Bloomberg Promotes Gun Control With $150K To Virginia Senate Candidates

Mayor Bloomberg is donating $25,000 apiece to six Democratic Virginia State Senate candidates to ensure that the party maintains control of the Senate and opposes weakening Virginia's already-lax gun laws. Five of them are from Northern Virginia (or "NoVa," for those who have survived it) and the sixth is in the Hampton Roads area. Virginia Republicans are pushing to loosen gun regulations, including the one gun per month restriction currently on the books. Virginia is New York's number one source of illegal handguns.

“Obviously what we’re concerned about is we don’t want a bad problem to get worse,” John Feinblatt, Bloomberg’s chief policy adviser tells the Washington Post. "What happens in the Virginia state legislature has a direct impact on the public safety of New Yorkers." In 2007, NYPD officer Russel Timoshenko was killed by a man using a gun purchased in Norfolk, Virginia.

Previously, Mayor Bloomberg has sent private investigators to show how easy it is to exploit Virginia's gun show loopholes, and did the same in Arizona after a fatal shooting in Tuscon left six dead and 14 others wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Gun control is an issue that the mayor has consistently championed. When reached for comment on his donations, a manager at A&P Arms in Hampton, Virginia told a Daily News reporter, "He's an arrogant bastard who shouldn't be meddling." This man will have his chance to tell Bloomberg what he thinks in person: the mayor plans to visit Virginia next week.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Christopher Robbins in News on October 29, 2011 6:13 PM

Comments [rss]

SemperWhy

Of course he's donating to candidates in NoVA. The farther you get from DC, the less you're willing to suffer this fool's interference.

LOU G

Carpet-baggers and scalawags.

OIFVet06

An "arrogant bastard?". "That's about the nicest description anyone has used to describe Michael (Huff'n Puff) Bloomberg. Let him donate all he wants in heavily pro-2nd Amendment Virginia. It's just good money after bad and he'll never see it again. Gun control is dead in America -- and Micheal Bloomberg is out of gas ...

Roger_the_Shrubber

Will Bloomberg disarm his own bodyguards?

ANGRYGOD11

As much as I detest Bloomie, its unlikely his NYPD security detail is robbing bodegas at gunpoint.

Investigate-NWO-globalists

They would just extort the bodegas, but recklessly shoot at other people:

"A security guard for Mayor Bloomberg has been stripped of his badge and placed on modified duty as police investigate his alleged shooting of his lady's ex-boyfriend..."

http://gothamist.com/2010/11/2...

Roger_the_Shrubber

I never suggested that. Only that non-billionaire/millionaire citizens who can't afford armed bodyguards should at least have their 2nd amendment rights and the chance to defend themselves.

Mr Mel

The odds are if you're a gun owner and you fire your weapon, you'll will shoot someone you know.

RoCr

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you mean "fire your weapon in self defense" and say this: That is completely false. Cops are far more likely to kill an innocent person than private citizens. Also, there are between 1 and 2.5 million uses of firearms in self defense in the US each year, but only 11,000 murders committed with firearms. You are over three times more likely to be killed in an automobile accident.

Now, if you didn't mean "in self defense," then I have to say you're a complete idiot. There are several billions of rounds of ammunition expended each year by American hunters and shooters, and there are less than 800 accidental deaths caused by firearms. That makes the risk of being accidentally shot and killed while firing a weapon so low as to be statistically meaningless.

Mr Mel

No, I am not an Idiot, complete or incomplete. What I said had nothing to do with self defense. It has to do with anger, you will shoot someone you know because they angered you. Perhaps you think that you can denigrate someone that disagrees with you by calling them names, you're still the one with the gun. I'm glad I don't live in your house.

RoCr

So, you are a complete idiot. There are over 80,000,000 gun owners in the United States, who own a combined total of well over 290,000,000 guns. If what you said is true, the number of people killed in firearm-related deaths would be far, far higher than it is.

And you have nothing to fear from me, unless you attempt to harm myself or my loved ones. It is you who is projecting your anger issues onto me, which I find to be a typical trait of anti-gunners.

Newhce

You have no idea what you are talking about.

petey2

Maybe instead of focusing on Virginia's gun laws, he should focus on why NYC and the DA's office doesn't enforce the minimum sentencing guidelines already on the books in NY.