Do you get the feeling that there’s an increasing groundswell of opposition to a Bloomberg nomination from, well, every part of the political spectrum?
Bloomberg wants to require “background checks for all gun sales,” a policy aimed at enforcing legal restrictions on gun ownership that have little or nothing to do with public safety. If the system he favors works as intended, it will unjustly and irrationally stop millions of harmless people—including cannabis consumers and people who committed nonviolent drug felonies or underwent involuntary treatment for suicidal impulses decades ago—from exercising the constitutional right to armed self-defense.
Bloomberg wants to create a federal “permit” for gun purchases, which is constitutionally analogous to requiring that people get the government’s permission before they buy books, express their opinions online, or start a prayer group. Such permits would be a vehicle for enforcing the current rules, the new ones Bloomberg favors, and whatever restrictions politicians dream up in the future.
As with [stop and frisk], Bloomberg simply assumes these policies will reduce gun violence, and he does not even consider whether they are constitutional. To him, that question is irrelevant when you are “totally focused on saving lives.”
– Jacob Sullum in Bloomberg’s Constitutionally Oblivious Gun Battles