Buckeye Firearms Chairman Jim Irvine debates Bloomberg crony on gun show "loophole"

By Chad D. Baus

On October 20, 2009, Buckeye Firearms Chairman Jim Irvine appeared as a guest on WCPN's (Clevland Public Radio) "The Sound of Ideas," hosted by Dan Moulthrop.

In a typical display of your tax dollars at work on the "impartial" forum of National Public Radio (NPR), the opening half of the show was given solely to one of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's cronies - John Feinblatt, the city's Criminal Justice Coordinator.

The first words out of Feinblatt's mouth during that segment were provably false:

Really? Well, no. And yet Feinblatt was allowed to blather on unquestioned about his obvious lie, and unchallenged in any way about the rest of his allegations, for more than eleven minutes.

Because he started with such an obvious lie, truly nothing else he said deserves discussion. But a flub on the part of Feinblatt in an answer to one of Moulthrop's softball questions was also revealing.

After playing a short segment of audio from the undercover video, Moulthrop asked Feinblatt to "tell us a little bit about your own response to this video from our investigators."

One would expect that, if Bloomberg's cronies had evidence of actual crimes being committed, that their response would have been and should have been to tell actual law enforcement investigators.

And yet the reason that Feinblatt stopped himself after saying "when we told investigators", and the reason we know he is lying when he claims that "everybody, at every level of law enforcement" agrees with them, is because Bloomberg's cronies have apparently NOT told investigators anything.

Indeed, in preparation for his segment on the show, Irvine confirmed with the City of Sharonville, OH, where some of Bloomberg's minions went undercover, that Bloomberg had not turned over to them any evidence of any alleged crimes. Law-enforcement officials in other cities and states that received visits from Bloomberg's minions have been quoted as saying the same.

Another interesting claim uttered by Feinblatt amidst his false claims and twisted statistics was this:

Gun shows are all about hunting? Really? Well, no. And if they truly believe that most gun sellers obey the law, then why won't they agree with gun rights proponents that the problem is one of enforcement, rather than something that demands new laws which will strip away the rights of what they agree are the majority of law-abiding sellers? Unfortunately, Moulthrop never asked.

One final admission from Feinblatt is worth consideration:

Indeed it is. Which is proof-positive that there is no such thing as a gun show "loophole" - it is already illegal for criminals to buy guns, and for any person to sell or furnish a gun to a criminal.

After Feinblatt was allowed to monopolize the first segment of the story, Gun Shows and Crime and after a six minute segment that included three calls from listeners (and more speaking time for Feinblatt), Buckeye Firearms Association chairman Jim Irvine was brought on as an in-studio guest, along with yet another Bloomberg crony, Citizens for Safety executive director Lori O'Neill.

Moulthrop gave Irvine the opening question, and when Irvine was quick to point out Feinblatt's lie, it became even more obvious that the show's host had no intention of playing the part of an impartial moderator of the "debate", as he himself began interrupting and debating Irvine and defending Feinblatt and his claims. Conversely, when he interacted with O'Neill, it was to agree with her.

The true agenda of these Bloomberg cronies was on display as O'Neill made it clear she will not be satisfied with abolishing private transfers at gun shows, saying only that "they're a great place to start...but the real problem is broader."

Click here to download and listen to a podcast of the entire show.