New York City Mayor Eric Adams (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is sounding more and more like one of his predecessors, Michael Bloomberg: a hypocritical gun control activist with truth problems. It’s notable given the mayor’s “Gotta get tough on criminals” campaign platform that earned him New York City voters’ approval in 2021.

Residents in The City that Never Sleeps have serious concerns that aren’t going away – crime. Instead of addressing it and getting tough on violent criminals who break the law, Mayor Adams is blame-shifting and calling on law-abiding New Yorkers to give up more of their God-given rights.

It’s a familiar call from gun control activists who can’t or won’t understand that criminals don’t follow the laws.

Leading From Behind

Mayor Adams, co-chair of the Bloomberg-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns, sent a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) demanding Congress ban so-called “assault weapons.” That’s the same gun ban on commonly-owned firearms that failed in Congress last year and failed when Democrats held majorities in the House and Senate and held The White House – under both former President Barack Obama and  President Joe Biden. More than 60 mayors signed the letter and most have crime issues of their own.

(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

During a press conference, Mayor Adams called for a new gun ban while speaking about the recent tragedy in Lewiston, Maine, and revealing a bigger issue.

“Eighteen Mainers were stolen from us by yet another disturbed man, wielding an assault rifle…,” Mayor Adams said. “When you allow someone with a mental health illness to have access to these assault rifles, it can create a great deal of danger…”

The mayor ignored that the “disturbed” murderer did, in fact, demonstrate numerous signs of serious mental health issues. He was known to authorities to have made serious and repeated threats of violence – including targeting a National Guard center – and state and local law enforcement agencies very likely made mistakes that should have placed the murderer on the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) prohibited list and possibly even could have led to firearms being seized. Those questions are still awaiting answers.

For Mayor Adams and his colleagues, the details don’t much matter. “It’s easier to buy a weapon of war than it is to buy a Sudafed,” the mayor repeated, citing a claim former Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts posted to social media following the tragic shooting. That claim is dubious and was fact-checked.

Big Bucks Behind Gun Bans

It’s no surprise the same lies around banning the most popular-selling semiautomatic rifle in America are repeated by the same gun control activists. They’re nearly all bankrolled by the same money.

Michael Bloomberg
(Democratic National Convention via AP)

Former New York City Mayor Micheal Bloomberg founded and funds Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He finances Everytown for Gun Safety too, as well as the gun control mouthpiece The Trace, and Moms Demand Action. He ran for president on a gun control platform but voters recognized his glaring gun control hypocrisy too. In a town hall, he was questioned about his desire to ban and confiscate firearms while at the same time employing private, armed security guards. He proudly stated Americans shouldn’t need armed security because most of them don’t have enough money to deserve it.

“Alright, look… I probably get forty or fifty threats every week…” Bloomberg said. “That just happens when you’re the mayor of New York City, or very wealthy, or campaigning for the president of the United States.”

It’s the same gun control hypocrisy from the mayor. Mayor Adams came into office promising he’d forgo the mayor’s security detail and noting he’d carry a concealed firearm.

“Yes I will carry, number one, and number two, I won’t have a security detail,” he declared in 2020. “If the city’s safe, the mayor shouldn’t have a security detail with him.”

Eric Adams Met Gala End Gun Violence
New York Mayor Eric Adams (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

The streets aren’t safe and New Yorkers remain fed up with criminals running the show. Crime and safety remain a serious issue for residents, yet Mayor Adams has focused on punishing law-abiding New Yorkers and limiting their rights and ability to protect themselves. Added to the ongoing “normal” crime surge the city is living through, a rise in antisemitic threats and violence since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel have led to a surge in Jewish Americans buying firearms for the first time.

Wrong Facts, Wrong Solution

The only thing Mayor Adams got right in his letter is that the murderer in Lewiston had severe mental health issues. Those are well-documented. There should have been coordination and communication between state and local agencies, law enforcement and FBI NICS that would’ve prohibited the murderer from purchasing or possessing firearms.

That is an effort on which NSSF led with the FIX NICS Act, named for the firearm industry’s FixNICS initiative to get all states to submit disqualifying records into the FBI’s NICS. NSSF changed the laws in 16 states and in Congress to get the background check system to work as intended. It’s been a 30-year effort that has led to a 270 percent increase in the number of submitted adjudicated mental health records to NICS.

Eric Adams
The Biden of Brooklyn, New York Mayor Eric Adams (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

The mayor also falsely suggested the previous “assault weapon” ban had a significant impact on “reducing shooting deaths.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says otherwise. After the 1994 ban expired in 2004, CDC studies reported the impact on criminal misuse of firearms by renewing the 1994 ban would be “too small for reliable measurement.”

There are more than 24.4 million Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) in private circulation since 1990. Law-abiding Americans use them for lawful purposes every day. Mayor Adams, and his colleagues, should stop wasting time calling on Congress to ban legal firearms and instead focus on holding criminals accountable for crimes in their cities. That’s what his employers – New York City residents – want.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

38 COMMENTS

  1. He’s struggling with some things lately. He crossed the party with his outburst on the influx of illegal immigrants to NYC and now the FBI is investigating him for campaign finance problems.

    He has to get himself right with the party again.

  2. Since when did the FACTS ever derail a dem’s agenda?? Deflection for his failed criminal justice “reforms”!?

    • Deflection from the Federal investigation into his illegal campaign finance kick backs and influence peddling for the government of Turkey.

      • The feds don’t care about his little campaign finance issues as long as he toes the Party line in other matters (illegal immigration). It’s totally a coincidence that they began a public investigation while Adams was on his way to complain about the Puppet’s immigration policies. Adams promptly turned around and went back home. Lesson learned.

        • Ironically it’s a liberal/progressive DA from the Southern District of New York, that is heading the investigation. Adams is being thrown under the bus for complaining about all the illegal aliens destroying the city and blaming the Biden administration and his Liberal/ Progressive ‘Handlers’ for not doing enough to quell the problem and give him more $$$.

        • Illegal immigration is now the “third rail” that you can’t touch as a Democrat in the Democrat party.
          Your city can be destroyed financially and physically and it doesn’t matter to them. As long as the democrats are still in charge.

          And the replacement for black people in the democrat party has arrived. Unfortunately, blacks are too late figuring that out.

  3. When are you going to come to the realization that liberals/politicians do not want to do anything serious about violence, especially when a firearm is used…

    Every shooting is another advancement of their “common sense gun law” spew…

    They are in a waiting game, hoping that eventually, the people will finally submit and say, “Ok. Let’s give up our arms since nothing else has worked”……

    The more shootings, the better for them..

  4. He’s on the verge of being taken out in a political hit job, likely because of his anti illegal immigrant invasion rhetoric but, in New York, it could always just be petty aspirants to his seat. This is just his way of showing he’ll toe the party line if they spare him.

  5. With all of the defenseless Gun Controlled new yorkers running around no doubt criminals own the place…take a bow mayor adams, take a bow mini mike bloomberg et al…The blood of the defenseless is on your hands.

  6. ” Intercourse you Plebes, these are Facts!! If you need more facts we’ll make up even more !!… Now off with you.”

  7. Thought “Assault Rifles” were already banned in NYC, does the Clown want to do a Super-Secret DOUBLE ban on them? OR, does he want to add MSRs to the “banned” list and does he REALLY know the difference?…

    • NYC to the best of my knowledge will not register any AR product as a rifle or pistol (they have to register longarms as well down there) so kina moot if I am remembering correctly past wanting everyone else to have shitty laws.

      • Most New Yorkers can’t understand the math behind the Maine event being an outlier that damn near doubles the murder rate for that entire state for the year. Let alone the propaganda process being fed to them.

  8. “When you allow someone with a mental health illness to have access to these assault rifles, it can create a great deal of danger…”

    well…. When you elect someone to the position of mayor that reveals their mental illness by turning your city into a r̶e̶f̶u̶g̶e̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶p̶ ̶f̶i̶l̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶c̶h̶i̶l̶d̶ ̶s̶e̶x̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶f̶f̶i̶c̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶e̶r̶r̶o̶r̶i̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶t̶c̶h̶ ̶l̶i̶s̶t̶ ‘sancturary city’, it can create a great deal of danger.

  9. If he really cared about the safety and welfare of the residents he wouldn’t be letting the city fall back into the opium den of prostitutes it was back in the 70’s.

    “Assault weapons” aren’t even in the top twenty of NYCs problems.

  10. Mayors against illegal gunms.
    What is an illegal gunm?
    If I have the money and jump through the hoops there are no illegal gunms.
    How about Mayors Against Armed Criminals. Would that work? Nah, the system must stretch its muscle and deny law abiding citizens their constitutional rights, and with luck make criminals of them too. Because you know, once those citizens get used to being deprived and are lowered to criminal status its easier to control them.
    The push for disarmament.
    Global warming
    Drought
    Food shortages
    Mass migration
    War.
    I guess nobody see’s the reason Putin wants you crane or Xiping wants the Sea’s . They are planning ahead and other countries are disarming what would be citizen militias.
    I suppose surrender saves lives?

  11. He is well aware of the problem, coming from NYPD. At first, he sounded pro gun, but he sold out to the leaders of the party and is just another flunky. Guns for me, but not for thee.

  12. Mayor is just coping and seething after Bruen and the most recent case, Srour, which found the bureaucrats discretion to determine “good moral character” in issuing a pistol permit was unconstitutional.

  13. “If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of criminal acts reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying – that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 – establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.” ~ Orrin Hatch.

    But this is even better: “If you’ve got a gun law that criminals will obey, why not just turn it into a murder law that criminals will obey-then we won’t have to worry about the gun part.” ~ Andrew W. Ford. I have no idea who Andrew Ford may be. I have found several quotes by him on liberty, freedom and firearms, so I’m guessing that he is OK.

    • “If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of criminal acts reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying – that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 – establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.” ~ Orrin Hatch.

      they will continue to repeat it, they know it doesn’t control serious crime (which today they just have differentiated into different categories, but its still all serious crime, so they can increase the amount of spending and appeal to more special interest for votes and money and power) … but its good for plucking heart strings and appealing to stupid people and emotion to get votes and money and power. This is part of their concept of ‘polarization’, point out a specific ‘society enemy’ for ‘society’ to focus on and the country will polarize, then you build a ‘false’ consensus, making it look larger than it really is among society and before long you have ‘society’ begging you to save them from the specific ‘society enemy’ when in reality its just a minority of people with special interest. Its a ‘socialism’ concept from Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler used it in his playbook against the Jews, it appears all through history used by every dictator to bring about a tyranny.

      Lyndon Johnson established the modern day U.S. concept for the Democratic party with his welfare program. The ‘society enemy’ was ‘poverty’ and ‘racism’ vs ‘the white establishment’, in the original Marx socialism version it was called ‘worker’ vs ‘ruling class’, in Hitlers Germany it was ‘jews’ vs ‘superior aryan race’. – polarization.

      Johnson hated blacks and was a racist but he wanted to control the blacks and use them for votes so he basically created ‘welfare’ to make them dependent upon government and ‘beholding’ to the democrat party but also didn’t want then armed which was his motivation for having the Gun Control Act of 1968 created.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef_79INE2m8

  14. I’ll consider turning in my weapons when “hell freezes over”. If I remember our Constitution corrects, the 2nd Amendment says I don’t have to obey this dictator. I have a God given right to own and possess firearms.

    • Hopefully all of this will be a wake up call for the people who have believed the immigration lies for years. (“It will make us richer!”) They usually hide the issues by bribing the states with federal funding. That’s why we have to reform the way we give federal funding to states.

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