Upon news of the murders in Aurora, Colorado, Michael Bloomberg immediately called on Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to take the lead in a national conversation on gun control, and while they haven’t yet, he’s set on filling the role in the meantime. “We don’t have to break new ground here,” said Bloomberg on Morning Joe today, pushing an issue he’s fought against long before the latest horrifying headlines. “All we’ve got to do is follow the promises that were made by the elected officials back when they were pandering and said, ‘We’re going to fix this problem.’”
Bloomberg called on politicians to close relevant loopholes and even challenged the power of the gun lobby. “I think there is a perception among the political world that the NRA has more power than the American people. I don’t believe that,” he said. “At the state and federal level, in the executive and legislative branches, they think that the NRA is going to control their destiny. And I think, maybe in a perverse way, the NRA is going to control their destiny to their downfall.”
On the subject of assault weapons like the ones used by Aurora shooter James Holmes, Bloomberg really went off. “Nobody’s going to take away your right to to bear arms, to hunt,” he said. “But when somebody buys 6,000 rounds of ammunition … Do you know whow many deer you gotta kill? Or armor-piercing bullets — when’s the last time you saw a deer with a flak jacket on?”
