BELLEVUE, WA – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest crime control measure – a plan to ban the sale of paints that might be used to make real guns look like toys – is the kind of “la-la land†reasoning that has allowed real criminals to prosper while police crack down on law-abiding adults and innocent children, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said today.
Mayor Bloomberg announced four gun control proposals as he continues his campaign to clamp down on gun ownership. He also wants to limit handgun purchases, require gun dealers to make more frequent inventory reports, and he wants to create a registry of criminals who use guns.
“While there is some merit to registering convicted violent criminals,†said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “banning paint because some local laws require that toys be fluorescent or pastel colors to distinguish them from real guns is simply moronic. According to news reports, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said no such painted guns have ever been recovered in connection with a crime, yet Bloomberg wants to go after paint sales.
“Like the mayor demonizes guns because they might be misused in a crime,†Gottlieb observed, “he is also now demonizing paint because of the irrational fear that it might be misused to camouflage a real firearm. What will be next from Bloomberg’s colorless imagination, a ban on bank branches and baristas because they attract criminals?
“Obviously,†Gottlieb said, “in Bloomberg’s world there are no shades of gray…or pink, lime green, bright orange or fluorescent yellow, either. He’s a plain black and white kind of guy, looking for a golden opportunity to destroy private gun ownership. He prefers to see the world through rose-colored glasses, so long as those glasses aren’t tinted with paint.
“Maybe somebody stole Mikey’s crayons when he was young,†Gottlieb suggested. “Or perhaps he was overcome by paint fumes as a youth. What else could explain this new phobia over firearms that just makes him purple with rage?
“Singing the blues about pastel pistols,†he concluded, “is nothing but a political red herring.â€