BELLEVUE, WA – While Michael Bloomberg has been running around blaming gun laws in other states for his city’s crime problems, eight New York City police officers were allegedly involved in a gun smuggling operation “right under his nose,†the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
Reuters reported that eight officers have been charged in connection with the case. All were working in Brooklyn, and according to the District Attorney’s office, they “exploited their experience and credentials to assist in a variety of schemes involving the illegal interstate transportation…†of guns, cigarettes, counterfeit goods and slot machines, the news agency said.
“If I were a member of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns,†said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “I’d say it was time for Bloomberg to mind his own business. While he was busily suing legitimate gun dealers all over the country and going on television to brag about it, he should have been paying closer attention to what was happening in his own back yard. After all, it was his city employees that have been charged in this illegal gun trafficking scheme.â€
Gottlieb said Tuesday’s revelation clearly underscores what is wrong with Mayor Bloomberg’s relentless campaign to “erode gun rights through the demagoguery of public office.â€
“Bloomberg’s fiasco is steeped in irony,†Gottlieb continued, “because this New York gun trafficking operation was happening right under the mayor’s nose, and he didn’t even know about it. He was paying too much attention to telling everyone else what was wrong with their gun laws, when he couldn’t even keep his own cops from breaking the gun laws he thinks should be used as a model all over the country
“It may be time for Bloomberg to stop looking everywhere else for gun trafficking activity and focus his attention closer to home,†he observed. “It’s pretty hard to accuse citizens in other states of feeding New York’s illegal gun trade when some of Bloomberg’s own cops appear to be up to their badges in it.â€