Two weeks ago, Poughkeepsie, NY Mayor John Tkazik penned an open letter to the people of his city explaining why he quit Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) and warned of the group’s secret extremist political agenda. He’s not the only horrified mayor either. Headlines from across the country report that more than 50 US Mayors have quit the anti-firearm organization in recent months after discovering that its true goal isn’t to take illegal guns from criminals, but to change the laws so that all guns become illegal and all gun owners criminals.

Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazik speaks out

Illustrating he’s like most Americans and not on the extreme of either side of the gun debate, Mayor Tkazik began his open letter two weeks ago writing, “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.”

“Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization,” Tkazik explains, “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.” He goes on to recall, “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.”

Former Mayors defend Bloomberg

Yesterday, three former Mayors and Bloomberg political allies from cities around New York State released a joint statement. Also published in the Poughkeepsie Journal, they defended Michael Bloomberg and his anti-firearm organization. Jerry Jennings, David Roefaro and Matt Ryan are former Mayors of Albany, Utica and Binghamton and all supporters of Bloomberg and MAIG.

The joint statement takes issue with Mayor Tkazik’s characterization of the gun control group. “Mayor Tkazyik makes false claims about the group, even saying the coalition ‘intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens’,” yesterday’s announcement said, “The fact is Mayors Against Illegal Guns believes that the Second Amendment goes hand in hand with keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and other dangerous people.”

The group of former mayors then goes on to accuse Poughkeepsie’s current mayor, John Tkazik, of falling for political propaganda instead of the other way around. They write, “Perhaps Mayor Tkazyik had the wool pulled over his eyes by the gun lobby, but our coalition firmly believes that fighting gun violence and protecting the Second Amendment go hand in hand.”

Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the NRA

Thanks to the Wall Street owned American media, everybody knows what Michael Bloomberg and his private army of government officials thinks of the National Rifle Association (NRA). But what does the NRA think of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns? A 2009 warning from the 2nd Amendment organization sums up their criticisms of MAIG.

‘Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Thomas Menino of Boston, two of the most virulently anti-gun politicians in America, founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) in 2006,’ the NRA writes, ‘Despite the claims of some, they are still the driving force behind the group. But do not be fooled by the name. This organization would be better named Mayors Against All Guns. A look at MAIG’s agenda shows that fighting criminals is not what they are really about.’

The group goes on to list a number of accusations against Bloomberg’s anti-2nd Amendment organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns (from the NRA’s 2009 warning):

• Supports eliminating the Tiahrt Amendment, which protects the personal information of gun owners. The details of gun owners is currently available to law enforcement for criminal investigations. But the data is not available to any private citizen who requests it for ulterior motives. MAIG would make gun owners’ personal data available to anyone.

• Supports eliminating gun shows and private sales of firearms. Right now, two law-abiding and registered firearms owners can buy and sell a gun to each other, as is often done at gun shows across the country. MAIG would end that practice, requiring anyone selling a gun to jump through an ever-growing list of hoops designed to prevent private gun sales all together.

• Supports banning every American on any of the federal government’s secret ‘watch lists’ from owning a firearm. Just one of the administration’s lists alone – the Terror Watch List – now includes more than one million Americans, many for absolutely no legitimate reason at all. The list of Iraq and Afghan War veterans is another one-million-plus list of gun owners targeted for a ban on firearm ownership.

• Supports the jurisdictions of towns/states that have the most restrictive gun bans over jurisdictions with more lenient laws. For example, when a policeman travels through one or more states or towns and brings his service revolver, he’s typically given professional courtesy in the jurisdiction he’s traveling through. MAIG would arrest and prosecute all off duty law enforcement or military personnel traveling in possession of a firearm in any jurisdiction with gun control laws on the books.

• Opposes letting travelers transport a firearm on Amtrak, even in their checked baggage after alerting the ticket agent, the same way airlines currently allow it.

• Opposes legislation reigning in the illegal gun trafficking of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). The federal agency was caught in a three-year gun selling operation called ‘Fast and Furious’ in which the BATF illegally sold thousands of military assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Not coincidentally, Mayor Bloomberg also had a similar illegal gun-trafficking crime syndicate operating right under his nose and carried out by members of the NYPD.

The NRA and a growing list of American mayors believe that Bloomberg’s gun control organization isn’t fighting illegal guns or known criminals, but instead making legal firearms illegal and legal gun owners criminals. The 2nd Amendment group closes its criticisms writing, ‘MAIG claims to be fighting only “illegal” guns, but its agenda does not include a single item that is directly aimed at criminals. Instead, its agenda is a direct attack on law-abiding gun owners and is designed to increase restrictions on those who exercise their Second Amendment rights.’

Readers should be aware that it isn’t only America’s mayors and local town councils that Michael Bloomberg is attempting to sway. He’s spent the last few years pouring millions of dollars of his own money to buy the loyalty of US Congressional candidates, State Representatives and even City Councils. There are three ways to ban guns in America – one time nationally, 51 times on the state level, or ten thousand times on the municipal level. And with his billions, Bloomberg and his backers are trying their luck on all three levels.