Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has crusaded for gun control for years. He’s spent millions of his own money to advance his anti-gun agenda all over the country. He’s also claimed at least a fair bit of credit for the outcome of the election in Virginia earlier this week.
In all that time, one would think he’d have at least been forced to learn a few basics about firearms.
However, in an interview, he presents some very inaccurate information.
Democrat presidential candidate billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who spends tens of millions of dollars pushing for extreme gun control laws, demonstrates that he knows literally nothing about firearms.pic.twitter.com/SCjpNdQm6h
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 7, 2019
Bloomberg is confronted with the fact that many of his proposals would impact handguns as well as rifles. His response? “No, pistols are different. You have to pull the trigger each time. An assault weapon you basically hold it and it goes buh-buh-buh.”
Wow. Just…wow.
So, let’s unpack all of this for a moment.
As the interviewer notes, what Bloomberg described is a fully-automatic weapon, a classification of firearm that’s been heavily restricted since 1934 with new models banned since 1986. These are not your average firearms owned by your average folks. In fact, these guns in private hands would remain untouched under most current proposals.
Instead, AR-15s and other so-called “assault weapons” are functionally no different than semi-automatic hunting weapons. In fact, that’s why assault weapon bans have focused on cosmetic features. The only real difference between the evil and scary firearms are the superficial features like a pistol grip or a collapsible stock.
That’s about it.
Which is why hunting weapons are routinely brought up to counter assault weapon ban rhetoric.
I find it difficult to believe that in all his years pushing for gun control, especially assault weapon bans, he’s never heard the difference between full-auto and semi-auto. I find it difficult to believe that he’s never been faced with anyone, ever, who would instruct him on the fact that AR-15s are semi-automatic weapons and only fire once per trigger pull.
So, he’s either incredibly stupid or he’s lying.
Now, it would be easy to assume stupidity. I tend to default to believing that stupidity trumps maliciousness in most instances. However, let’s be real for a moment.
Michael Bloomberg is one of the richest people on the planet. He wasn’t born that way, either. He built his personal empire. That means he’s not a total idiot. He may be dumb in many ways, but not a total idiot.
Let’s face it, it would take a total idiot to fight for gun control this long and still think that an AR-15 is fully automatic.
Now, it’s possible, of course. Maybe his previous success was at a time when he actually used his brain and now he’s just going through the motions while his cerebral cortex is taking a long vacation to Jupiter. It’s possible.
It’s just not likely.
It’s far more probable that the former mayor of the Big Apple knows what he’s saying and is just hoping other people don’t. In other words, he’s spreading a line of bull. He’s hoping the rest of the world is too stupid to know the line he’s running here.
That’s the thing about gun control. They routinely push their agenda while hoping the people are too stupid or too scared to question the holes in their plans. They’re running a con on the American people, one made all the worse because people seem to be falling for it.
One of the most popular insults in political circles lately is to call someone a “grifter.” There doesn’t seem to be anyone the term applies to better than Michael Bloomberg.
