Bloomberg's Lying and the NYTimes is Carrying the Propaganda

No real surprise. Just more talking points for Bloomberg with distortion of facts against the NRA.

“Tentacles!” shouts the headline over a cartoon illustration of Mr. Bloomberg depicting him as a giant octopus, looking fierce and slightly insane, with serpentine arms swirling behind him. Inside are a main article, two sidebars and a column devoted to the idea that Mr. Bloomberg, as the cover puts it, is extending “his reach, and his illegal antigun tactics, across America.”

The issue, dated this month, was sent to as many as 600,000 of the N.R.A.’s 4 million members at a time when Mr. Bloomberg has been intensifying his efforts and as mayors across the country continue to sign on to the fight. On Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg and his coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, launched a Web site, protectpolice.org, and announced a media campaign urging Congress to drop a provision, supported by the N.R.A., that limits the release of data about guns recovered in crimes.

I love the name of Bloomberg's gun grabber website. He should named it protectpoliceanddisarmcitizens.org.

Nestled among ads in America’s 1st Freedom for cigars, concealed gun holsters and imitation diamond rings are articles focusing on that provision and the Bloomberg administration’s undercover sting operations to catch gun dealers outside the city who had been improperly selling their merchandise and whose guns had been linked to crimes in New York. Bloomberg officials have used those investigations in lawsuits to pressure the dealers into submitting to monitoring by a court-appointed special master.

No mention that none of the firearms dealers that were involved in Bloombergs illegal "sting" were charged with illegal activities. There were a couple that caved in to his civil suit, but I've yet to hear of the BATFE bringing any charges. Including any charges against Bloomberg for his illegal straw purchases and conspiracy to commit a felony.

Yet most telling is the quote from Bloomberg's staff:

For their part, Bloomberg administration officials, who emphasize that their fight is against criminal possession and use of guns and has nothing to do with Second Amendment protections, are taking the criticism as something of a compliment.

“I think it’s fair to say we have gotten their attention,” said Edward Skyler, the deputy mayor overseeing the gun effort. “It really shows how they talk out of both sides of their mouth, claiming to be against illegal guns while doing everything possible to undermine efforts to crack down on them.”

Right. Skyler is also apparently talking out of his ass since he seems to be ignoring the illegal activities that Bloombergs little conspiracy committed. He also plays the idiocy of claiming that the NRA is inconsistent on the Tiahrt amendment. The point of that legislation was to protect gun owners who have had weapons stolen from them from becoming the focus of the crimial activities with those weapons. Not to mention the release of their identities to the public for having committed no crime.

Look at their website:

The “Tiahrt Amendment” is named for its original sponsor, U.S. Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS). The Tiahrt Amendment is a provision that members of Congress have tucked into federal spending bills that restricts cities and police from accessing and using Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) trace data from guns recovered in crimes.

• No access to a city’s own aggregate crime gun data.
  The Tiahrt Amendment restricts local governments from accessing the ATF gun trace data they need in order to understand and address citywide and regional gun crime trends.
• No access to data from other cities and states.
  The Tiahrt Amendment prevents local governments and police from accessing ATF gun trace data from areas outside its geographic jurisdiction, greatly undermining regional efforts to control gun crime.
• No access to or use of gun trace data for efforts to hold accountable dealers that break the law.
  The Tiahrt Amendment blocks trace data from being used as evidence in any state or local civil action—even a gun dealer license revocation.
• No access to national ATF reports.
  The Tiahrt Amendment stops ATF from publishing reports that use gun trace data to analyze nationwide gun trafficking patterns.

Note anything odd? The completely ignore that the information is available related to specific criminal investigation, but are denied blanket access to the database. I've yet to see them justify a need for it other than for statistics. Why they would need detailed information on all those involved in the database. Considering that the BATFE already does the stats on all this information and is the one in charge of interstate firearms crime, I would state that the bases are already covered.

Their website is also a perfect example of propaganda of half truths. You'd think this thing was set up by the Brady bunch. They quote the stat that 50 LEO were killed by firearms in 2005, and fail to mention that a majority of them were taken from the officers themselves. There is also the convenient stats on increase in aggravated assault without pointing out that violent crime overall has been on the decrease. Anyone that is actually interested can follow the links to the FBI data and see that they fail to do any analysis beyond the most general numbers. I'd say that is distortion on a grand scale.

The FBI data is actually really nice. They allow it to be downloaded in Excel format, so even you can analyze it if you desire. Of course, it would also take an interested party to do this work. (and obviously Bloomberg is getting the information that is most convenient to his cause.)