BELLEVUE, WA – A third mayor has bowed out of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun mayors’ coalition, saying he is in favor of disarming criminals, but “not at the risk of losing our Constitutional freedom.”
SAF learned from the staff at Gun Week that Rio Rancho, NM Mayor Kevin Jackson has withdrawn from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, without having attended a single meeting of the group, which now reportedly involves more than 150 mayors. Jackson, a self-described “constitutionalist” and career Army veteran, explained to Gun Week that he believes strongly in getting guns out of the hands of criminals, but he draws the line at disarming law-abiding citizens.
“Mayor Jackson is a good man,” said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb, “who wants to do the right thing for his community, and walking away from Bloomberg’s organization certainly meets that standard. His military background makes him a leader, and we think other mayors need to fall in behind him and let Mayor Bloomberg and his anti-gun cronies wallow in the mud they want to sling against firearms dealers, gun makers and gun owners.
“With Bloomberg’s questionable gun shop sting under investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the recent announcement that none of the gun dealers he targeted with that vigilante operation will be prosecuted, Bloomberg’s anti-gun scheme seems to be falling apart,” Gottlieb stated.
“Nobody more than this nation’s 80 million law-abiding gun owners wants to disarm every criminal in America,” Gottlieb said, “but we cannot use that premise as an excuse to ratchet down on the gun rights of honest citizens. The Bloomberg agenda is to make all gun laws in America as restrictive as New York, and we’ve already seen that those laws disarm the wrong people, and don’t prevent criminals from committing crimes.
“Fortunately,” Gottlieb said, “some mayors are seeing through the smoke screen. They have quickly determined that there is far more to Bloomberg’s plan than simply taking guns away from criminals, and they won’t be a party to any program that attacks one of our most precious constitutional rights.”