Free Republic

File this under the early bird gets the worm. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced this week that he plans to spend $50 million of his vast wealth to create a “gun safety” group that he hopes will “outmuscle” the NRA, according to The New York Times. But the new group, “Everytown for Gun Safety,” was a little too slow on the draw when it came to getting control of the group name on Facebook, with pro-gun activists acquiring the name first, BuzzFeed reported. A Facebook page has been set up under the same name as Bloomberg’s new...

In his continuing battle against the right of individuals to bear arms, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pooh-poohed the idea that guns might be a valid or necessary tool of self-defense. “The argument that an abused spouse might need a gun to defend herself is bogus,” Bloomberg insisted. “Very few spouses are actually totally beaten to death by abusive husbands. So, access to deadly force is seldom an appropriate response. A wife who escalates the situation by drawing a weapon will likely later regret her action. The better course is for her to lessen the beating by placating...

For all Michael Bloomberg's talk about simply wanting to secure expanded background checks, his newest gun control group "Everytown for Gun Safety" is on a broader mission to take away the guns women in abusive homes could use for self defense. In an April 16th tweet posted at 6:42 a.m, Everytown came out against guns in homes where someone is abusive. They did so without recognizing that the gun may be the only thing that gives the victim of abuse a fighting chance of survival. The tweet said: "The presence of a gun makes it five times more likely domestic...

Original Title:NBC Thrilled Bloomberg Using Fortune for Anti-Gun Push...After Fretting Over Too Much Money in Politics In a glowing interview with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie touted the anti-gun activist's latest crusade: "You're putting $50 million into the effort....saying essentially this new group is going to borrow a page from the NRA's playbook. The NRA has been very successful in frightening lawmakers who oppose them....You're quoted in the New York Times this morning saying, 'We have to make them afraid of us.'" [Listen to the audio] Only two weeks earlier, NBC...

Let’s do a thought experiment. If Charles or David Koch got invited onto NBC’s Today show to talk about their efforts to advance their political agenda, would either or both get partnered with Savannah Guthrie for a softball interview? Would their interview include suggestions that one of them should run for President? Kyle Drennen at Newsbusters notes that two weeks prior to Michael Bloomberg’s appearance on Today, the network took a much different approach to money in politics: (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The clip just provides the highlights. Newsbusters has the whole transcript up, but let me just note the tough questions asked by...

The former New York City mayor is dedicating himself to a new group that will organize voters who support gun control; called Everytown for Gun Safety, it will subsume his existing groups (Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense), and it will focus specifically on expanding background checks. His previous approach was to fund ad campaigns in races where gun control was an issue. Here's how he matches up with his arch-rival. Money Bloomberg says he'll be putting at least $50 million into the project this year -- and according to the New York Times, he...

(CNN) -- Michael Bloomberg is investing a chunk of his personal fortune to minimize the influence of the National Rifle Association. The former New York City mayor pledged $50 million to his new group Everytown for Gun Safety, an umbrella organization for his two other gun control groups: Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. It aims to make the political climate more supportive of gun control. The new organization plans to compete against the NRA by adopting its playbook. The NRA has built an impressive and effective organization that touts millions of members,...

On April 16th – the same day Michael Bloomberg told NBC's Today show that his gun control push "isn't gun control" – he released a new ad targeting parents who have kids in the home yet own guns. The ad is an emotional appeal aimed at building support for new gun control restrictions on gun owners with kids in the home, specifically focused on having guns in the home locked up. In the ad, a young girl and her brother play hide and seek. The girl hides in her parents' closet and finds a pistol that the parents kept in...

We're better than those damned Russians and their Putin; we have democracy! Well, maybe not. Quote: Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism. Lots of big words in that paragraph. Let's distill it down -- the argument presented is that America is really no different than...

The midterm elections of 2014 are coming up and the anti-Second Amendment forces are starting to step up their attacks on our gun rights. The biggest offender is former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is spending $50 million to defeat pro-gun candidates and to destroy the National Rifle Association. He announced his campaign on the Today show where he continued to lie about his intentions of disarming law-abiding citizens. This anti-Constitution jerk is merging his puppet groups, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, into a new group called Everytown for Gun Safety....

Everytown.org is funded by Mike Bloomberg. The New Hampshire Union Leader has the advertisement prominently on the front web page. Time to boycott all of the Union leader advertizers

This morning Michael Bloomberg announced he was starting a $50 million fund to go against the NRA, alongside him on the Today show was a "stay at home mother", Shannon Watts. Shannon, go to YouTube, and punch in the search engine 'brutal attack Milburn, NJ". Watch the video and you will know why guns were invented.

Actually, it’s difficult to choose whether to start with the first paragraph or the last paragraph in this New York Times report on Michael Bloomberg’s latest project. The first paragraph covers Bloomberg’s ongoing efforts to pass gun-control legislation after the failure of his Mayors Against Illegal Guns to move the needle at all on his agenda. Besides, several of the mayors walked out after it became obvious that Bloomberg opposed a lot more than just illegal guns … which are, of course, already illegal.This time Bloomberg wants to spend $50 million to set up a grassroots network to take on...

Say what you will about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but don’t you dare accuse of him of being modest. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Bloomberg plans to spend $50 million of his estimated $31 billion fortune this year to combat the National Rifle Association. Speaking of his advocacy of liberal causes like gun-control and preventing New Yorkers from enjoying “Big Gulp” sodas, Bloomberg told the Times, reportedly with a grin, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed.” “I am heading straight in,”...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will spend $50 million this year to build a nationwide grassroots network on gun control in a direct challenge to the National Rifle Association, The New York Times reported. The new lobbying group, called Everytown for Gun Safety, will encompass other gun control groups funded by Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the report said. Bloomberg told the Times the strategy will focus on expanding the background check system for gun buyers at the state and national levels. He made nearly $14 million in federal campaign...

Now that he's out of office, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is stepping up his efforts to battle the National Rifle Association and expand gun control laws. Bloomberg detailed his plans in an interview with the New York Times published Monday — in which he predicted his crusades against guns, smoking, and obesity would serve him well in the afterlife. "I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close," Bloomberg said....

Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence, an organization he hopes can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association. Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, said gun control advocates need to learn from the N.R.A. and punish those politicians who fail to support their agenda — even Democrats whose positions otherwise align with his own. “They say, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to go after you,’ ” he said of the N.R.A....

Forest Park Mayor David Lockhart received a solicitation this week to join Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He didn’t just reject the offer. In his reply, Lockhart ripped MAIG and its founder, calling the group out for what it really is: I do not support your efforts. I oppose efforts to require private sellers with minimal sales (non-dealers) to perform background checks. I am proud that gun shows are regularly conducted in Forest Park. If you really want to reduce illegal gun sales, perhaps your energy would be better focused in petitioning the BATF to end its illegal gunwalking....

Over the years, Bloomberg L.P. has proven itself capable of incredible investigative journalism — which makes its recent self-censorship all the more cowardly. Earlier this week, Ben Richardson, Bloomberg’s editor-at-large for Asia news, quit, becoming the third notable journalist to defect from the firm recently. Would that Bloomberg’s corporate leaders had the same moral authority as its writers. Instead, the news outlet has shied away from investigative coverage in China, opting instead to focus on the stories that simply make money. Speaking in Hong Kong last week, Bloomberg chairman Peter T. Grauer said: “We have about 50 journalists in the...

The Democratic Party wants the 2014 elections to be about anything and everything except ObamaCare. The depths of Hope and Change were plumbed in 2008, the War on Women was exhausted in 2012 and that leaves only the Koch Brothers. Senator Harry Reid, facing the end of his time as Senate Majority Leader, has decided to bet the farm on the Koch Brothers. His Senate Majority PAC (formerly Commonsense Ten, really “Keep Harry Reid Majority Leader”) is trying to protect Senate Democrats who are hated in their own states for voting to drive up the price of health insurance while...