Mayors Against Illegal Guns – A Reality Check

by Philip Van Cleave

I have been doing a bit of research on [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg's group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

They claim a membership of 593 mayors. Of these, 399 (over 67%!) are in only four states – New Jersey (40), New York (108), Ohio (71) and Pennsylvania(180). If you throw in California (21) and Florida (36), they account for 456 (over 76%) of their alleged membership.

There are approximately 8,291 mayors, nationally, of localities with over 30,000 citizens. Even disregarding the fact that a fair number of Bloomberg’s group are not even included in that count, due to small constituencies, this means that fewer than 7.2% of the nation's mayors agree with his goals and methods enough to allow themselves to be counted among his supporters.

The vast majority of states, 37, or 74% (see table below) could produce only 5 or fewer members, from the many hundreds of mayors in each state. In fact, they could not persuade a SINGLE mayor in 12 states to join in their conspiracy to subvert the Constitution (see table below).

I am saddened to see that they were able to dupe 9 of our own Virginia mayors. [PVC: Virginia does have some less-than-stellar Mayors. The members of Bloomberg's coalition should be on every gun owner's list to get unelected.]

Alabama – 3, Alaska – 1, Arizona – 0, Arkansas – 2, Colorado – 1, Georgia- 5, Hawaii – 1, Idaho – 0, Indiana – 5, Iowa – 2, Kansas – 3, Kentucky – 0, Louisiana – 4, Maine – 4, Maryland – 4, Michigan – 3, Minnesota – 3, Mississippi – 3, Missouri – 3, Montana – 0, Nebraska – 3, New Hampshire – 0, New Mexico – 2, Nevada – 0, North Dakota – 1, Oklahoma – 0, Oregon – 2, Rhode Island – 0, South Carolina – 2, South Dakota – 0, Tennessee – 3, Texas – 2, Utah – 0, Vermont – 2, West Virginia – 0, Wisconsin – 5, Wyoming – 0

Philip Van Cleave is the President of Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right. Visit: www.vcdl.org