Not all mayors want to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the well-funded and aggressive activist group founded in 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. There’s not a single mayor in the states of Alaska, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming who has signed up, in fact.
Some who did join have second thoughts, and are dropping out of the group, convinced that the organizers are overstepping their original intentions of simply curbing illegal firearms.
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Nashua, New Hampshire Mayor Donnalee Lozeau is one of them.
She is not happy with the organization’s $1 million campaign against Sen. Kelly Ayotte, following the Republican lawmaker’s vote against expanded background checks for private gun purchases. Mr. Bloomberg’s group is spending $12 million on advocacy ads to push gun control efforts and target certain public officials they disagree with.
“I simply cannot be part of an organization that chooses this course of action instead of cooperatively working with those that have proven over a lifetime of work their true intentions,” Mayor Lozeau said in a written statement. “I have faith that Sen. Ayotte will continue to work toward finding a responsible solution relative to these issues.”
Mr. Bloomberg’s group recently brought their cause right to New Hampshire, rolling into Concord aboard a splashy campaign bus, drawing a mixed audience of both gun control and gun rights activists. Things got dramatic after organizers read names of those killed in gun violence in recent months, including Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
There was shouting, some brawling and one arrest in the aftermath. The Bloomberg group later apologized for the incident, but still intends to take its tour to Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
But back to the mayor of Nashua.
“We applaud her,” state Republican Party chairman Jennifer Horn told the Nashua Telegraph.
But she has no applause for Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
“Over the last couple of weeks, this group has clearly shown they are an extreme radical organization, willing to say anything in order to push their own extreme agenda. We would call on all members to rescind their membership, and we applaud those who have,” Ms. Horn added.
On Friday, Rockford Illinois Mayor Larry Morrissey also left the Bloomberg group, noting in a video that he felt the organization was also aiming to ban legal guns and attack the Second Amendment rights rights of legal gun owners.
Mr. Morrissey also revealed that he hoped to get his own concealed carry license when they become available in his state.
Mayors for Illegal Guns currently has some 950 members nationwide; about 100 are Republicans.
