Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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Was it just today that someone told me that no one wants to take away people's guns?
Why, yes it was. Is anyone willing to bet on whether or not any of them will admit they are wrong?
Valley View: Mayoral group's gun agenda is wrong | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com
Why, yes it was. Is anyone willing to bet on whether or not any of them will admit they are wrong?
Im the mayor of one of the largest cities in the Hudson Valley, just 90 minutes north of New York City. Im 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.Im no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And Im 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. Gun control will actually make a bad situation worse.
I was first elected mayor of Poughkeepsie in 2007. At the time, it was a city that had grown weary of burying its young. Homicides were so commonplace that a newspaper without a murder story was news. Gangs roamed downtown streets and neighborhoods, terrorizing law-abiding citizens and selling drugs in broad daylight. As the drug wars escalated and gangs battled over turf, kids were killing kids.
I vowed to do everything in my power to make our streets and neighborhoods safer. MAIG approached me with the promise that theyd assist me in developing effective approaches to clear our streets of criminals, get guns out of the hands of convicted felons, crack down on the drug trade and rid our streets of gangs that were terrorizing a city. I joined MAIG with this understanding.
It did not take long to realize that MAIGs 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 dont 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.
Valley View: Mayoral group's gun agenda is wrong | The Poughkeepsie Journal | poughkeepsiejournal.com