Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, I-N.Y., took his gun control fight to the airwaves Sunday, taking issue with the National Rifle Association's stance on the issue.
"If 20 kids [losing their lives] isn't enough, I don't know what is," Bloomberg lamented to moderator David Gregory of NBC's "Meet The Press". Bloomberg's gun control policy proposals have been both lauded and criticized nationwide.
He told Gregory that without proper sweeping gun control legislation, Americans would see more tragedies like that of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. Since Bloomberg has gone public with his pleas, he has attracted a large amount of attention both in the media and among his political opponents.
This is not Mayor Bloomberg's first controversial public service initiative. The billionaire mayor has set his sights on a number of popular vices, seeking to curb their negative effects on the public through edict.
Earlier this month, Mayor Bloomberg's comprehensive ban on sugary drinks was overturned by a New York State judge, after drawing both ire and litigation from the American Beverage Association. Bloomberg said he plans to appeal the decision, saying that obesity caused by New Yorkers' unhealthy dietary choices will lead to future illness epidemics.
"[The] public [has the] right to keep guns out of the hands of criminals," Bloomberg told Gregory on the NBC Sunday program, putting the National Rifle Association in his crosshairs. "If I can [make this country safer] by spending some money, then I think my money will be well spent and I have an obligation to do that."
Bloomberg appeared aggravated after Gregory asked him to respond to NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre's opposition to sweeping gun control legislation.
"He can say anything he wants," Bloomberg countered.
Bloomberg's gun control stance recently led him to found a nationwide organization of city leaders who agree with his platform on this issue. He told David Gregory that Mayors Against Illegal Guns will be spending $12 million on advertising in a number of states to lobby for stricter gun control policies.
However, Bloomberg's announcement of the new ad campaign wasn't quite as controversial as something he admitted to Gregory during the interview.
"I do think there are certain times [elected officials] should infringe on your freedom," he told Gregory, which some opponents say explains exactly why the mayor has seemingly inserted himself in multiple issues including the sale of certain beverages and most recently the visibility of tobacco products at New York retailers.
David Gregory later countered Bloomberg's discussion of his wide breadth of public service efforts.
"You are telling people what they can and cannot do. Why is that the government's job ... " he asked the mayor.
"We're not telling them at all," Bloomberg countered, "We're telling them what science says is in their interest."
Of course, he is referring chiefly to his embattled nutritional legislation. Gregory was not the only person Sunday who found fault in Bloomberg's initiatives. The NRA's Wayne LaPierre later appeared with Gregory to refute the mayor's actions.
The NRA CEO defiantly objected to Bloomberg's intrusion into Americans' private affairs.
"He can't spend enough of his $27 billion to impose his will on the American people," LaPierre told Gregory, saying that citizens should have the right to defend themselves the best way they know, as opposed to accepting mandates from bureaucrats. "He can't buy America."
" ... Millions of people [are] sending us $5, $10, $20 checks, saying 'stand up to this guy,'" LaPierre said of citizens opposed to Bloomberg's proposed measures.
The NRA chief noted that he found Michael Bloomberg's original premise on the gun control issue to be misguided.
"The whole thing ... is a dishonest premise," he said, referring to proposed background check legislation. "There's not a bill on [Capitol] Hill that provides a universal check. Criminals aren't going to be check."
He said that mass shootings such as recent events in Connecticut and Colorado could not be prevented by such imprudent legislation. Of the random identities of the individuals recently accused or indicted in carrying out such shootings, LaPierre said: "They're unrecognizable [to background check systems]."
Wayne LaPierre later told Gregory that he supported the 1999 National Instant Check system, which at a cost of about $1 billion, was to become the comprehensive system Bloomberg was calling for. "It's not fair, it's not accurate and it's not 'instant,'" he told the moderator.
"Some newspaper will print it all," Wayne LaPierre said when asked about the implementation of such a system of background checks, referring to the Journal News, a local newspaper covering Westchester, Rockland and surrounding New York counties. The paper and its publisher, Janet Hasson, was under fire recently after the paper requested and printedthe names of all gun owners in the counties covered by the publication.
Critics of Hasson said that the measure created the opposite effect of which it was intended, by endangering those residents of sizeable areas like Spring Valley, N.Y., or White Plains, N.Y., whose names did not appear in the published lists.
Wayne LaPierre later likened such new sweeping gun control legislation as proposed by Bloomberg and other mayors including Michael Nutter, D-Pa., and Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., to be more problem than solution. Background checks are "a diversion of police resources," LaPierre said, also blasting the mayors' support for additional ammunition magazine restrictions.
"Of all the jurisdictions in the United States, Chicago is 90 out of 90 [on execution of gun control laws]," LaPierre said, criticizing Emanuel's government, and later NBC News and other media outlets by condemning the lack of coverage of similar important statistics.
David Gregory later asked LaPierre to respond to Vice President Joe Biden's latest public comments that, like Bloomberg's, called for restrictions on high capacity ammunition magazines. LaPierre then criticized Biden's assertion, saying that the number of rounds in a weapon does not necessarily represent its. ".223 [caliber bullets] are the low end" of the power spectrum, referring to the ammunition used in some automatic weapons.
"The NRA wants to do things that make people safe," LaPierre said.
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