By Larry Keane
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is stumping on the presidential campaign trail telling Americans they can’t be trusted to exercise their right to own a gun.
Not for self-protection. Not for recreational shooting or hunting. Not even because it’s a God-given right enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
He says this, of course, surrounded by an armed security team. They’re not armed with lollipops and wishful thoughts. They’re carrying the cold steel that the guy who writes the checks for Moms Demand Action and Everytown says Americans can’t be trusted to own.
No Guns for You
It sounds disturbing enough. It’s even more disturbing that Bloomberg made this announcement after hearing the news of Jack Wilson, a concealed carry permit holder and member of the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas.
Wilson responded immediately to the threat of a murderer in his church and neutralized the threat just six seconds after it began. His swift reaction in just six seconds saved countless lives among the 242 worshipers in attending services that morning when the police standard to response is six minutes.
“It’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot,” Bloomberg explained at a campaign stop in Montgomery, Ala. “You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”
That’s telling for the guy who wants to take the oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. Maybe his oath will include exception clauses that will negate the Second Amendment, or the 2008 Heller decision that affirmed the Second Amendment is an individual “right of the People,” not the police.
Bloomberg’s dismissal of fundamental rights goes beyond ignorance, but willfully dismisses the legal actions taken by at least six other parishioners who also drew their concealed firearms yet chose not to fire.
Bloomberg’s fact-burying might be because it’s exactly what undermines his gun-grabbing argument. Here is a case of armed and trained citizens who were in a crowded place and didn’t fire their firearms.
Heaven Sent
It should be noted the difference in how Wilson and Bloomberg see themselves. Wilson has been telling media he simply “killed evil” and he’s not a hero. Bloomberg, on the other hand, has publicly professed he’s earned a spot in heaven because he’s paid so much into gun control.
“I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed,” Bloomberg said in 2014. “I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
Bloomberg’s Bad Company
Bloomberg wasn’t alone in his criticism of armed self-protection and Americans embracing their Second Amendment rights. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) flatly said she wouldn’t support concealed carry reciprocity even after being confronted with the fact it saved Texan lives.
Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for signing the law that protected Texans’ rights to carry a gun into a place of worship as “absolutely irrational.” Former Army Ranger sniper and book author Ryan Cleckner noted Biden’s ideas on gun control would have cost lives.
“He was dead wrong,” Cleckner explained. “If he has his way, there would be a lot more people dead in that church.”
Texas’ Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick drove the point home.
“Let’s be very clear to the American people that Joe Biden is dangerous,” Patrick said. “He’s not just an idiotic person who says impossible, absurd things, and he’s not just naive, but he’s dangerous. Americans will have to understand, whether you believe in owning a gun or not owning a gun, that the Democrats are dangerous.”
Unfortunately, Bloomberg, Biden and the rest of the Democratic gun control contenders are proving he’s not the only one.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Not for self-protection. Not for recreational shooting or hunting. Not even because it’s a right enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
fixed that for you. The 2A is not God-given, but it is enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
The 2nd Amendment isn’t God Given. It is an acknowledgement of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that was considered to be God given. A quick reading of all of the supporting Founding Documents, State Constitutions, along with the personal writings of the Founding Fathers confirms this.
I don’t care if the founders believed it was a God given right, it is legally enshrined in our founding documents and that is good enough. Biblically speaking this “right” is not a theological right and we need to stop pretending it is.
The right to self defense; to provide for the defense of personal freedom and security, and by extension that of the community both local and/or national, is a right given to every person and creature that has ever existed. Irrespective of your theological beliefs, you have these rights because you are alive. The Bill of Rights was written to be a guarantee that the government would not usurp these natural rights.
Isn’t the right to bear arms strongly inferred by the 2nd greatest commandment in the Bible?
Matthew 22:37-40 esv
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Allowing your neighbor to be disarmed and robbed/enslaved/raped/murdered seems like the opposite of loving him or her.
Maybe it is my CHRISTIAN DUTY to make sure that my neighbor is not deprived of his ability to defend himself. That is the loving thing to do.
Yes it is read Luke 22 verses 36 thru 38
The 2nd amendment was written by the founding fathers with deep roots in the belief of Christianity. Don’t think they can pronounce a God given right. However, God can.
Alma 43:47 “And again, the Lord has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion”
It is an inherent right. A right bestowed when God created us. No one has the right to take it away or deny anyone from using it.
Slow news day? This has been out there forever, Democrats hate the COTUS (in particular the 2nd Amendment) and everybody that cares knows Bloomberg cannot be trusted and the rest that don’t care will likely never change their minds.
As a Jew, this bothers me because Jews technically don’t believe in heaven… at least not in the Christian sense of the word.
So not only does he have his gun policy wrong, he has his theology wrong too.
Yup, a man so rich and egotistical he thinks he can buy his way into heaven.
My personal beliefs say he’s likely to hear: “depart from me for I knew you not.”
VicRattleHead,
Perfectly put!
Seems like Bloomberg has messianic ambition.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Sorry Little Mike, no ticket for you or your insanity!
Orthodox Jew here. We do believe in heaven just as we belive in hell. I hear that claim that we dont all the time on tv and movies and i have no clue where it comes from. Like that hole in the sheet nonsense. No one really knows what it looks like obviously. But one of the core beliefs is heaven and hell. Every major religion has a something silmilar in their religious systems.
I respectfully disagree.
I’m Conservadox and while there is “Olam Ha-Ba”, we don’t know exactly what that is because nobody has come back to tell us.
Is Olam Ha-Ba good or bad or in between? Nobody knows.
My issue with Bloomberg, other than the obviously 2A problems, is that he is obviously talking about ”heaven” in the traditional Christian “Angels, harps, and pearly gates” kinda thing. And it isn’t accurate.
In the very unlikely event there even is such a place, I decided long ago that I wanna go where the fun people are, not the snotty prudes. If the place isn’t being run right, we’ll take over and have some good times for a few million years.
My Jewish relatives generally thought “We do not know what God has planned for us after death, so, take the time to make your life here purposeful.”
The Bible references Sheol (Job, Ecclesiastes), and Gehinnom, but does not provide a theology. Thinking about these is developed in the Talmud, but since I am not a Talmudic scholar, I will go no further than to say Jewish thought has contained and gradually developed some concept of a place of darkness where the dead dwell, a place of purgation where the dead may be purified, and a place of light which the dead may enter.
Certainly, the Essenes (some people think Jesus was an Essene) had a concept of an afterlife but did not think it necessary to develop imagery around it.
So, as my Uncle Emil might have said “So, how is that going to earn you a living?”
Emil was a practical man.
The bible was written by men whose education was thousands of years ago, now thousands of years out of date.
Would you say the same about the men who wrote our Constitution? Their educations are hopelessly out of date.
BTW, that is the genius of the Talmud: a continuous body of commentary developed long after people stopped writing the Bible.
I will take the history of christians over the history of atheists. At least with christians slavery was destroyed. However slavery is alive and well in Muslim and Atheist societies. And gun ownership only happens in the Christian West. No guns for you in the Jewish (socialist/Left wing) state of israel.
I think a lot of those myths come from old world anti-Semitism.
Demonizing a people makes it easier to conduct a pogrom, or two or five.
Or, to put it another way—-progressive/authoritarian/totalitarian states are so inherently illegitimate that they can’t trust their own people to be armed. The wisdom of our revolutionary founders still holds true: An armed citizenry is the best protection against a tyrannical government.
But we’re supposed to trust politicians with nuclear weapons? WTF?
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
I wouldn’t trust Swallwell to use a nerf gun without losing an eye.
“Wilson responded immediately to the threat of a murderer in his church and neutralized the threat just six seconds after it began.”
True, but the other armed defender who stood up first and took forever to present his self-defense sidearm turned himself into the killer’s next easy target. Had he not been armed and responded, he likely would not have been killed. Look, I support the Second Amendment, but……….just kidding, there’s no qualifying subordinate clause here.
My point is only that arming yourself, let alone engaging an active shooter, is very, very serious business. If you are apt to be slow in presentation or use of your firearm, because you haven’t predetermined your rules of engagement or because you are just prone to hesitation in a crisis, then you might be better off reconsidering your options. It’s your right; make your own decision, but be realistic and honest with yourself.
Well it’s a good thing that lawabiding gunowners are above average then…
Jonathan-Houson says: “Had he not been armed and responded, he likely would not have been killed. Look, I support the Second Amendment, but……….just kidding, there’s no qualifying subordinate clause here.”
+++
Please, please make room for expanded thinking.
Life doesn’t reveal itself in a MOVIE SCRIPT – – your comment is nonsense. Perhaps he would have been the second killed and Wilson the 3rd killed (especially if unarmed). Unfolding life events are just too random to make that conclusion about the first one killed. Can we all learn from this? ABSOLUTELY
We should all strive for the “JACK WILSON STANDARD” as we approach self-protection, but to think it’s going to follow a script is a fools errand. You will never know but you can train to endless scenarios. The outcome is simply not in our hands and to pretend it is, whatever the outcome, is foolish.
My goal in life is to “Die Free” and now, to “train to the Jack Wilson Standard”. @2AProtectsAll
Absolutely,
I was born free and I will die free.
The 3 democratic candidates pictured… in my house we wouldn’t even let them use the remote control……
🙂
Bonus points for the (likely inadvertant) Dennis Miller subreference.
16V…
You spend too much time away. Good to see you here, again.
What Sam said…
What Bloomberg is engaging in, along with most other gun grabbers is projection. It’s an actual clinical term and it could be summed up as attributing characteristics you see in your self to other people. People can project both positively and negatively. In this case Bloomberg sees himself as being to incompetent to handle or carry firearms and therefore believes if he can’t do it then nobody else should either. He’s probably right about himself. He’s the kind of guy who couldn’t change the tire on his car with out watching a couple of You Tube videos.
Or couldn’t change a tire no matter how many videos!
American Citizens: Politicians Can’t Be Trusted to Make Laws
We know how f’ing stupid the politicians are when it comes to guns and laws, they are just as f’ing stupid when it comes to ALL legislation
Their feels vs our rights… no contest. Why is there no penalty for pols that ignore the oath they took when sworn in? Hopefully none of these idiots is ever sworn in again for anything
“F” Bloomberger
I have no money no one knows or cares who I am. Nor who or what he is.
I have a better chance of being president then that pisant little Napoleonic twerp.
Hey, smart guys, if that is true why in hell are you soliciting our votes. How can we be trusted to know who to vote for or why? Can you trust that our choice would be the right one? Can you trust that we won’t revolt if we elect you and you do something we don’t like?
anybody that votes for him dang sure cannot be trusted
That part of their thinking: Anyone that votes against a democrat isn’t smart enough to understand what they’re doing. Thus, a wasted vote.
“Presidential Candidates: Average Americans Can’t Be Trusted With Guns”
The founders wrote the second amendment to enable citizens to throw off the chains of oppressive government ,as they had just accomplished with the most powerful government known to man at that time and the would be petty tyrants know this.
If you had to choose between being a mop at a nickel porn theatre or being Michael Bloomberg, what brand of mop would you choose to be?
Wow…for the hundredth time…
Nineteenth century Democrats believed they should be the overlords and black people should live as slaves on their plantations. Twenty first century Democrats still believe they should be the overlords. However, they have evolved to believe that everyone but them should live as slaves on their plantations.
“It’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot,” bloombucks says but that’s a half truth. The other half is: It is the Right of lawful citizens to bear arms and utilize lethal force when justified. We just don’t get paid for it.
And Bloomberg thinks the NYPD are better than Seal Team Six.
In reality the NYPD would miss a barn completely from the inside.
With the myriad patchwork of prohibitive gun laws in the 50 states and since Daddy Bloombug doesn’t have a federal exemption or USSS protection, how are his armed thugs able to legally carry firearms? Guns for me but not for thee…
“You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”
Bloomberg’s arrogance is never masked, but….I agree with him. However the Second Amendment provides no distinction between elite and average Americans. Which inescapably must mean the amendment carves out protection for everyone. It matters not my opinion on the matter, nor Bloomberg’s opinion.
While familiar with Bloomberg’s arrogance, this article shines on one statement that is beyond backpedaling. Mr. Bloomberg declares that it is not God who determines the entry to heaven, but Mr. Bloomberg himself; the one and only entity with the authority to decide who enters heaven, and who does not. It is written that “pride goeth before a fall”. I truly hope the fall is long, difficult, and disastrous.
This brings up the question of what is “elite” and what is “average” and upon what are we basing the judgement?
“This brings up the question of what is “elite” and what is “average” and upon what are we basing the judgement?”
Good question, and there is no universally recognized standard. But being below average myself, my definition is anyone with a net worth of $100million, graduated from an Ivy League university or law school is “Elite”, and anyone whose net worth is zero or less is “Average”.
Well, if we are going by averages, the average human being has one boob, one ovary and one testicle. Take it for what it’s worth.
Actually in the US women outnumber men by almost 1%.
So your average person has slightly less than one standard testicle and slightly more than one standard ovary and one standard boob.
I carry everywhere I can, be it on the street, pa allows open carry, or Walmart, f… them, I carry concealed. I have a license. Worst case, Walmart kicks me out, saying I can’t. They don’t get my business.. period. The state houses, in my state, have lockers for you to check your iron.
Does you carry into your local gay bar, honky?
Hmm, not quite funny, to dumb to be offensive, better luck next time.
How come it’s okay for this person to use a racial slur?
Anybody else notice the strong resemblance between Elizabeth Warren and Greta Thunberg? It’s uncanny.
Soooo…little miz “you’re ruined my life” is…Cherokee?!?😃😎😏
She has a little Indian in her, Tonto’s denying it’s his
She’s exactly as Cherokee as Fauxcahontas. That is true.
I could think up some snarky clever long-winded comment concerning Bloombag and the rest but what’s the point? Everything that could be said has been said. There is no “conversation” because even though the democrats say there needs to be a conversation, that’s a bold faced lie as they don’t want a conversation.
With that being said, I sum it up simply with fu—- Michael Bloomberg and FU—- the rest of the democrats.
Their conversation is they talk, we listen and obey.
anybody that goes against my right to have and carry my gun but has there armed guards can go straight to yall know where because they will never get my vote or anything else
I think historically governments are are just as, if not more, untrustworthy with weapons and power as regular people. Bloomberg should crack his Bible open sometime. In Luke chapter 22 Jesus said if you dont have a sword sell your cloak and buy one. In Nehemiah the people were told to have weapons on them at all times and to fight for their family and countrymen against aggressors. The ten commandments say not to steal. I would say gun confiscation counts as theft. Jesus also said no man comes to the Father (and therefore heaven) any other way besides Him. LarryinTX hell will have nothing to build a life with and nothing good in it. There will only be pain, regret and despair. Heaven will be full of formerly flawed but forgiven and perfected people in it. God bless.
Historically, governments are the biggest killer of people. Nothing else even comes close.
That Bloomberg guy looks like he owns both a dungeon and a laboratory. That ain’t good.
What can the average politician be trusted with? Besides enriching themselves, their families, and their side piece through as much graft and corruption as they think they can get away with?
Politicians don’t want the ‘average person’ to have a gun, because they are afraid what will happen to them when the average person wakes up and realizes how bad they are being screwed. Health care, education, banking, and immigration are only a few of the areas where politicians are colliding with corporate leaders to screw you blind. In a few more years when the economy collapses and the ‘average person’ has no job, no home and no food, the politicians know what will happen to them when there are millions of people with nothing to loose.
“Presidential Candidates: Average Americans Can’t Be Trusted With Guns”
Since I consider myself to be waaaaay above average, I have lots of guns and I can be trusted with all of them.
Thanks, Bloomb@stard!
Their views on this have been known for quite some time. Bloomberg is not the only one that sees guns this way. Plenty of people see it as something that only the military and police should have ( Smith&Wesson M&P).
I didn’t see Bloomberg in that church taking out the killer.
It isn’t their elitist attitudes and ivy league education that makes the country work. The strength in America is held in the hands of it’s people. NOT it’s politicians. Politicians get in the way of progress. Most of them are not capable of understanding how much they don’t understand. Those that do tend to be republican.
I see no value in anyone on the democrat side running against Trump. None of them deserve to be given that kind of power.
Signed a law that lets people be armed in church.??? Separation from church and state should cover that already , I don’t know. And yes Mr. Bloomberg I can’t be trusted with a gunm, I know this, that’s why I pack a Meat Cleaver
If Bloomberger was/is ever attacked and I was in the area. Id do nothing to help him. Id probably want to shake the hand of the person who took the shot. If it was possible. If I were one of his armed protection detail. Id just stand there and watch.
These are the tyrants of which the Founder warned.
Few if any politicians have called for anything but unilateral gun control. In other words, from Cuomo to Bloomberg, to every idiot who says “I only think police and military should have guns”; they are totally ok with SOME average citizens owning personal firearms as long as they’re in the employ of the state (I’m using the term state in the more general sense of the term and remember – police officers are a civilian force, they’re still average civilians).
There are serious problems plaguing the modern world and it’s easy to blame guns (and gun owners). What’s happening in VA is a great example. Instead of tackling income inequality, corporate tax evasion, the failed war on drugs, unequal investment in education, lack of healthcare, housing, and other social programs, crumbling infrastructure (I would argue these are all massive drivers of modern violence), Virginia Dems are scapegoating and criminalize every law-abiding gun owner in the state for the sake of optics. Real change is too hard for them because reigning in the leisure class hits Republicans and Democrats in the pocketbook.
“…police officers are a civilian force, they’re still average civilians”
This is a fun statement/proposition/accusation/clarifier….
However – – – – –
We do have the accurate and descriptive term “para-military” to deal with. If members of a para-military organization are “average civilians”, then are not members of an organized military also “average civilians”, dressed in uniforms?
“No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.” – Abraham Lincoln
some men arent good enough even with consent
case in point…
Mike Bloomberg doesn’t even think you should be allowed to consume a 64 ounce soft-drink. Is it any surprise that this guy thinks everyone is stupid and he knows better than you?
Democrats hate freedom, they hate the protections of the bill of rights, and they hate you.
Vote accordingly.
If Bloomberg -or-Warren _ Buttegieg were in a restaurant – fast foodie place and began to choke, I wish to be there to ask them If I have the right to touch them and do the Heimlich maneuver —or–would they rather want me to just yell for a 911 team ?? Ya think ?
“…I wish to be there to ask them If I have the right to touch them and do the Heimlich maneuver —or–would they rather want me to just yell for a 911 team ??”
The Hindlick maneuver is an application of force that could turn deadly. If you are an average person, you likely are not a certified medical expert, competent in the technique. Therefore, Bloomberg, Warren, Buttegieg would naturally declare that you cannot be trusted.
The Average Progressive, which is all these Democrat candidates talk to, couldn’t pour piss out of a boot with the directions printed on the heel.
So, I would agree with this air-headed article’s headline.
And, it just goes to show you that if you put on a uniform at some point in your life you are NOT average. You are superior.
The ONLY ones that cannot be trusted with a GUN is the “average DEMOCOMMUNIST”
MOST (if not all) “shootings” have been perpetrated by disgruntled democrats, drugged-out disgruntled democrats, or children of disgruntled democrats. Look it up …Might surprise you. Disarm democrats, and the country will be safer.
Dopers, thief’s, illegals, criminals, and now Iran’s all out for us. Sorry left out democRATS. I carry everywhere.
So let me get this right. I am retired military and was a weapons specialist and I am being told buy a billionaire jackass who always is surrounded by armed security that I do not know enough about weapons to be trusted with a firearm because I am just a common person who probably knows more about firearms than any of his security people. What I really don’t understand is how these people are always complaining about guns do they understand the types of explosive devices could be made with things that are readily available in a swimming pool supply store
“So let me get this right. I am retired military and was a weapons specialist and I am being told buy a billionaire jackass who always is surrounded by armed security that I do not know enough about weapons to be trusted with a firearm because I am just a common person who probably knows more about firearms than any of his security people.”
Exactly, that’s how it works. Are you aware that as a veteran knowledgeable in firearms you are probably on a government list of potential domestic terrorists?
Larryin of Texas better get his or her act together the Scripture both old Testament and New Testament are God Breathed and therefore are the inspired word of God . There is one sin that is not permitted and Christ mentioned it . The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit who is the one who has inspired the writing of all Scripture when you deny His Authority you are claiming that it is old and out dated . That is unforgivable. God does not change He is the same yesterday today and forever . You can not make his word say what you want it to say. Christ tells us that He does not condemn us , but my word shall condemn you . That means all of the Torah and Tanaka as well as all of the inspired books of the New Testament shall be the judgment of our lives. I think Larryin should look at Isaiah , Daniel , Ezekiel and the take a quick peek at Revelation . Also there may be a need to look at the Rich man an Lazarus in the New Testament . You will find that Christ mentions Hell more times than He does Heaven . The reason is that Hell is a place that He wants all mankind to avoid. Heaven is a place of peace and hope and total harmony. He is a place of no hope and total darkness and torment for eternity. It is not the desire of God that any should perish . Christ Died so that we may be once again adopted into the family of God . Up until Christ”s death man was the enemy of God due to his sin and rebellion against the commandments of God.
Is there a democratic candidate that does not want gun control?
“Average Citizen” spoken like a true psychotic elitist. Just so you know “AVERAGE CITIZENS” are the CORE of this great country, The United States Of America.
Biden. Isn’t he the guy that said “If your neighbor is making a lot of noise, go out in your back yard, and shoot a gun into the air”. Yeah, right!
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