands of convicted felons, crack down on the drug trade and rid our streets of gangs that were terrorizing a city. I joined MAIG with this understanding.

    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.

    Those who doubt this hard fact might want to study Chicago, which has among the most restrictive gun-control laws in the country, as well as some of the highest rates of gun-related crime and killing. Depriving law-abiding citizens of their right to own firearms only makes them more vulnerable.

    What works against gun violence is reducing the number of illegal guns available to criminals through cash-for-tips programs; eliminating plea bargaining in cases of gun-related crime; and strengthening surveillance and neighborhood policing in problem areas — initiatives I’ve spearheaded.

    And, fundamentally, troubled urban areas desperately need an economy that welcomes businesses to locate and remain in our cities. Robust respect for the Second Amendment rights of the law abiding does this by discouraging theft and enhancing personal safety.

    Unless Bloomberg and MAIG recognize and implement these principles, their efforts are doomed not only to fail, but also to cause further — if unintended — harm.

  12. After reading the list of MAIG mayors in California, the vast majority of whom were in LA and Bay Area communities, I suspect that few if any will drop their memberships, since this is their goal as well. Right now they are focusing on banning guns stores, banning internet sales of ammo by requiring a permit and a face to face sale, and banning hollow point bullets. San Francisco enacted an ordinance that, shades of Heller, required handguns to be locked up and unloaded unless in the immediate possession of an authorized person–and the federal trail court judge found that to be constitutional. But for state pre-emption on sales, they would go after the guns too.

    • The State pre-emption in CA was only saved by the Governor’s veto in 2013. The next governor won’t make this “mistake”. Things look kind of bleak there.

  14. Fred Sanford heart grab here, this is the big one, & after all the trust I had in hair bloomturd. Next up, feinswine says she won’t stump for automatic weapons, Randy

  16. Mutterings and rumblings are all well and good, but having a former member straight up confirm it is nice to hear.

  19. MAIG want’s to confiscate all firearms? You don’t say!

    Next you’ll tell me that MADD doesn’t give a whit about drunk driving and that they are really a prohibitionist group in disguise!

    Sorry about the sarcasm – it’s been a long week.

  24. I was able to read the original article by going to the main page, searching for his name and clicking on the appropriate result.

  25. I’d love for them to quit the subtly and them to just come out and try and ban them…let’s be done with the debate…they come for them, we rise up, Civil War, reestablish the gov’t on the Constitution… God willing we can do it all without a shot being fired…but let’s quite debating SETTLED LAW(as obama likes to say)…the 2nd amendment passed…it is what it is.

  29. The cynic in me wants to know if this revelation was reached
    through logic and reason (better late than never at least) or
    if it’s only for political expediency.

  30. DUH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    So, let me get this straight, this member of MENSA had to step in it first before figuring out it was bad for US. REAL bright that one isn’t!

    • I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

      • “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

        That’s the foundational dogma.in every religious cult.

        Freedom is my Worship Word!

  32. The whole thing is posted above by ‘AnhydrousWater’.

    Maybe we could save the snark for mayors who haven’t figured it out, or the ones fully on board with Bloomberg.

    “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.”

    I’ll take it and say thanks to the mayor of my hometown.

    Btw, Poughkeepsie is derived from an American Indian word that means “the reed-covered lodge by the little-water place”. Purchased from said Indians in 1686.

    In the 1960s we teenagers used to carry shotguns and .22s down the street to go shootin’ by the river. Every now and then the cops would bring us, and our guns, home for trespassing on railroad property. It was never about the guns. Both banks of the Hudson are lined with rr tracks from NYC to Albany. Wonderful playground.

  34. People usually have these 180 degree “come to jesus moments” when some abrupt, life altering, incident takes place that totally blows their perception of right and wrong out of the water… Gabrielle Giffords was pro gun until Loughner tried waxing her…
    People don’t just drop the ball and waltz over to the other side an issue they have touted as evil for their entire career without someone or something flipping their life upside down.. Those 50 or so mayors he is talking about, left because of either criminal issues they were facing or severe personal career ruining issues that jeopardized the credibility of their little group.

  37. Look up the MAIG members list and see if they are in your city, county, state. And email them the original story line! Maybe it will convince a few more to drop off, just on this article along. And shake the belief foundation that other mayors may have.

  38. The desire to “save” humanity is almost always a false face for the desire to control it.

    Bloomy has armed guards to protect him.

    But he has to “save” the hoi polloi, the peasants, the little people from guns. And large sodas.

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