Billionaire and former mayor Michael Bloomberg, financial backer of the upcoming “universal background checks” referendum, has had his sights on Maine for at least six years now.
On February 16, 2010, the Lewiston City Council voted unanimously to accept a one-year grant totaling $75,000 to fund efforts to advance Mr. Bloomberg’s anti-gun agenda through his groups titled Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund and United Against Illegal Guns Support Fund. The vote, (71-2010), flew through the council unanimously and placed a “gun violence prevention coordinator,” aka anti-gun lobbyist, in city hall for a one year term to spread the gospel of Bloomberg as a quasi-city official.
The Mayor in 2010, Larry Gilbert, also joined Bloomberg’s group Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) to push for “universal background checks” and was quoted spewing the usual Bloomberg gospel stating “It’s inexcusable that a gap in federal law enables criminals and other dangerous people to buy guns at gun shows – no background checks, no questions asked. We need to close this gap in federal law once and for all to protect our communities and to keep our police safe.”
It is worth noting that such a loophole does not actually exist. It is already a federal felony to earn your livelihood from gun sales without first obtaining a federal firearm dealer’s license (FFL) and all FFLs are required to run background checks on each and every sale that is conducted. It should also be noted that less than 1% of firearm crimes are committed with firearms purchased at a gun show.
Mayor Gilbert was defeated in 2013 by current Mayor, Robert MacDonald, by a landslide vote. According to the Everytown website, Mayor Colleen Hilton of Westbrook is the only current member of MAIG.
Lewiston is not alone in this. Mr. Bloomberg successfully embedded municipal employees with the mission of advancing his anti-gun agenda, on the tax payer’s dime, in Augusta, ME, and in other municipalities all around the country.
This year we can expect to see millions of Bloomberg’s dollars spent in Maine to infiltrate our media and spread his New York City style gun-control propaganda that is fueled by emotion and utterly ignores the fact that Maine is the second safest state in the country, behind only Vermont, where gun laws are even more lenient. This is unfortunately becoming the norm here in Maine where last year alone we saw major out-of-state money flood our airwaves and mail boxes for the anti-hunting bear initiative and Question 1 to…get big money out of Maine politics and increase state-funded welfare to politicians by three fold.
