A mostly peaceful rioter tosses a Molotov cocktail in Portland, Oregon. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Sorry, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. We didn’t know you were still here.
Mea culpa. It’s just that no one has heard from this Bloomberg-created and funded group in, well…years. Imagine the surprise when a letter signed by 10 mayors with a bone to pick with the Trump administration was published because Americans weren’t rolling over to the looters, rioters and criminals attacking police and citizens.
What was most surprising about the letter, however, is the complete and utter ignorance of the lawlessness and criminal activity being committed while these same mayors are calling the riots “mostly peaceful.”
The list of mayors and cities is a “who’s who” of failed municipal leadership looking to deflect blame for allowing crime to run rampant in their communities. Now, these same mayors are up in arms that the “peaceful protestors” are being intimidated by Americans who choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Of course, the mayors describe the riots and looting as a “disagreement or a scuffle” and citizens bearing arms as “vigilantism.”
Very Tolerant Mayors
- Mayor Rosalyn Bliss of Grand Rapids, Mich., signed first. However, she didn’t raise concerns about the June riots that cost her city $2.4 million in property damage.
- Seattle’s Mayor Jenny Durkan signed the letter, even after she tolerated the city’s infamous Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) Zone that forced police from a precinct, where six criminal shootings occurred, killing two. A self-declared “Warlord” illegally passed out rifles from the trunk of a car. That didn’t bother Mayor Durkan. It was only after protesters marched on her house that she acted to end the standoff.
- Albuquerque’s Mayor Tim Keller who just lost a bid to force his city to create its own gun control laws signed on too. That was after his city experienced protests morphing into riots and the city council backed Mayor Keller’s call to ban guns on city properties, including public parks. Riots, though, were not banned.
- Pittsburgh’s Mayor William Peduto signed on. This is the same mayor who is again taking his state to court so he can enact his own gun bans and strip citizens of their ability to defend themselves. He’s concerned about intimidation of rioters even after federal authorities stepped in to charge rioters there with “throwing IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and bricks at police…” according to federal prosecutors.
- Madison, Wis., Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway doesn’t see the irony in the fact that she was forced to impose a curfew after riots broke out in her city and state Democratic Sen. Tim Carpenter was attacked and injured. This is also the city where “peaceful protestors” threw a statue of abolitionist Hans Christian Heg into a lake a half mile from where it stood at the capitol.
- Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond, Va., offered his signature. He just banned guns on city properties. Richmond was also the site of more than 20,000 pro-gun rights protestors last January that saw no disturbances and protestors actually picked up their own trash. Clearly, law-abiding gun owners aren’t the problem there.
- Portland, Ore., Mayor Ted Wheeler also signed the letter. His city has seen over 100 consecutive days of rioting, attacks on federal, state and local police and burning of municipal buildings. The mayor was heckled from the streets and his home was threatened with arson, forcing him to move. Mayor Wheeler thinks law-abiding gun owners are the problem.
Who Embraces Extremism?
The “peaceful protests” that see businesses looted and destroyed, patrons intimidated and police cars burned isn’t intimidation or problematic for these mayors. But Mayors Against Illegal Guns has always had a problem with the truth.
Video taken Monday evening shows a group of protesters heckling a diner at an outdoor restaurant in Washington, DC, insisting she raise her fist in solidarity. https://t.co/SSPNF06MBx
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 25, 2020
The last time anyone heard from them was when they rolled the branded bus into Concord, New Hampshire and read off a list of names of crime victims, placing the blame on the gun. That list included the Boston Marathon bomber’s name, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
His brother is still in a federal prison appealing his death sentence for his part in killing three and injuring 264 with pressure cooker bombs and the elder brother murdered cops in a shootout before he was killed. And, let’s not forget the long list of MAIG members who have been convicted of crimes earning the group the name Mayors for Illegal Guns.
The letter is a good reminder, though. It tells everyone where these mayors stand. Maybe Mike Bloomberg should put them back in mothballs.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
