Bloomberg comes to town
Or at least his presence.
Seems Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam is a member of Michael Bloomberg’s Alliance of Mayors Against Guns. I have intentionally left off the word illegal because Bloomberg’s antics have not targeted illegal gun dealers but legal and lawful dealers. Bloomberg has waged a war against lawful gun dealers. A refresher on Bloomberg’s antics:
Michael Bloomberg and the city of New York hiring private investigators to conduct a sting on out of state gun dealers that are the source of crime guns in New York
Trouble for Bloomberg is that if this is how it went down, then it’s not necessarily illegal, assuming that the man was not a prohibited person. If the man was a prohibited person, the investigators broke the law. Also, said private investigators from New York have zero law enforcement authority in the states wherein they committed these supposed investigations. They may have also committed felonies by giving false info on ATF Form 4473
Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to hire private investigators to conduct undercover stings at Southern gun shops has potentially jeopardized several criminal cases, law enforcement sources charged.
Four cases were compromised and an additional 14 were put at risk by the six-week sting aimed at gun stores in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia, the sources said.
ATF has said they will be investigating every aspect of these “sting” sales (and there were ATF people present who repeated that). This may be bad news for the city, since IF the sales were illegal straw sales, their investigators committed felonies.
Now, the mayor of Knoxville has allied himself with that. What was he thinking?
One issue is that what is illegal in New York is, for the most part, not illegal elsewhere. What Bloomberg is targeting is not illegal here. So, Mr. Haslam, what’s the deal?
Contact the mayor at mayor@cityofknoxville.org and let him know you do not approve.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:56 am
You should cross link this at Knoxviews and Michael Silences blog.
October 9th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
I am certainly going to write the Mayor on this issue.
This is ridiculous.
We don’t need to be alligning our city with New York and some of the other anti-gun cities which were the initial participants in this feel-good nonsense.
This really bothers me.
October 9th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Chris, tell your friends as well.
October 9th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I sure will.
We should actually be touting our abundance of quality gun shows and gun stores within the surrounding 100 miles when our city courts prospective companies which are considering re-locating to Knoxville.
Ditto for wealth of local dirt tracks and the new Bass Pro and Gander Mountain locations.
We are so dissimilar from NYC that I wouldn’t want to be lumped in the same group with it in hardly any type of association.
Good grief.
October 9th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Then fire your mayor. Nothing gets a politician’s attention faster than the prospect that he may have to hunt honest work. Cut him loose and watch the rest decide to serve rather than rule.
October 10th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Straightarrow,
But this is Bill Haslam, of Pilot corporation. There’s no hunt to that work.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:30 am
[…] I called the Mayor’s office this morning to ask about Mayor Bill Haslam’s involvement in Michael Bloomberg’s Alliance of Mayors Against Guns. The nice lady I talked to had no idea what I was talking about. She transferred me to another nice lady who had no idea what I was talking about. I was then transferred to a communications person and was lost in the telephone hold system. […]
October 10th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
[…] Mayor Haslam was apparently on Steve Gill’s show and was asked about his membership in an anti-gun group (see here and here). I haven’t heard it. AC says: My main man, Steve Gill, and I just conversated and he relays that Haslam’s people called into his show today and were emphatic that the Mayor was only looking to enforce existing laws and combating illegal guns. He has no interest in making anymore laws or grabbing anyone’s pistola. […]
October 17th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
[…] Here’s the post from Uncle that got it all started. […]
October 18th, 2006 at 8:31 am
[…] The NRA has picked up my story about Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam being a member of the anti-gun Mayors Alliance that is funded by Joyce Foundation (See here, here, here, here and here). Wayne LaPierre (yes, that Wayne LaPierre) asks What’s going on in Knoxville: Here’s a suggestion for Mayor Haslam and the citizens of Knoxville. […]
November 15th, 2006 at 10:50 am
[…] It’s now been over one month since I reported that Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam is a member of the Joyce Foundation-funded, anti-gun group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. This has been mentioned on my site and linked by instapundit, NRA News, and other local blogs; and it has been covered by radio host Steve Gill. But I’ve heard nary a peep out of the local press regarding his membership in a group whose desire is to export New York City type gun controls to other cities (NY controls include licensing, registering, only celebrities and those political connections can get permits to carry weapons, and excessive fees). […]
November 20th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
[…] And as Glenn Reynolds alludes, that’s not a good development for a Knoxville Mayor who is said to be both Bloomberg-loving and Curtiswood-coveting. […]