The event was broadcast live by KCNC in Denver.
He vowed to “overhaul the background check system,” and close alleged “loopholes” that include allowing a gun transaction to proceed if a check takes longer than three days, as current law allows. He will also ban 3-D printing of firearms, require some type of safe storage and ban guns at schools and colleges.
Bloomberg also pledged to “declare gun violence to be a national health emergency.”
The gathering was not open to the public.
Ironically, in a venue where he was discussing one of the most polarizing issues in the country, Bloomberg insisted he wants to “pull the country together.”
However, that’s not likely to happen with such positions as advocating licenses to buy firearms. Bloomberg insisted that obtaining a permit before a firearms purchase allows the authorities “to screen applicants for dangerous behavior.”
For Second Amendment advocates, this translates to reducing the right to keep and bear arms to a government-regulated privilege that might deny someone the exercise of a right on the belief that he or she might commit some crime in the future.
“Critics will say Americans shouldn’t need a permit to exercise their constitutional rights,” Bloomberg acknowledged, quickly adding that citizens must register in order to vote.
But lost in that comparison was the failure to acknowledge that people who register to vote aren’t denied their ability to vote based on the possibility of some future disqualification.
The former New York mayor, who bankrolled the Everytown for Gun Safety gun control lobbying group, and was co-founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was joined on stage by Colorado State Rep. Tom Sullivan, a Democrat whose son, Alex, was among the victims at the 2012 movie theater shooting in Aurora. He told the audience to get involved by joining a local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and pressing for safe storage.
Bloomberg, while stating that requiring insurance for every gun owner is an idea he likes, said insurance companies would probably not participate in such an effort.
Much of what Bloomberg discussed was pure boilerplate, and not really new. He has advocated for restrictive gun control laws in the past, and promised to continue doing so even if he is not elected president in 2020.
“I will get this done whether I get elected or not,” Bloomberg said.
The former mayor-turned-gun-control-crusader opened his remarks by reminding the closed-door audience about flipping the U.S. House of Representatives to Democrat control in 2018. He wants to push farther next year by making sure President Donald Trump loses.
“Unfortunately,” Bloomberg asserted, “we have a president who bows down to the extremists who run the NRA.”
Instead, apparently Bloomberg believes the president should “bow down” to extremists in the gun prohibition movement.
He maintained that gun control should be something involving Republicans as well as Democrats.
“This should not be a partisan issue,” he insisted.
But that’s how gun control is shaping up across the United States, and on Capitol Hill. With Democrats controlling both houses of the Virginia Assembly thanks in no small way to the $2.5 million that Everytown’s action fund invested in overturning GOP control of the Virginia Senate, the new majority is feverishly pushing new gun control measures with an eager anti-gun Gov. Ralph Northam hoping to sign them into law.
Likewise, in Washington State, where the new House Speaker is anti-gun Rep. Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma), gun control will be a major issue starting next month when the Legislature convenes. Democrats control the legislature in Washington as well, and Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee has endorsed all manner of gun control since taking office.
Bloomberg money has also played a big role in pushing gun control in the Evergreen State. He backed at least two gun control initiatives, both of which passed, including I-1639, now being challenged in U.S. District Court in Tacoma by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association.
“I will never back down from this fight,” Bloomberg vowed.
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Bloomberg is nothing more or less than a slave owner wanna be. He banned large soda’s in NYC, wanted salt bans and now is going after firearms despite what SCOTUS said in Heller. He wants to ban cigarettes. Their can be no other logical conclusion except he thinks he owns us and will determine what we will be allowed to buy own and sell
POTUS?? I doubt that even he could buy it in the time he has. I was listening to him on the radio and this part concerned me the most. “I will get this done whether I get elected or not,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg sees himself as King Michael. He needs to be reminded what happened to the last King who tried to subjugate Americans.
Bloomberg is a liar and is unfit to serve the office of president. He is in violation of Article VI within his own city and jurisdiction. In his interview with King this morning he attacked the NRA. I find his attack amusing because it’s a bold faced lie in asserting the NRA is in anyway responsible for ghetto criminals fostered by Bloomberg’s engineered policies. Chicago is testament to their bullshit assertion that law abiding gun ownership has anything to do with violent crime. Bloomberg is cancer.
I can’t take these Democrats anymore they want to give free everything to illegal’s while I work my ass off for nothing than they want to strip away our right’s all while they are supposed to work for us something has to give
Unless those that seek to destroy America are prosecuted for their crimes against the people, these assaults on Freedom will continue. TITLE 18, U.S.C., SECTION 242 explains in a language that everyone can easily understand, that deprivation of rights is a federal crime. No one is above the law…
Hey Bloomingidiot, YOU FIRST! Disarm your private security detail. Do it today.
I live in the evergreen state. Bummblingberg does not. We are now fighting, to right the wrong he and his people have done. Scum as this should never be allowed to disrupt the legal system of a state were he does not reside. A-holes as this, reminded me why, I was a business owner most of my life. So I could refuse any and all work he may have tried to commissioned from my company. I did just fine without his tainted money. When he smiles, it’s as if I’m watching a CG movie, where this clown starts to morph… Read more »
I wonder if he will declare the things that are the greatest cause of death to Americans an assault of life… In order of magnitude…. Opioid overdose….. Vehicle death…. Abortion…. Ban something that matters you stupid maggot ass!
Personally, I’m glad he jumped in the race. It will force the rest of the democratic candidates to show their hands as well. Let 2020 be defining moment in the history of the country. Let’s see if the working class Democrat is really ready to abandon the constitution, indenture themselves and drink tiny sodas in the hope this megalomaniac might spare them some crumbs.
For me (Harold) I will not comply.