BELLEVUE, WA – Four high-profile stabbings within 24 hours in New York City prompted the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) to predict that rabidly anti-gun Mayor Michael Bloomberg will now start campaigning for knife control laws.
The victims included two women tourists who were together in Times Square, a Texas man who was attacked on a subway, and a local resident who was also stabbed on a subway, according to the Reuters news agency.
“I fully expect the mayor to start ranting about ‘crime knives’ and how the nation needs a law to stop ‘illegal blades’ from being smuggled in from other states with lax cutlery laws,†said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “I say to Bloomberg, ‘It’s not guns, or knives, it’s the criminals, stupid!’
“While New Yorkers and tourists are bleeding from knife wounds,†he added, “Bloomberg is obsessed about guns. He’s mounted legally-questionable ‘sting’ operations in other states with private investigators and apparently interfered with on-going serious criminal investigations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.â€
Bloomberg’s focus on guns may be diverting important law enforcement resources away from combating all violent crime, Gottlieb suggested.
“What this demonstrates beyond any doubt is that criminals will harm victims with whatever weapon they have at their disposal,†Gottlieb stressed. “Even if Bloomberg were able to disarm every law abiding gun owner in this country, which seems to be his goal, criminals will still be out there committing violent crimes with knives, clubs, bricks, or guns they take from cops. You don’t stop criminals by disarming their victims.
“If New York had a sensible concealed carry law like those now in effect in some 40 states where average citizens have a right to carry for their personal protection,†Gottlieb insisted, “this kind of thing would not be happening in broad daylight in downtown New York City. Instead of harping about guns, Bloomberg should be campaigning to overturn generations of restrictive, regressive and discriminatory New York gun laws to enable his constituents to fight back. Until he does that, he’s not part of the solution, he’s part of the problem.â€