Scandal! Cities pay anti-gun lobbyists

[wise1ray]

Jeff Knox explains how your tax money is used to undermine 2nd Amendment


Cities around the country have created staff positions for professional lobbyists whose primary function is to drum up support for anti-gun legislation, ordinances and regulations. Part of these lobbyists salaries are being paid by grants from do-gooder foundations like the Joyce Foundation, but the balance of salaries, benefits and support costs are being borne by you, the taxpayer.

An associate of mine in Florida named Sean Caranna was doing some research for his grassroots rights organization, Florida Carry, Inc., when he came across something on the agenda of the Orlando City Council that he immediately recognized as a serious problem.
 

The item was for the renewal of a contract for a city employee. That’s mundane enough, but the job title of this particular employee was “Mayors Against Illegal Guns regional coordinator,” and the job description is to “play an integral role in the coordination and planning of gun crime prevention and illegal gun-related initiatives, events and media opportunities in the city and in the region” (the full council agenda and detailed information can be found on the City of Orlando website).

In the case of Orlando, the grant is $60,000 from something called the “United Against Illegal Guns Support Fund,” which appears to be a front group set up by billionaire mayor of New York City Mike Bloomberg – the creator of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The Joyce Foundation provides the primary funding for Bloomberg’s “support fund” to the tune of $650,000 in 2011 and at least $1,000,000 more in the previous 3 years.

While the grant to Orlando pays the bulk of the regional coordinator’s salary, the city is allocating $24,000 of citizen’s money to fund the position and providing other city resources and facilities for her use. The person tapped for the job is a woman who has worked as a regional coordinator for the Brady Campaign Against Guns, and as a professional lobbyist for MAIG and several other groups.

In essence, the city is paying $24,000 to have an anti-rights organization’s lobbyist working in their offices and pretending to be a city employee.

After discovering this scam in Orlando, Caranna began digging deeper and found similar sweetheart deals in several other cities around the country, including Seattle, Milwaukee, Columbus and Minneapolis. Based solely on the funding numbers from the Joyce Foundation, there should be at least 10 of these regional coordinators around the country – working against rights and being compensated in part by taxpayers.

Finding them all has proven to be a bit of a challenge, as no one from MAIG, Joyce or the Support Fund seems interested in advertising the coordinators’ existence. Caranna found, and my own research confirms, that some cities try to keep their participation in the scheme on the down low by using initials or euphemistic titles and job descriptions, but now that we know about the scam, I don’t think it will take long to expose most all of the pseudo-city employees. With more than a million and a half dollars granted to the project over the past 4 years by the Joyce Foundation alone, there has to be a money trail to follow. We also know all 600 mayors involved in MAIG and will be scouring the books of each of them looking for traces of this scheme.

I’m asking all of the members of The Firearms Coalition and all of my readers to help us locate these taxpayer funded anti-rights lobbyists. You can find a list of all of the participating mayors on the MAIG website and then launch your own investigation into any of them you choose.

While we’re at it, let’s look into this whole concept of private grants funding, and influencing, public policy. On its surface, the idea of a charitable group helping a municipality do some public service seems reasonable; a family group might support municipal preschool and after school programs, for instance. But if that group has a political agenda, or demands inclusion of a controversial curriculum, the “gift” becomes questionable.

From one side these grants look like a way for the charitable group to make their dollars go further while helping a city reach its goals, but it is also a way for a pressure group to get public funding for their agenda.

Imagine the uproar if a city created a staff position for the promotion of firearm safety training with funding from the NRA Foundation. Even if the program focused solely on safety and never crossed into the rights issue or promotion of firearms ownership, the media and hoplophobes would go ballistic.

The very innocuous and apolitical Eddie Eagle Gun Safe program, with coloring books and video cartoons teaching kids that if they come across a gun they should “Stop – Don’t Touch – Leave the Area – and Tell an Adult,” comes under fire because it is given to schools and police departments free by the NRA Foundation.

Public-private partnerships can be good things, but local politicians need to be extremely cautious about giving the keys to the city to any outside group whose altruism might be driven by a political or social agenda. The old adage of never looking a gift horse in the mouth does not apply in civic matters – just ask the Trojans. It is very tempting to a politician to be able to offer constituents some valuable service at a fraction of its normal cost, so it’s up to the citizens to be attentive and keep their politicians on the straight and narrow.

For those who might not know, Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a political group formed by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. It has an agenda almost identical to that of the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun groups, but it goes to great lengths to make its proposals seem reasonable and moderate when, in fact, they are intended to make firearms ownership more difficult and dangerous. Bloomberg has spent millions of dollars from his own very deep pockets and the pockets of New York taxpayers to advance his agenda and is receiving additional millions from the Joyce Foundation – the same Joyce Foundation that gave Barack Obama a paid directorship as a stepping-stone into politics.

This scandal will be unfolding for weeks, and probably years, to come. The more information we can dig up on the MAIG employees infiltrating municipal government, the better chance we will have of putting a stop to this theft of taxpayer money. Check your local government for any private-public partnership grant programs – particularly programs funded by MAIG – and let me know what you find. Together we can pull the mask off of this beast and return control of municipal government to the people who live there.

[wise1ray]

Liberals like Barack Obama, Eric Holder and Mike Bloomberg have done more to garner support for Second Amendment Rights than the NRA could have ever dreamed of doing.  Nothing like a pack of commies coming into power to remind citizens that tyranny is always just around the corner.  Not to mention how these reds tell the masses that they have no God given right to self defense while they surround themselves with machine gun toting commandos

[Bob Huntress]

While I don't own a private firearm, I am a firm believer in our Consitution. I believe that what our founders said in the Constitution is word for word what they meant. When they say, "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed", it means that peoples (not merely militias) right to keep (own) and bear (carry) guns. I understand how it is to disagree with the Constitution. I personally feel that a progressive income tax unreasonable discourages the hard work and industry that produce not only wealth, but also the products that people need. I also have no problem with charging a smaller tax equally divided among the citizens, yet, the Constitution now bans a poll tax, but, allows a progressive income tax. I am allowed to disagree, but, I must respect what the Constitution says through in these cases amendments many generations after the forming of our government. We must obey the Constitution, including amendments.
 
My next point is that "shall not be infringed" does not allow the government to infringe with the impunity it now does, and excuse it with stories of how whatever they just infringed is "Only reasonable". "Shall not be infringed" does not allow the endless registries, or even the government's permission to carry what guns the government wants to allow. Nearly all current gun control laws fail when compared to what the Constitution actually says.

[D2D]

Scandal indeed!

Taking taxpayer dollars and giving them to agencies who then donate to candidates who advocate stripping the people of their rights!

Utter corruption!

[talli]

Jeff Knox explains how your tax money is used to undermine 2nd Amendment


Cities around the country have created staff positions for professional lobbyists whose primary function is to drum up support for anti-gun legislation, ordinances and regulations. Part of these lobbyists salaries are being paid by grants from do-gooder foundations like the Joyce Foundation, but the balance of salaries, benefits and support costs are being borne by you, the taxpayer.

An associate of mine in Florida named Sean Caranna was doing some research for his grassroots rights organization, Florida Carry, Inc., when he came across something on the agenda of the Orlando City Council that he immediately recognized as a serious problem.


The item was for the renewal of a contract for a city employee. That’s mundane enough, but the job title of this particular employee was “Mayors Against Illegal Guns regional coordinator,” and the job description is to “play an integral role in the coordination and planning of gun crime prevention and illegal gun-related initiatives, events and media opportunities in the city and in the region” (the full council agenda and detailed information can be found on the City of Orlando website).

In the case of Orlando, the grant is $60,000 from something called the “United Against Illegal Guns Support Fund,” which appears to be a front group set up by billionaire mayor of New York City Mike Bloomberg – the creator of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The Joyce Foundation provides the primary funding for Bloomberg’s “support fund” to the tune of $650,000 in 2011 and at least $1,000,000 more in the previous 3 years.

While the grant to Orlando pays the bulk of the regional coordinator’s salary, the city is allocating $24,000 of citizen’s money to fund the position and providing other city resources and facilities for her use. The person tapped for the job is a woman who has worked as a regional coordinator for the Brady Campaign Against Guns, and as a professional lobbyist for MAIG and several other groups.

In essence, the city is paying $24,000 to have an anti-rights organization’s lobbyist working in their offices and pretending to be a city employee.

After discovering this scam in Orlando, Caranna began digging deeper and found similar sweetheart deals in several other cities around the country, including Seattle, Milwaukee, Columbus and Minneapolis. Based solely on the funding numbers from the Joyce Foundation, there should be at least 10 of these regional coordinators around the country – working against rights and being compensated in part by taxpayers.

Finding them all has proven to be a bit of a challenge, as no one from MAIG, Joyce or the Support Fund seems interested in advertising the coordinators’ existence. Caranna found, and my own research confirms, that some cities try to keep their participation in the scheme on the down low by using initials or euphemistic titles and job descriptions, but now that we know about the scam, I don’t think it will take long to expose most all of the pseudo-city employees. With more than a million and a half dollars granted to the project over the past 4 years by the Joyce Foundation alone, there has to be a money trail to follow. We also know all 600 mayors involved in MAIG and will be scouring the books of each of them looking for traces of this scheme.

I’m asking all of the members of The Firearms Coalition and all of my readers to help us locate these taxpayer funded anti-rights lobbyists. You can find a list of all of the participating mayors on the MAIG website and then launch your own investigation into any of them you choose.

While we’re at it, let’s look into this whole concept of private grants funding, and influencing, public policy. On its surface, the idea of a charitable group helping a municipality do some public service seems reasonable; a family group might support municipal preschool and after school programs, for instance. But if that group has a political agenda, or demands inclusion of a controversial curriculum, the “gift” becomes questionable.

From one side these grants look like a way for the charitable group to make their dollars go further while helping a city reach its goals, but it is also a way for a pressure group to get public funding for their agenda.

Imagine the uproar if a city created a staff position for the promotion of firearm safety training with funding from the NRA Foundation. Even if the program focused solely on safety and never crossed into the rights issue or promotion of firearms ownership, the media and hoplophobes would go ballistic.

The very innocuous and apolitical Eddie Eagle Gun Safe program, with coloring books and video cartoons teaching kids that if they come across a gun they should “Stop – Don’t Touch – Leave the Area – and Tell an Adult,” comes under fire because it is given to schools and police departments free by the NRA Foundation.

Public-private partnerships can be good things, but local politicians need to be extremely cautious about giving the keys to the city to any outside group whose altruism might be driven by a political or social agenda. The old adage of never looking a gift horse in the mouth does not apply in civic matters – just ask the Trojans. It is very tempting to a politician to be able to offer constituents some valuable service at a fraction of its normal cost, so it’s up to the citizens to be attentive and keep their politicians on the straight and narrow.

For those who might not know, Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a political group formed by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. It has an agenda almost identical to that of the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun groups, but it goes to great lengths to make its proposals seem reasonable and moderate when, in fact, they are intended to make firearms ownership more difficult and dangerous. Bloomberg has spent millions of dollars from his own very deep pockets and the pockets of New York taxpayers to advance his agenda and is receiving additional millions from the Joyce Foundation – the same Joyce Foundation that gave Barack Obama a paid directorship as a stepping-stone into politics.

This scandal will be unfolding for weeks, and probably years, to come. The more information we can dig up on the MAIG employees infiltrating municipal government, the better chance we will have of putting a stop to this theft of taxpayer money. Check your local government for any private-public partnership grant programs – particularly programs funded by MAIG – and let me know what you find. Together we can pull the mask off of this beast and return control of municipal government to the people who live there.

Oh my God this is just the opposite of the Truth. The American LegislaTive Exchange Council paid legislators to pass The Stand Your Ground laws. And now they're paying for this propaganda, because all their big donors left them after the Trayvon Martin incident.

[talli]

ALEC & the N R A we're going nuts with worry about the disfavor they fell into after  zimmerman killed martin who was unarmed and zimmerman claimed self defense under the stand your ground laws, and we're trying to get blog owners to run propaganda in their favor, but apparently that was enough, so they got somebody to talk about this nonsense!

[1965hawks]

in re: Reply #2
 
Bob Huntress: I am a firm believer in our Constitution. I believe that what our founders said in the Constitution is wor for word  what they meant. when they say, "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed", it means that peoples (not merely militias) right to keep (own) and bear (carry) guns.
 
Your belief is erroneous, Bob.
 
The second amendment to the US Constitution reads as follows:
 
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." (my emphasis)
 
You and the NRA choose to cherry-pick the Second Amendment, ignoring its preamble. Obviously, the amendment's wording quashes any argument that the Second Amendment applies to civilians. It does not refer to the inviduual (private) ownership, possession, or use of firearms. In actuality, the amendment constitutionally prohibits the federal government to pass any law that would interfere with a state's right to maintain its authorised (federally recognised) militia without due cause.
 
In the Second Amendment, the term "to keep (arms)" refers to the the right of a state to maintan an armed militia. It does not describe the private (indivdual) ownership of firearms for personal use. And the term "to bear arms" does not mean to "carry" firearms for personal use. "To bear arms" means to serve as a soldier. And the term "the people" does not refer to the general population. It refers only to" the people" as active members of ferderally recognised (state-controlled) militias.
 
The Second Amendment protects the arms of state militias against federal abuse. It has absolutely nothing to do with the private use of firearms for hunting, recreation, competition, or even self-defense.
 
"A well regulated militia, being necesaary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
 
Translation: Because a state-controlled militia is essential to protect the lives and property of a state's inhabitants, and even the state government itself, and because the federal government has power to call state militias into federal service to render military service that would contribute to the the common defense, the federal government shall not pass any law that would interfere with a state's ability to arm its official militia.

[D2D]

Wrong 1965hawks!

Who is regulated?

The militia!

Who does the regulating?

The people with their Second Amendment guaranteed right to keep and bear arms!

Under your interpretation the constitution protects the rights of the government to keep and bear arms!

When in the history of man has a government denied itself the right to keep and bear arms?

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

It give that right to the people not the State or the Militia!