NYC Mayor Eric Adams assaults truth while calling for 'assault weapons' ban
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is sounding more and more like one of his predecessors, Michael Bloomberg: a hypocritical gun control activist with truth problems. It’s notable given the mayor’s “Gotta get tough on criminals” campaign platform that earned him New York City voters’ approval in 2021.
Residents in The City that Never Sleeps have serious concerns that aren’t going away — crime. Instead of addressing it and getting tough on violent criminals who break the law, Mayor Adams is blame-shifting and calling on law-abiding New Yorkers to give up more of their God-given rights.
It’s a familiar call from gun control activists who can’t understand that criminals don’t follow the laws.
Leading from behind
Mayor Adams, co-chair of the Bloomberg-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns, sent a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) demanding Congress to ban so-called “assault weapons.” That’s the same gun ban on commonly owned firearms that failed in Congress last year and failed when Democrats held majorities in the House and Senate and held The White House — under both former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden. More than 60 mayors signed the letter and most have crime issues of their own.
During a press conference, Mayor Adams called for a new gun ban while speaking about the recent tragedy in Lewiston, Maine, and revealing a bigger issue.
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“Eighteen Mainers were stolen from us by yet another disturbed man, wielding an assault rifle ...,” Mayor Adams said. “When you allow someone with a mental health illness to have access to these assault rifles, it can create a great deal of danger…”
The mayor ignored that the “disturbed” murderer did, in fact, demonstrate numerous signs of serious mental health issues. He was known to authorities to have made serious and repeated threats of violence — including targeting a National Guard center — and state and local law enforcement agencies very likely made mistakes that should have placed the murderer on the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) prohibited list and possibly even could have led to firearms being seized. Those questions are still awaiting answers.
For Mayor Adams and his colleagues, the details don’t much matter. “It’s easier to buy a weapon of war than it is to buy a Sudafed,” the mayor repeated, citing a claim former Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts posted to social media following the tragic shooting. That claim is dubious and was fact-checked.
Big bucks behind gun bans
It’s no surprise the same lies around banning the most popular-selling semiautomatic rifle in America are repeated by the same gun control activists. They’re nearly all bankrolled by the same money.
Former New York City Mayor Micheal Bloomberg founded and funds Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He finances Everytown for Gun Safety too, as well as the gun control mouthpiece The Trace, and Moms Demand Action. He ran for president on a gun control platform but voters recognized his glaring gun control hypocrisy too. In a town hall, he was questioned about his desire to ban and confiscate firearms while at the same time employing private, armed security guards. He proudly stated Americans shouldn’t need armed security because most of them don’t have enough money to deserve it.
“Alright, look, ... I probably get forty or fifty threats every week ...” Bloomberg said. “That just happens when you’re the mayor of New York City, or very wealthy, or campaigning for the president of the United States.”
It’s the same gun control hypocrisy from the mayor. Mayor Adams came into office promising he’d forgo the mayor’s security detail and noting he’d carry a concealed firearm.
“Yes I will carry, number one, and number two, I won’t have a security detail,” he declared in 2020. “If the city’s safe, the mayor shouldn’t have a security detail with him.”
The streets aren’t safe and New Yorkers remain fed up with criminals running the show. Crime and safety remain a serious issue for residents, yet Mayor Adams has focused on punishing law-abiding New Yorkers and limiting their rights and ability to protect themselves. Added to the ongoing “normal” crime surge the city is living through, a rise in antisemitic threats and violence since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel have led to a surge in Jewish Americans buying firearms for the first time.
Wrong facts, wrong solution
The only thing Mayor Adams got right in his letter is that the murderer in Lewiston had severe mental health issues. Those are well-documented. There should have been coordination and communication between state and local agencies, law enforcement and FBI NICS that would’ve prohibited the murderer from purchasing or possessing firearms. That is an effort on which NSSF led with the FIX NICS Act, named for the firearm industry’s FixNICS initiative to get all states to submit disqualifying records into the FBI’s NICS. NSSF changed the laws in 16 states and in Congress to get the background check system to work as intended. It’s been a 30-year effort that has led to a 270% increase in the number of submitted adjudicated mental health records to NICS.
The mayor also falsely suggested the previous “assault weapons” ban had a significant impact on “reducing shooting deaths.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says otherwise. After the 1994 ban expired in 2004, CDC studies reported the impact on criminal misuse of firearms by renewing the 1994 ban would be “too small for reliable measurement.”
There are more than 24.4 million modern sporting rifles (MSRs) in private circulation since 1990. Law-abiding Americans use them for lawful purposes every day. Mayor Adams, and his colleagues, should stop wasting time calling on Congress to ban legal firearms and instead focus on holding criminals accountable for crimes in their cities. That’s what his employers — New York City residents — want.
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