Haslam as hapless victim over anti-gun group?

Bill Haslam would have all Tennesseans believe he is a hapless victim.

The crime? He had no idea that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was such a “Debbie Downer” on the Second Amendment when he signed onto Bloomberg’s “Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns” (MAIG) coalition.  In fact, it took him at least three years to learn this elusive fact about Bloomberg, because, as Haslam would have us believe, he never would have joined the group had he known.

He must have put the Apple Dumpling Gang on this case though, because at least one of four things are true:

1.  He knew full well of Mayor Bloomberg’s position on guns and fully signed on to the pledge anyway; or,
2.  He is an empty suit who doesn’t know whether to scratch his butt or wind his watch, unless told to by others; or,
3.  He shares the same beliefs as Mayor Bloomberg; or,
4.  All of the above.

If, as Mayor Haslam asserts in his March 19, 2009 resignation letter, the MAIG group “expanded its efforts far beyond its original mission of fighting illegal gun use by criminals to include advocacy for a number of proposed policies that I believe intrude on the right of legitimate gun owners,” then the legitimate question becomes, “what did he know, and when did he know it?”

If Mayor Haslam joined the group without doing his homework on the beliefs of the group’s founders, Bloomberg and Menino, then what does this say about the possible hap-hazard way he will approach decisions as Governor? If he did do his homework, can we assume that he shared the same values as Bloomberg and Menino? At what point during Haslam’s three-year association with MAIG did he believe they ventured into areas where he disagreed?  Should we not consider it an “inconvenient truth” that he both resigned from MAIG and joined the NRA around the same time he announced his candidacy for Governor? Can he explain his disregard during his membership in MAIG for organizations that expressed grave concerns about the group’s direction?

Below is a timeline of statements by Mayor Bloomberg both before and during Mayor Haslam’s association with MAIG, along with other comments and stories related specifically to concerns about his involvement.  Decide for yourself if you can trust his “commitment to the Second Amendment.”

2005 – Mayor Bill Haslam signs on with Mayors Bloomberg and Menino for the coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, according to his March 2009 resignation letter from the group.  Bloomberg and Menino didn’t hold the inaugural summit until April of 2006.

January 2, 2006: “Mayor Takes Aim vs. Guns – Crackdown His Top Goal” by Stefan Friedman. The New York Post.

Routing the city’s “scourge of illegal guns” will be the top priority in the next four years, Mayor Bloomberg pledged yesterday as he was sworn in for a second term. … In what aides said was a swipe at the National Rifle Association, Bloomberg said, “To those who distort our laws and aid and abet hardened criminals, know this: We will not rest until we secure all the tools we need to protect New Yorkers from the scourge of illegal guns.”

Even at the inception of this loose coalition, Mayor Haslam, who claims to be an ardent supporter of the Second Amendment, stood hand-in-hand with a man who suggested the NRA distorts laws and helps criminals?

April 22, 2006:  “Bloomberg says guns for sport OK” by The Associated Press.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken gun control advocate, said Friday there is “nothing wrong with people having guns” for recreational shooting. … On his weekly radio show, the Republican explained that he still supports the Constitution’s Second Amendment and said he has no problem with hunting and target practice.
“I see nothing wrong with people having guns, but that doesn’t mean you can have a gun every place, and concealed weapons – or even weapons out in the open in big cities on city streets – does not make a lot of sense to me,” he said.

Seems strange to me that Haslam would join a group whose founder openly disagrees with concealed weapons laws, and who only sees acceptable gun use as hunting and target practice.

April 25, 2006:  Mayors Bloomberg and Menino host 14 Democratic mayors for the first ever summit at Gracie Mansion.

April 26, 2006: “Bloomberg hosts strategy session on guns for 14 Democratic mayors” by Jill Gardiner. The New York Sun.

Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican, and the other mayors critisized Congress, saying it placates the gun industry, and pledged to pursue litigation and legislation to target “irresponsible” gun dealers. … While Mr. Bloomberg has made cracking down on illegal guns and gun trafficking a central tenent of his second term, he has encountered staunch resistance from his fellow Republicans in Congress.

The piece goes on to talk about the October 2005 law Congress passed that would shield gun manufacturers and dealers from liability when their guns are used in crimes.  Congress also was considering legislation “to prohibit cities and individuals from obtaining information from a national database that traces guns for use in civil cases, which would be helpful in cases against dealers.”

A law professor at George Mason University, Michael Krauss, said Mr. Bloomberg may be “playing with fire.”
“There are millions of gun owners in this country,” Mr. Krauss said.  “If you are fighting this fight alone, nobody really notices.  But once it spreads and it’s contrary to public will, it is must more likely to be repressed.”

The mayors signed a six-point resolution at the April 25 meeting, including things like fighting for severe punishments for possession of illegal guns, targeting gun dealers who knowingly sell to criminals, developing technology to trace illegal guns, and coordinating on lawsuits and legislation.  While those points appear reasonable to the untrained ear, their intent is wholly different.

The piece also calls Bloomberg a “hero to gun control advocates,” which calls into question Mayor Haslam’s assertion that the group changed it focus during his participation.

May 17, 2006: “Mike blasts pols in NRAs holster” by Ian Bishop. New York Post.

Mayor Bloomberg took his gun fight to Congress yesterday, charging that the National Rifle Association has “rolled an enormous percentage” of the House and Senate.

Bloomberg joined Sen. Charles Schumer on Capitol Hill to unveil sweeping gun-control legislation that would:

* Require the ATF to provide local law enforcement access to the firearms trace database – which tracks a weapon from manufacturer to end user – upon request.

* Force local cops to report stolen guns and crime guns to the ATF.

* Allow the ATF to inspect gun dealers’ inventories whenever necessary.

* Increase the gun-trafficking penalty from 10 years to 20 years.

* Make gun traffickers subject to the same racketeering statutes the feds use to go after organized crime.

So did the NRA finally “roll” Mayor Haslam?

June 5, 2006: “37 More Mayors Join Mike’s War on Guns” by Stephanie Gaskell. New York Post.

By June, 52 mayors from across the country had signed on to Bloomberg’s MAIG coalition.  As Mayor of New York City, Bloomberg had already filed a lawsuit against 15 gun dealers he said sold illegal guns to undercover investigators from New York City.  Tennessee would eventually be targeted by Bloomberg.  He is also quoted as wanting to “take the fight across state lines.”

I’m sure Tennesseans are appreciative of Mayor Bloomberg sending NYC investigators into our state to conduct undercover investigations.  Maybe we should call him Chris Hansen instead? At least Chris Hansen involved the local law enforcement officials in most of his “To Catch a Predator” investigations.  Apparently Mayor Haslam didn’t mind Bloomberg poking around secretively in our state.

June 6, 2006: “Double-Barrel Mike: Register Gun Goons” by Stephanie Gaskell. New York Post.

Mayor Bloomberg had “both guns blazing” in his war on guns.  He was demanding a local law “setting up a gun-thug registry” to accompany his charge to lead his coalition toward tougher national legislation.

Dubbed the Gun Offender Registration Act, the bill would require anyone convicted of criminal possession of a weapon to register their addresses with the NYPD and appear in person at the police department every six months for four years.

He also wanted to change state law requiring gun dealers to perform an inventory from one year to every six months, in addition to wanting to limit the sale of handguns to one every three months.

May 12, 2007: “McDonnell Bloomberg in flap over gun control” by Seth McLaughlin. The Washington Times.

The rift between the Republicans started after New York City officials sued 27 gun dealers, including six in Virginia, for selling guns to undercover agents through illegal “straw purchases” in which one person legally fills out a form and buys a gun for someone else.

Last month, Mr. McDonnell sent Mr. Bloomberg a letter warning him that as of July 1 a new Virginia law would outlaw New York from sending undercover agents into the state to illegally purchase guns.

Mayor Haslam surely knew about these undercover investigations, as well as the Virginia law that Governor McDonnell sent to Mayor Bloomberg.  With his membership still in place, Haslam was giving his stamp of approval to these tactics.

June 26, 2007: “NRA-Linked Law Firm Gathers File On Bloomberg Anti-Gun Coalition” by Josh Gerstein. New York Sun.

A California law firm with ties to the National Rifle Association is using public records laws to compile a dossier on the activities of a national group Mayor Bloomberg set up to lobby Congress on gun issues. … Mr. Bloomberg’s group, which is also led by Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, is pushing to prevent renewal of the Tiahrt Amendment, a provision authored by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Republican of Kansas. The measure limits the ability of local police to use federal gun trace data to determine which gun dealers sell the most weapons used in crimes.

More than 225 mayors have signed up with Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Mayors from four cities – Anchorage, Alaska, Rio Rancho, N.M., Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Williamsport, Pa. – are known to have dropped out after protests from gun rights advocates.

Some of those who quit cited an unusual sting operation in which private agents working for New York attempted to make so-called straw purchases of guns from out-of-state gun dealers.

So as early as 2007, Mayors were dropping out because of those sting operations conducted by Bloomberg (who would later target Tennessee).  Again, Haslam continued to participate in this group for two more years.

April 11, 2008: “Bloomberg To Convene Third Gun Summit” by Russell Berman. The New York Sun.

Other topics that are likely to come up at the summit are a number of proposals percolating on the state and local level, including a push to require “microstamping” tracing technology on handguns and stiffen requirements for dealers to report lost and stolen firearms. … An alliance of gun rights groups reacted to last year’s summit by holding a competing event across town, and organizers later held a highly publicized “Bloomberg Gun Giveaway” in Virginia to protest the Bloomberg administration’s lawsuits against gun dealers. … The coalition suffered a setback last year with the failure of its top federal legislative priority: repealing an amendment annually attached to an appropriation bill that restricts how law enforcement can use gun tracing data.  Mr. Bloomberg and his aides lobbied intensely, but their bill did not make it out of committee.

Mr. Bloomberg’s hard-edged lobbying tactics alienated some lawmakers, but gun control advocates have stood by him. “I think we’re all on the same page,” the executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Jackie Hilly, said. “When you’re pushing controversial measures, you have to stand up and say what you believe.”

January, 2009: Mayor Bill Haslam announces his his bid for Governor of Tennessee

January 30, 2009: “Even more Haslam on guns” by Say Uncle.
Tennessee blogger, Say Uncle, describes the core principles of MAIG and explains the true intent of those principles.

The wording of the items may sound reasonable to someone unfamiliar with the issues. But I don’t think Bloomberg meant what Haslam thought he meant.

Late February / Early March, 2009: Mayor Haslam joins the NRA

March 19, 2009: Mayor Bill Haslam sent New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino a letter officially resigning from MAIG. See a PDF of his letter.

April 9, 2009: “Opinion: Gubernatorial candidate getting free of gun-grab group a good thing” by A.C. Kleinheider. Nashville City Paper.

In January, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam told the Knoxville News Sentinel that while, if he had it to do over again, he would not have signed on to New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns group, he was wary that if he quit the group shortly after announcing for governor it would be seen as pandering to pro gun groups.

By March 19, Haslam’s name had disappeared from the group’s Web site and he had renounced his membership. So, did he pander? Was it a mistake to quit the group? Or did the moderate Mayor have no choice but to genuflect before the same Second Amendment altar as much of the Republican primary electorate?

Bloomberg’s group has been the bane of many a second amendment enthusiast’s existence for some time.

A.C. Kleinheider goes on to discuss Haslam’s talking point that he left the group because the group changed focus.  To that, Kleinheider says,

Be that as it may, Mayor Bloomberg has been involved prominently and vocally with the group since its inception and while the group may have gotten progressively more offensive to the gun rights community, it has been troublesome for quite some time.

Haslam has had plenty of opportunities, had the group truly offended his sensibilities on guns, to withdraw from the group before now.

It should be painfully obvious to voters that the only reason Haslam quit the group was because he wanted to appear to be a conservative.  Kleinheider hits the nail on the head with this comment:

Haslam may be conservative but he is not a conservative.

He can claim the adjective, but not the noun. He is not a man animated by red meat conservative cultural issues. His handlers may mold a message and create a persona that gives the impression to conservatives that he is “one of them” but it will be just that: a creation.

October 9, 2009: “Gun probe triggers debate — NYC mayor attacks ‘loophole’ in Tenn.” by Richard Locker. The Commercial Appeal.

An undercover probe ordered by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg of gun shows in Tennessee and two other states has set off a new firearms debate, but likely won’t prompt any state legislative action here, officials and lobbyists said Thursday.

Bloomberg ordered the unusual investigation outside New York because 90 percent of guns recovered from crimes in the city come from out of state, a mayoral spokesman said.

Bloomberg released a report on the probe Wednesday and posted it and undercover video online. Some of the video was recorded at gun shows in Nashville and Smyrna, Tenn. … U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Chattanooga, who is running for governor, posted on his Twitter account Thursday that “Bloomberg and his anti-gun cronies should stay the heck out of Tn.,” the Associated Press reported.

Although Bloomberg’s focus is on federal action, Nashville lawyer John Harris, founder and executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, said any attempts to deal with gun shows at the state level would likely get nowhere.

“I view it (the Bloomberg probe) primarily as consistent with his longstanding agenda to do whatever is within his power to impair and infringe the rights of gun owners,” Harris said.

Mr. Harris is right.  Mayor Bloomberg has had a consistent and longstanding agenda against gun rights.

April 24, 2010: “Guest Commentary: Bloomberg’s aggressive stance against guns” by David Kopel. The Denver Post.

Since forming his MAIG group in 2006, Mayor Bloomberg has made no secret of taking his campaign to a national stage through the lobbying efforts of the group.  In fact, in April 2006, “Double-Barrel Mike” was moving to do just that through his Gun Offender Registration Act.  Now, in 2010, The Denver Post reports on “the billionaire mayor of New York City’s” funding of a national advertising campaign to promote his congressional gun-control bill, the Bloomberg Bill.  Part of the bill would nationalize a Colorado law about background checks at gun shows, but reports that “only a small fraction of the Bloomberg bill addresses the issue of background checks.  The rest of the bill has a much more aggressive agenda.”

What is that agenda?
- Give the U.S. attorney general unlimited power to impose fees and regulations on gun show operators.
- Hugely increases various prison terms that can be imposed on licensed dealers.
- Takes major steps toward national gun registration. (Remember the 2006 local NYC registration act?)
- Every person who sells a gun just once at a gun show can be put in a permanent federal database.
- Inact a system to collect data about gun buyers, such as how often the seller had used the gun, what the buyer planned to do with the gun, how the buyer planned to store the gun, and if the gun had ever been used in self-defense.)

The commentary piece ends with a telling statement.

That the Bloomberg bill is so far-reaching should be no surprise, since in 2008 Mayor Bloomberg urged the Supreme Court to rule that ordinary Americans have no Second Amendment rights at all.

Wow.  Just wow.

Conclusion:

Did Mayor Haslam just not know all these things?  How could he though? If he wasn’t aware of the concerns and issues surrounding gun owners, he wouldn’t have a clue about such things.  I mentioned the name “Michael Bloomberg” to my father recently and he immediately went off on a tirade about the man.  Yes Mayor Haslam, you can claim to be an advocate of the Second Amendment, but you can’t claim to be aware of Second Amendment rights.

Creation indeed! Haslam’s campaign is smoke and mirrors.  Everything has been perfectly crafted to weave this false image of Haslam being THE conservative candidate for Governor.  That, dear friends, is just not true.  I might be an admitted moderate myself, but I don’t take kindly to those who do not own up to their beliefs.  I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool conservative.  I don’t pretend to be one.  Why then do I support Zach Wamp, the conservative candidate, over Bill Haslam, the moderate candidate? With Zach Wamp, I know where he stands; he has a 16 year record in Congress of support for conservative principles.  You want to know what Zach Wamp has done to support the Second Amendment during his tenure in Congress? Check out On the Issues.

Do I agree with all of Zach’s positions and votes over those 16 years? No I do not. (Has anyone ever agreed 100% with any politician?) But I do agree with his 20/20 Vision for Tennessee’s future.

Will the real Bill Haslam please stand up? I think voters deserve to know who he is.  Maybe we should send the Apple Dumpling Gang to investigate that!