BELLEVUE, WA – When billionaire anti-gun former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a tirade during Rice University’s graduation ceremonies over the weekend about an “epidemic of dishonesty” in the nation’s capital, he could easily have been talking about the gun prohibition movement he largely finances, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.
“Bloomberg criticized what he called ‘an endless barrage of lies,’” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “But that’s exactly what we’ve seen from the gun prohibition lobby, exemplified by Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. From deceptively combining suicide and homicide data to inflate what they call the number of ‘gun violence’ victims, to inflating the number of school shootings, which the Washington Post called ‘flat wrong,’ and suggesting that raising the age limit for purchasing firearms and banning modern sporting rifles will somehow prevent mass shootings, the gun control campaign has been built on layers of false promises.
“Anti-gun lobbying groups even claimed that 40 percent of gun transactions occurred without a background check,” he added, “until research proved that claim to be bogus.
“Each gun control failure has been followed by demands for even more restrictions on law-abiding citizens,” he continued. “Each new erosion of fundamental Second Amendment rights is sold to the public as a preventive measure, until the next tragedy occurs, followed by more demands that gun owners give up a little more privacy and a little more liberty.”
Bloomberg also warned about a trend toward “alternate realities” during his speech. Gottlieb suggested that the billionaire former mayor might be an expert on that subject.
“Behind all of the gun control rhetoric,” Gottlieb observed, “elitists like Bloomberg, with their billion-dollar bankrolls and armed private security continue their campaigns for public disarmament from the safety of walled estates or gated communities. Nothing more accurately reflects an ‘alternate reality’ than the one enjoyed by people like Bloomberg, who live behind walls or gates, and have their own bodyguards.
“Suggesting that surrendering a basic right of self-defense and the tools to protect one’s home and family will somehow move average citizens closer to the idyllic security of the rich and famous is the most dishonest thing of all,” he said.
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
