Former Bloomberg ally confirms ‘Mayors’ group’s goal is gun confiscation

Via an op-ed published by the Poughkeepsie Journal, Poughkeepsie, NY Mayor John Tkazyik has confirmed what readers of BuckeyeFirearms.org have known for quite some time - billionaire Michael Bloomberg's "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" is after far more than just "bring[ing] attention to the problem of illegal guns."

From the op-ed:

I’m the mayor of one of the largest cities in the Hudson Valley, just 90 minutes north of New York City. I’m a life member of the National Rifle Association and a former member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, or MAIG, started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.

I’m no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And I’m not alone: Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did. MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda — violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and taking resources away from initiatives that could actually work to protect our neighborhoods and save precious lives.

The mayor goes on to explain that MAIG wasn’t simply interested in the seemingly "mainstream" goals stated in their recuiting materials, but rather that they intended to confiscate guns from legal gun owners.

It did not take long to realize that MAIG’s agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns; that under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. I don’t believe, never have believed and never will believe that public safety is enhanced by encroaching on our right to bear arms, and I will not be a part of any organization that does.

Just over a year ago, Buckeye Firearms Association conducted a campaign to educate Ohio mayors on this very same truth, which we uncovered via a public records request submitted to Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman's office, which at the time was employing a MAIG operative.

These mayors were informed that, contrary to what they were told when they were recruited, MAIG has been doing far more than going after so-called "illegal" guns - they’re working to oppose efforts to defend and improve the Second Amendment rights for law-abiding Ohioans. And we offered their members the proof. As a result of our efforts, at least eleven Ohio mayors dropped out, adding to a list that just keeps growing.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, and BFA PAC Vice Chairman.