By Larry Keane
NEWTOWN, Conn –-(Ammoland.com)- Minnesota Public Radio reports that Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis has said that he and 60 other mayors are considering boycotts of gun makers who don’t agree to their sweeping list of gun control demands.
Taking a page from the Rahm Emanuel playbook, the mayors intend to use their police department purchasing power as leverage.
This is a re-hash of the Clinton Administration threat, spearheaded by then-HUD Secretary and now governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, to do the same with federal agencies. Despite a successful court action by NSSF to counter the threat at the time, the idea was kicked up again in 2010 by disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who suggested that gun makers must cease and desist the sale of ALL semi-automatic firearms to escape this punishment.
Choosing a service sidearm for police agencies is serious business. Law enforcement procurement officers will be less than pleased to learn that their political overseers seem to want them to go back to revolvers in order to make a point in the gun control debate. In Minneapolis, the deputy chief said “ultimately, it is the chiefs decision what gun is going to be authorized for use by the department,” but the city attorney countered by saying “the city can always set reasonable specifications for the purchases it’s making.”
Mayor Rybak said he mentioned the idea to Barack Obama during a recent visit, and “Obama and his staff were delighted by the idea.”
By no coincidence, Obama is visiting Minneapolis on Monday, Feb. 4, for the first of a lengthy series of campaign-style gun control pep rallies. Perhaps the mayor and the White House plan to try out the idea that very day, telling both the Secret Service and local law enforcement to turn in their semi-automatic pistols and carry only .38 snub-nosed revolvers for event security.
If so, it’s safe to predict that “delight” is not the response they will receive. Meanwhile, we’ll be blowing the dust off the NSSF v Cuomo file.
About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 6,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.
So good to search out someone with some authentic thoughts on this subject. realy thanks for starting this up. this website is something that’s wanted on the web, someone with slightly originality. useful job for bringing something new to the internet!
Maybe the gun manufacturers should boycott the cities by refusing to let their products be sold to the police there. Let's put the shoe on the other foot and then put the foot up the mayor's a##.
There are millions of gun ownera who will remember next election. Secondly, lets ban together as consumers, patriots, gun owners to boycott these cities, especially Minnesota and New York. Let them see how it feels to be put into a depression and attempt to crawl out of an economic collapse. Anarchy is waiting in the wings my dear mayors. Are your police forces equipped?
Gunmakers please move to Ocala/Marion county Florida. we'ed welcome you with open arms!
I am sick and tired of these socialist idiots trying to take our 2nd Amendment Rights. As a retired police officer now living in Northern Minnesota I can state positively that Ryback and his ilk DO NOT speak for the majority of law enforcement officers and for that matter the majority of Minnesotans. If the current bill, that by the way is even worse than Cuomo's new unconstitutional B.S., should somehow even get out of commitee, there will be a groundswell of local activism like Minnesota has never seen before. It will do absolutely nothing to stop maniacs from killing.… Read more »
Dang,
I guess I need to buy another gun. Just got one two weeks ago.
Maybe two. Another .40 handgun and maybe .40 carbine.
And of course, reloading equipment. With the scarcity and price of ammo these days…
All this group have done is energized and activated a bunch of people who wouldn't have owned a firearm.
They can come on down to Florida, the "Gunshine State" where we like guns and those that manufacture them!