Billionaire Elaine Wynn, co-founder of the Wynn casino empire (along with her ex-husband, Steve) and president of the Nevada Board of Education, has earned a new title: anti-civil rights activist. USA Today reports that Ms. Wynn has joined fellow billionaire plutocrat Michael Bloomberg in working to roll back the Constitutionally protected liberties of Nevadans. “Wynn, the co-founder of Wynn Resorts, will chair an advisory board that is working to pass a background check initiative that recently qualified for the 2016 ballot. The effort is backed former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.” . . .
The Nevada proposal, which would impose stricter background checks on people buying firearms from private sellers and at gun shows, is part of an effort by Bloomberg and his allies to push gun-control measures at the state level after failing to gain traction on the issue in Congress….
“Keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill isn’t a political issue; it’s common sense,” Wynn said in a statement released by Nevadans for Background Checks.
It would, no doubt, be ungracious of me to wonder if Ms. Wynn has an interest in other “common sense” laws that might keep Nevadans from getting on the road to broken families, bankruptcy, crime or domestic abuse as a result of a mental illness such as, perhaps, gambling addiction. Perhaps a quick (no more than 25 minutes, tops, unless there’s a problem with the system or something) background check at the door could ensure that people with addictive behavior would be excluded from casinos?
In other news, a 2009 op-ed article by Jarius Bondoc, writing for the Philippine Star, talks about private security contractors in the Philippines. One in particular – Nevada-based Progressive F.O.R.C.E. Concepts – apparently has a record of providing discreet, professional, highly-trained bodyguards and other security services for its famous and wealthy clientele. “Tony Newman, director for Pacific operations, is reluctant to admit it. But PFC is reputed to have among its clients Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer; Turner Broadcasting’s Phil Kent and David Levy; and the Las Vegas gaming billionaire couple Steve and Elaine Wynn,” reports Bondoc.
Certainly, one cannot spare any expense when it comes to one’s personal safety. It’s a dangerous world out there. Hiring a private security contractor to provide bodyguards to protect oneself and one’s loved ones? It’s only common sense.
It’s too bad more people can’t afford to do that, eh?