BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today applauded another western mayor for bowing out of Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun mayors’ coalition.
Anchorage, Alaska Mayor Mark Begich announced his withdrawal from Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” in a letter to the Anchorage Daily News earlier this week. While noting that he supports efforts to prosecute armed criminals, Mayor Begich acknowledged, “upon further review of the coalition, it appears they may have a different agenda than I anticipated.”
“I am concerned the coalition is working on issues that conflict with the beliefs we share in Alaska about legal gun ownership,” Begich wrote, “and I’m also concerned gun ownership advocates are not part of the full discussion within the coalition.”
SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb congratulated Mayor Begich for what he called “a courageous gesture in an environment steeped in political correctness.”
“It takes political guts to turn away from a movement that has been getting a free ride from an adoring press that can turn on a politician like a hungry wolf pack,” Gottlieb stated. “From his letter, it is obvious Mayor Begich realizes that Bloomberg’s agenda has a lot more to it than just disarming criminals. Bloomberg wants to disarm law-abiding citizens, and drive gun dealers out of business.
“But this has been a bad week for Bloomberg,” Gottlieb continued, “and Mayor Begich has taken the right action for his friends, neighbors and fellow Alaskans who do not share a ‘New York view’ of the world. Bloomberg has managed to beguile a lot of mayors, but with this week’s revelation that his vigilante gun sting is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to determine if the sting violated federal firearms laws, coupled with a warning from the Department of Justice against pulling any more such stunts, it may be time for other mayors to follow the leadership of their Anchorage colleague.
“Michael Bloomberg can stew in his own juices,” Gottlieb said. “He should not be able to drag so many of his fellow mayors into what is becoming a quagmire.”