Category: Anti-Gun Folks

I don’t blame the guy. I wouldn’t want to be associated with that den of criminals and scoundrels either :)

It seems like there are many criminal members of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition who lobby Congress and the White House for more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners as a supposed solution to crime in their cities.

A reader noticed the other day that a new mayor in Pennsylvania was recruited into the ranks, one with a history of violently assaulting women and police officers. In fact, local police have publicly opposed his involvement in public office because of his assault that left one officer with a permanent disability.

All of this information was available for Bloomberg’s MAIG recruiters to find well before they signed up Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer and touted his name & photo on their website, as evidenced by this article from the Reading Eagle in January of 2000.

At the time, Berks County District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin filed suit to have Spencer removed from a City Council appointment because the assault made him legally unfit to hold public office. Here’s the relevant part of the story about the multiple violent attacks for which Spencer was accused and convicted:

In April 1986, police said, Spencer went to a home in the 900 block of the North Ninth Street and punched and kicked Carol Ann Parker, breaking her shoulder. Then-Patrolman Charlie Kaucher responded, and Spencer punched him and threw him from a porch, police said.

In October 1987, Spencer pleaded guilty in county court to aggravated assault on Kaucher, a first-degree misdemeanor, and was sentenced to five years of probation.

Nine other charges were dismissed in exchange for the plea, records show.

Kaucher suffered head and other injuries and was left with permanent hearing loss.

I think it’s time for Bloomberg to start answering some questions about his priorities with this coalition of mayors – upwards of 30 of which have been under criminal investigation or convicted of various crimes – now that they have recruited a mayor with a violent criminal record, are they going to put politics before principle?

In recent months, MAIG scrubs any mayor arrested after they signed up for the coalition from their site, but this is a completely new case where the crimes were documented before Bloomberg promoted Spencer’s membership. More importantly, Reading, as a larger city in Pennsylvania, has been a source of political capital for Bloomberg’s coalition. Is he willing to kick out a mayor of a major Pennsylvania city for a history of assaulting police officers, or is the political connection too important for him to keep so that he overlooks the conviction?

In fact, given the rate at which mayors appear to commit crimes, it’s a reasonable question as to whether or not Bloomberg will take the ultimate stand against criminal behavior and actually mandate background checks on members before they sign up with MAIG. It would be an interesting challenge to see if Bloomberg would have the nerve to actually mandate that mayors must be legally eligible to own a firearm before they can join. His numbers would likely see a very sharp drop.

I agree with Joe, that it seems the other side is not quite so ambitious on the magazine ban front as they once were, and not routinely tout 100 round magazines as being patently ridiculous more often than speaking of hard limits. Probably smart. Most Americans don’t own 100 round magazines (even I don’t have one), but many own 11-30 round magazines.

But it’s a sharp contrast from yesteryear. I seem to recall reading that the magazine limitations were originally an idea floated by Bill Ruger, who was interested in saving the Mini-14. Ruger’s proposal was to focus on the magazine size rather than the gun, and threw a 15 round limit out there for people to chew on. The gun control crowd loved the idea. Of all the states that passed assault weapons bans, only New Jersey adopted the 15 round limit. Every other adopted ten. I heard originally, anti-gun politicians floated a 5 round limit, and 10 was the compromise. Now they’d be happy to ban the drum magazines. Progress.

As for Bill Ruger, the Mini-14 may have been spared, but we got an assault weapons ban and a magazine ban. It took a while for the gun community to learn there’s nothing to be gained in preemptively surrendering ground. Compromise is something you do when circumstances leave you no good option, and your choice is between getting beaten and getting killed. Compromise is not a starting position in a political struggle.

And this from a Laywer. I’d never hire this guy:

Perhaps it is time that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement takes away the responsibility of overseeing concealed weapons from the Department of Agriculture? Just because having a gun in Florida is a constitutionally protected right does not mean it should be so cheap and so easy.

Shouldn’t exercising a right be, by the very concept of a right, “cheap” and “easy?” Does our HuffPo lawyer columnist believe that one can tax speech? What about the right to marry? The Supreme Court of the United State has said “no,” that free speech may not be taxes. And at least one state has said no to marriage. How can a right be constitutionally protected if the citizen may be taxed and frustrated from its exercise?

Mr. Aronfeld, if you don’t like the idea of keeping and bearing arms being a right, then just say so. Suggesting it’s some special right that deserves no real protection is intellectually dishonest and unworthy of a legal mind.

I shan’t repeat it. This is a family blog.This guy is so far off his rocker, I’m surprised anyone in this country takes him seriously.

Thanks to John Richardson for pointing out this compilation from SAF of Mayor Bloomberg’s mayors. This echo’s Dave Hardy’s effort along the same vein here. Mayors Against Illegal Guns: you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Here’s another pant wetter:

Our philosophy does indeed need to change: We need to find the real and moral courage to stand down the gun lobbies — the National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment zealots — whose reckless defense of gun rights has led to a society where almost anyone can acquire a Glock 9mm and the ammunition needed to ruin lives and communities in seconds.

Almost anyone who isn’t a felon, domestic abuser, ever been committed to the loony bin or forced into mental health treatment. You use the word “gun rights.” Somehow I don’t think it means what you think it means.

Count this in the category of people in Boston waking up in a cold sweat worried there might be someone out there having fun:

Right now, your neighbors could be stockpiling weapons in their homes–and it’s perfectly legal. In light of recent violence, some question whether the law makes it too easy to do so.

The only thing that should concern anyone, in regards to their neighbor stockpiling guns, is if you’re one of those “Keeping up with the Joneses” types and are worried his collection might make yours look sad by comparison. I’ve never understood what the panic is about the number of guns people have. You can only carry so many with you. How many cases of mass shooting have occurred where someone has amassed an “arsenal” and then took it with them? Of course, most reporters think if you have more than one gun, you have an arsenal, so I guess that’s the answer.

Alsobrooks prosecuted Prescott. She believes Maryland gun laws should be re-examined to weed out people who shouldn’t have a collector’s permit, including people with mental illness.

I’m always amazed by this pre-crime Majority Report mentality, like if we just tweak the laws the right way, no one who is a bit off kilter and no one who is just a flaming asshole will ever get their hands on a gun again. The prescription almost always is to make guns harder to buy and possess in general, in the hopes that maybe a few loons will be discouraged. But you know, it never seems to be the loons who are discouraged.

Last week, another member of Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors Against Guns group was convicted & sentenced for his crimes. Michael Pembleton of Sunflower, MS was caught in March loading $7,100 of designer purses he stole from his employer in the back of his vehicle. Yet, amazingly, Bloomberg featured Pembleton’s name on this ad asking Congress to do more to keep criminals from getting guns.

In the fine tradition of Nazi’s, Communists, and Fascists:

This issue is ‘Gun Right’s’ fatal flaw.  It constitutes a threat to our country’s remarkable diversity through those who harbor hateful beliefs.  I submit that there has been no real solution to this issue as we do not deny access to guns based on ideology.  No solution, that is, until what we just witnessed in this past general election.

You can read the whole sorry tome here. These are supposedly educated, tolerant, sophisticated people. The reality is they are thugs with PhDs.