Bloomberg's Puppet Mayors Push Brazen, Illegal Gun Control

In a recent NBC News article, Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Stephen Benjamin discussed a brazen plan to trample on gun rights nationwide.

According to the article, the plan was born in the summer of 2015 when two political groups traveled to Columbia to stage competing protests over the removal of a Confederate flag at the state Capitol. Fearing bloodshed (because that's what happens whenever anyone carries a gun, right?), Benjamin and the city council passed an emergency ordinance to ban firearms around the Statehouse.

Assuming that a lack of dead bodies following the protests meant their ordinance worked, Benjamin and other mayors started promoting gun control to cities across the U.S.

From the article:

… Benjamin is helping to lead a movement among municipal governments to control the possession and use of firearms within their borders.

… their work is slowly catching on. In recent months, local governments have limited certain kinds of semi-automatic rifles, created "gun-free zones" and adopted zoning laws to keep out gun stores.

But wait. Aren't there “preemption” laws to prevent cities from doing this? Yes. In fact, according to the article, “Forty-three states now have laws preventing municipal governments from passing gun regulations that go further than state ones.”

Mayor Benjamin and the Columbia City Council know this.

The city's leaders knew that South Carolina's strict firearms pre-emption statute prohibited them from acting on their own to stop the demonstrators from carrying guns. But they did it anyway, because the marches would be over by the time a judge could strike the ordinance down.

Benjamin believes that the ordinance — which was indeed invalidated, but not until after the marches — saved lives. And it got him thinking about other ways to get around state law, which curtails local governments' ability to regulate firearms and ammunition.

In other words, they wanted to ban guns and it would take too long to do it legally, so they just did it illegally.

The blatantly illegal nature of their city ordinance didn't seem to bother them, however, because Benjamin and the city council proceeded to double down by “... making Columbia the first city in the country to enact a bump stock ban.”

It's amazing that a mayor would so willingly disregard state law even after having a previous ordinance struck down, but it's less amazing when you consider who Benjamin is.

Oh, did I mention? Mayor Benjamin is President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which has direct ties to Michael Bloomberg who is pumping millions of dollars into gun control efforts nationwide through a program innocently called the “American Cities Initiative.”

A June, 2017 Bloomberg press release claims the initiative will promote “bold leadership and effective problem-solving in city halls” as well as advance “critical policies and legislation.”

So let's add up all the pieces.

Legislators, elected by the people in the vast majority of states, pass laws to specifically prevent cities from enacting their own gun laws. However, even though courts have upheld state preemption laws and struck down municipal gun laws, gun-phobic mayors and city councils ignore the rule of law, a bedrock of western civilization, and, with backing from a self-promoting billionaire, push a nationwide initiative to break the law and infringe on rights protected by the United States Constitution.

It's not a mistake. It's not being done through ignorance. It's the willful and unlawful infringement of Second Amendment rights in a well-funded and nationally-coordinated strategy.

And now, it's come to Ohio.

The city councils of both Columbus and Cincinnati have enacted illegal bump stock bans, with Columbus also enacting other gun-related law. Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry have joined forces to file lawsuits against these cities in an attempt to re-establish the rule of law.

However, given the brazenness of this Bloomberg-inspired insanity, you have to wonder what's coming next? Is this some new form of civil disobedience at the municipal level? How many cities will pass such laws? How many will we have to sue?

It's even gone beyond guns. We seem to have arrived at a frightening moment in history when we're seeing elected officials blatantly support lawbreaking for political gain, such as the Democrat Party's growing support of illegal border crossing and calls for mob action against political opponents.

Is this just election-year desperation or the start of something darker in American politics?

Dean Rieck is Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association, a former competitive shooter, NRA Patron Member, #1 NRA Recruiter for 2013, business owner and partner with Second Call Defense.

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