Virginia gun owners and their allies have shown the rest of 2A Nation how to engage in ambush political warfare against the tyrannical impulses of Mini-Mike Bloomberg, a man who has pledged his personal fortune to strip Second Amendment rights from all Americans.
The scene was a Northern Virginia college campus this week, where Fox News provided the New York gun-control extremist with a town hall format to spew his nonsense on firearm restrictions, and on other topics.
There to provide pushback were the members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League—with an assist from my group, the Patriot Picket.
With more than 25,000 paid members, the VCDL has demonstrated to a national audience that it is one of the most politically astute gun rights organizations working at the state level. Their ability to turn out its activists on the ground, as well as on social media is legendary.
Anyone who saw coverage of Virginia’s “Lobby Day” rally attended by more than 25,000 armed patriots in late January has seen “VCDL power” at work.
At the town hall venue this week where Bloomberg hoped for a national media cakewalk, the VCDL played the inside game and outside game expertly, pressuring Bloomberg to resort to half-truths and outright fabrications about federal gun laws on the 60 minute live broadcast.
And while Fox News hosts Brett Baier and Martha McCallum had hoped to preside over a smooth and civilized blabfest, the VCDL was not playing along.
At one point, a VCDL activist leaped to his feet, out-of-turn, to challenge Bloomberg on his gun control mania—a disruption that prompted the Fox hosts to hastily throw their town hall coverage to a commercial break.
More about that in a moment. First, though, it’s worth noting that the VCDL laid the groundwork for Bloomberg pushback and disruption days in advance. Using VCDL “Action Alert” messaging, members were encouraged to snag tickets to the Fox News town hall.
They succeeded, and a significant number of VCDL regulars occupied seats for the show.
The “Alert” messaging also put out the call for 2A advocates to stage a sidewalk demonstration in front of the town hall venue before the broadcast got underway.
With help from my Patriot Picket team, the VCDL arranged for a gauntlet of gun rights sloganeering that bombarded all arriving Bloomberg minions and media members with freedom messages as they cued up for the event’s security screening.
Once inside, VCDL activists took seats while proudly displaying the now-famous orange “Guns Save Lives” stickers. Others attendees removed their coats to reveal orange “Guns Save Lives” shirts.
Before the live national broadcast even got underway, the GSL messaging was a shot across the Bloomberg bow—putting the little tyrant on defense from the get-go.
Incidentally, the right to wear the orange GSL stickers and shirts in the gallery came only after the VCDL folks fought for it.
It wasn’t clear whether it was a Fox News demand or a tantrum thrown by the Bloomberg minions on hand, but the VCDL prevailed in a pre-show debate over whether the stickers and shirts represented “political campaigning” from the audience. The VCDL people stood their ground and won the argument.
Their stickers and shirts qualified as attire protected by the First Amendment—a stand for freedom that would soon pay enormous dividends just as the town hall went “live” on the Fox network.
It should be noted that one of the great ironies of this spectacle of Michael Bloomberg hectoring a national audience about his wish to gut the Second Amendment was the choice of the venue itself. George Mason University, named after one of America’s greatest liberty-loving patriots.
When it came time to go live, the VCDL’s maneuvers paid off.
As the Fox camera framed up the very first Virginia citizen with a question for candidate Bloomberg, a “Guns Save Lives” shirt worn by a VCDL activist occupied most the frame.
And as the broadcast rolled along, the GSL stickers and shirts were visible in just about every audience cutaway for the rest of the broadcast.
Then came the moment near the end of the town hall, when the microphone was passed to Barstow, Virginia’s Clarke Chitty. Squaring up to Bloomberg, Chitty confronted the gun-grabbing billionaire with perhaps the greatest hypocrisy of the 2020 Democrat political season:
“How do you justify pushing for more gun control when you have an armed security detail that is likely equipped with the same firearms and magazines that you seek to ban the common citizen from owning? Does your life matter more than mine, or my family’s, or these people’s?“
The audience erupted into wild applause—applause that Bloomberg attempted to quiet with a sputtering start to his answer that betrayed his embarrassment at being shamed.
Bloomberg’s response, though, was a cowardly effort to detour away from a direct answer to Clarke Chitty’s question.
Instead, the words of this Republican-turned-Independent-
Below, you can watch Bloomberg’s 3-minute snobbish, elitist self-justification of “guns for me, but not for thee”, but here’s a handy summary:
“I am entitled to self defense because I am more important than you.”
Specifically, the part of Bloomberg’s non-answer that got the audience the most restive was the idiotic assertion that background checks don’t apply to internet sales or gun shows. As someone who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars challenging American gun rights, you would suspect Bloomberg would understand federal gun law by now.
Instead, it was astonishing to hear Bloomberg’s fairy tale.
“The law does not apply to guns sold sold over the internet or in gun shows…why? Because those two things came after the law that applies to gun stores was passed, OK? And what I have tried to do is just get every state—because the federal government doesn’t seem to want to do it—to just check before they sell a gun to anybody to make sure they are not in one of those categories where people—I think most people would agree—should not have guns.”
Bloomberg had hardly finished when voices in the audience began yelling out comments in a manner not seen during the town hall’s previous 45 minutes.
One VCDL gun rights advocate who wasn’t ready to let Bloomberg’s falsehood stand rose to his feet to challenge Bloomberg on his falsehoods, and on his notion that self-defense was available by writing checks for armed guards.
His name: Thomas Speciale. He is not just any VCDL member.
He happens to be a contender for the 2020 Virginia Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Speciale apologized to the Fox hosts for speaking out-of-turn, but he pressed on and shouted his question at Bloomberg.
“Are those liberties available to the people of New York?”
The answer never came as Speciale’s disruption kicked off more protests from the audience to such an extent that Fox’s Bret Baier felt compelled to call for a commercial break.
Below is the video clip where Virginians refused to give Bloomberg a pass when he misrepresented the facts and distort the truth.
Question: “How do you justify pushing for more gun control when you have an armed security detail that’s likely equipped with the same firearms and magazines that you seek to ban the common citizen from owning?”
Bloomberg: I’m more important than you. pic.twitter.com/ywszQHcLoy
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 3, 2020
Thanks to the courage of gun rights advocates whose confrontation created the 2A pushback “highlight reel” above, those watching live and those watching via social media links can see just how dishonest Mini-Mike Bloomberg is about his claim that he is not threatening the 2nd Amendment.
Cam Edwards, a Virginian, nationally known gun rights advocate and blogger, was one of those Fox viewers who was incensed to hear that Bloomberg justified his use of an armed security team as something that only wealthy elitists politicians deserve.
Appearing as a call-in guest on WMAL-FM in the nation’s capitol, Edwards shredded Bloomberg’s notion that other Americans were welcome to protect themselves as long as they hire retired cops at great expense, as Bloomberg has.
“Here is what Mike Bloomberg does not understand, which is that 18 million American conceal carry holders—we pay for our own security, too. We just can’t afford to outsource it to a private army of former cops. This was a very revealing moment for Mike Bloomberg. His arrogance and elitism were on full display and I hope Americans were watching.”
They clearly were. Despite the millions of Bloomberg dollars poured into Virginia Democrats’ coffers, a money dump that gave Democrats control at the statehouse this year, it’s clear the Bloomberg bribes did not pan out for the paymaster.
For it was only 24 hours after Bloomberg tried to talk up his infringement schemes at a university named after one of America’s greatest patriots that Virginia Democrats went to the polls and gave Joe Biden the win in the Super Tuesday voting. Bloomberg did…poorly.
And now news comes today that the anti-gun authoritarian has called an end to his fantastically expensive, fabulously unproductive campaign.
If we had anything at all to do with that outcome, it was all worthwhile.
Jeff Hulbert is the founder of Patriot Picket.
RKBA is…NOT. FOR.SALE.
No surprises here. As with all dumb ass liberals, as soon as you present them with the truth and facts, their story falls apart. I’m just aggravated that any of these liberal clowns get support from Americans! How can they get behind people who are out to dismantle the constitution?? The libiots don’t care if the 2nd amendment gets repealed because they don’t like guns! The nearsightedness of liberals will eventually be their downfall! Today in Va. the demoncrats are in control of our General Assembly and have been doing everything in their power to strip away our civil rights. In two months they have tried to take away no less than 3 of our God and constitution given rights! They also have several bills on the table that would give our racist POS governor 4 more years in power. They’re trying to get rid of needing a photo ID to vote! They’re trying to give illegals driver licenses! These idiots want to make law abiding citizens criminals for practicing our constitutional rights while they bend over backwards to help illegals! Something has to change or the TRUE AMERICAN PEOPLE will have to clean up our country.
If libs or dems acted this way for a red candidate on air, I’m sure the response seen here would be much the same…
How do we get VCDL national? Can their membership/leaders run for office in the NRA, so that we can maybe flip it to pro-2A?
Can’t believe he agreed to live broadcast with opposing viewpoints present. Well played to all groups involved we never get to show that side of him (or most other politicians) up here to such a wide audience.
In his world, rural and suburban conservatives can’t form coherent sentences, ask dumb questions, are OFWG’s, and talk real funny like (go see the video about how he views farming and farmers). He probably did this expecting to make a national spectacle of who he thought his conservative opposition was, and by contrast, how sophisticated and thoughtful he could be in the presence of yokels. Instead he was caught off guard and his true colors were shown. Biden may be the king of gaffs but Bloomberg is the king of political miscalculation.
Well guess he found it’s different when you can’t filter and silence the rock people.
Virginia leads the way. There’s a lesson in how to gain legitimacy in these events. Good on ya’ !!
Bloomberg feels no shame. He actually IS better than you and me. His only confusion is why we don’t understand and acknowledge the fact that he is better than we are.
Exactly.
Oh ya? Well I’m better at Basketball.
LOL! anyone over 5’4″ is better than mini-Mike at basketball!
Curious who Mr. “I’m too important to die” will hire when he realizes his “highly trained” entourage of former NYPD bodyguards isn’t particularly effective at stopping a sniper…
Even though he is not running anymore, he still deserves a tyrants death. Public execution.
I’m proud of my fellow VDCL members and I felt bad that I couldn’t attend but I’m 300+ miles west of were the meeting was. They have done a great job keeping us up to date of what is going on and what they are doing.
Agreed! VCDL is very good at defending Virginians’ gun rights – even the lefty Dems admit that. As to senatorial candidate Thomas Speciale, I met him at the Chantilly VA gun show and talked to him about 20 minutes. He is former military and seems like the real deal with regard to opposing gun control. Of course, it may be just political speech, too, but I believe he’s being honest about what he believes. His ambush of Little Mike at his campaign event was a good indicator. Time will tell. If I have any questions, he’ll always be at the next gun show and he seems pretty open to conversing with ordinary folks.
The self serving despicable ignorant Mini Mike was counting on politically inept history illiterates to fall for his worn out sugarcoated racist democrat Jim Crow ancestor’s Gun Control. Today he’s licking his wounds.
Rest assured the ideology of the democrat party elite is along the lines of breadline bernie. Only difference is the elite hides theirs and bernie doesn’t. That puts a target on breadline’s back.
This wave of everyone suddenly loves joe is concocted manure intended for those who stand for nothing and fall for anything…like gun control, etc. Only difference between joe and mini mike is their bank account. Jim Crow Joe’s Gun Control will sink him and if the dorm room guy’s beloved breadline bernie gets screwed in any way joe is burnt toast.
VOTE TRUMP/PENCE 2020.
I couldn’t believe Joe made a big deal out of putting Beto in charge of gun confiscation in his administration, thereby owning Beto’s arrogant declaration that he would be coming for our guns, flying directly in the face of decades of lies about “nobody’s coming for yur guns”. Do you suppose he was born that dumb, or had to study to achieve it?
Keep all those quotes and gaffs handy. The goal going forward needs to be calling out all the politicians who have accepted money from this despicable little man so that he becomes persona non grata in political circles making him bad news for any candidate’s election/reelection efforts.
Mikey should just go BUY an Island Nation and LEAVE. I hear Epstein’s “Fantasy Island” is empty these days… might be a smart move. Wonder what Nation it belongs to…. if any? Extradition? I’m sure buying Congressional Seats is NOT exactly legal and he DID admit it On-Air… Hmmm
Dude this made my day if only biden n Bernie wld stroke out.
Most of these “Gun Safety” fools seem to have forgotten that this country was founded by patriots with guns who were not afraid to use them to defend their right to freedom!
I believe it was called the Revolution, ask the British how well that worked out for them….
The only thing Bloomberg accomplished in that town hall was to reinforce his negative image. That is the image of an arrogant elitist egotist with a superiority complex.
I was there as part of the Patriot Picket from MD. I could not believe how many patriotic Virginians were in the townhall. All we saw were orange sticker clad people- young and old, male and female proudly walking out after. I was hoping to see the never Trumpers Martha and Brett. We were next to the Foxnews Trailer. Nothing. I was proud to be there. Brothers in arms. I wondered when MiniMike sped off if his carseat faced forward or backward. 🙂
One notes that Bloomberg’s campaign for the Democratic nomination is history, Mr. B having done very poorly in yesterday’s primary battles.
They will eventually manipulate the ticketing system to flood venues with MDA types. They can’t stand people who disagree with them.
Ok, Bloomberg is out but our greatest remaining threat is Palatable to many Biden. His stated policy is the same as Bloomberg’s but many Americans look at him as mainstream – how do we tailor our message to turn off the soccer moms and emasculated males of this country that are considering voting for him and convince them to go with someone they see as uncouth, undisciplined and unsavory but needed to ensure our 2A rights remain?
“The 2nd Amendment gives you the right to bear arms” is what we just heard from Bloomberg, and this is the statement we hear so often repeated by many. However that statement is a false statement and one that has been at least in part responsible for the erosion of our Right to keep and bear arms. Please people, stop saying that you have a 2nd Amendment right to have a gun because nether the Constitution nor the 2nd Amendment provide you with the Right to have a gun. Because if this were the case then that would mean that our gun Rights come from government. However, all of our Rights are accepted and considered, as well having been deemed, to be inherent God given Rights that we are all born with. The Constitution and its amendments are what are supposed to provide the protection for us to keep and maintain these Rights by imposing strict limits on the powers and on the authority that is given to the government. In fact one of the main functions of the government is to protect the Rights of the individual. When we make the mistake of accepting that the Constitution or the 2nd Amendment gives us our gun Rights then we are also accepting that our Rights come from government. But government does not grant Rights, it can only grant privileges… and remember that whatever the government gives it can also take away. Our God given Rights are sacrosanct and can not be taken away nor can they be surrendered. Understand that the words we use are important because words have specific meanings and using the wrong words can invite unwelcome challenges and changes. Just look at how many people consider America to be a “democracy” when the truth is that this nation was up as a constitutional republic. If we ever allow our country to become a democracy where the majority can easily over rule the Rights of the individual, then we shall soon see our nation fail and descend towards tyranny.
Indeed – government/ elected public officials are not there to “give” you rights, they are there to “guarantee” and protect your rights. All citizens, all the time, everywhere.
Mike wants background checks for all gun sales. No big deal to me. Joe is coming after our guns and has said so. He’s much more of a danger to the 2nd amendment. Bernie doesn’t need to do anything, because when he is through with you, you won’t have enough money left to buy a box of cheap.22 ammo!
SI, that is my worry, Joe is the big threat because he isn’t seen as extreme – but he is. We all need to refine our messaging on how to convince the flock that Trump is the right vote when many of them find him so distasteful.
Promising to make Beano ORourke his “gun control czar” shows how extreme he really is. The mask is off.
Jeff, you win the Gun Rights Advocate of the Year!
Nice job!
please posting your videos to tweeter they think they own the internet
He should have IMMEDIATELY been stopped when he OUTRIGHT LIED about those that legally could not purchase firearms could do so through the internet.
Ohhhh, how he SHOULD have been IMMEDIATELY stopped on SO MANY things and yet the Right were as always, WAY TOO POLITE to interrupt him.
The guy is a sham and he SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMMEDIATELY STOPPED LIKE ANY SHAM. PERIOD!
The ELITE always think they are more IMPOTENT than us peasants who beg 4 scraps!
How many threats are there in bad neighborhoods for a 20.9 yo single mom walking home @ midnight from her 3rd job without being able to own any gun or carry in many states!
Bloomy was never a serious candidate. I’m just not sure if he thought he was or not.
Doesn’t the disclosure of mental health issues violate HIPPA?
As far as those labeled as felons, why should an individual who committed a non-violent crime have Constitutional rights taken away for life? Someone can be charged with a felony for non-payment of child support or for having a small amount of marijuana.
But then Bloomberg wants to dictate what size soda people drink.
No, HIPPA doesn’t apply. https://privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/health-privacy-hipaa-basics
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new-hipaa-privacy-rule-permits-disclosures-to-background-check-system
The government that can confiscate legally owned firearms from non-felon American citizens only shows the start of what their plans are. They will also be the ones that will take motor homes, boats, SUV’s, cars, trucks, homes of their dislike, and anything else that violates their pea picking brains! Time to resist now!
the tweets following are priceless:
ilhan omar says “abortion is healthcare.”
responding to that is a fella saying, “brothers are husbands.”
Fact: Trump Vs Biden / Sanders take the time and peel back the onion and dive deep into their past history. If you want to understand the Character / intelligence / Core beliefs and values of a candidate then look at their children. The children will always reflect on their parents.
The only good thing to come out of this town hall is mini mike is no longer a candidate for President.But the fact remains we must fight and challenge him every day on his anti gun bullshit.His attack on our second amendment will never stop.Let Virginia be the lesson for all of us in the responsible gun community.
Virginia Gun Owners Shamed Michael Bloomberg at Election Eve Town Hall
This operation appears to be a great success and should continue!
Virginians need to close in and prepare for a lot more action over gun rights to come in the coming weeks and months!!
So they voted for Shotgun Joe Biden instead?
In response to Mr. Bloomberg’s assertion that he is in need of armed security because he is more important, I would ask, how many multi millionaires & billionaires have died in a mass shooting, mugging, car jacking, etc? Or how many of that group have even been involved in any way in any of those crimes. None. But those who are every day, he & his leftist paid for politicians, two of which are our governor & Attorney General here in PA, feel the need to strip us of our God given right to protect ourselves & our constitutional right to level the playing field legally with a firearm of our choice, not theirs.
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