CPRC at Fox News: Why Michael Bloomberg’s latest push for gun control is all wrong

Mar 13, 2015 | Featured

220px-Michael_Bloomberg_2011_Shankbone

John Lott’s newest piece at Fox News starts this way:

Michael Bloomberg is spending tens of millions of dollars trying to convince state legislatures to support restrictive gun control laws.  From television and newspaper ads, to blanketing communities with flyers, to bringing in people from out of state to testify, no effort seems too great.  Then again, he is worth of over $36 billion.

But Bloombeg’s newest campaign has become so extreme that even gun control advocates may wonder that he is becoming a liability to their cause.  And he has already earned a reputation for fabricating numbers, with even liberal-leaning PolitiFact slamming Bloomberg for exaggerating the number of school shootings by a factor of five.  Other inaccuracies include that deaths from school shootings are increasing, that attacks with “assault weapons” are the most deadly, that firearms research fell dramatically after the restrictions on federal funding, and absurdly that “84% of female firearm homicides in 25 countries are in US.”

Bloomberg is now running advertisements attacking state legislators who are sponsoring legislation to eliminate gun-free zones.   Thus in Nevada, his campaign is targeting state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore who is sponsoring a bill to eliminate gun-free zones in schools and government buildings.  The 30-second ad announces that Fiore wants legislation “allowing criminals to carry hidden, loaded guns in our schools and college campuses. Anywhere we go, criminals and the dangerously mentally ill could be carrying loaded handguns, putting us at risk.”

But this is an outrageous falsehood.  Eliminating gun-free zones doesn’t mean that just anyone can pack heat. You still need to have a concealed handgun permit, which requires a criminal background check.

Besides, permit holders are incredibly law-abiding.  In 2014, there were over 90,000 permit holders in Nevada.  But only 128 people had their permits revoked for any reason. . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

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