Bloomberg's Weird Thanksgiving Vision

Thanksgiving Day is not until next week, but we're going to get the next item out of the way now.  We realize that normal people, who at other times are "in the fight" regarding the right to keep and bear arms, will want to enjoy the upcoming holiday the traditional way:  gathered together with family and friends, strengthening the ties with people with whom they are closest, giving thanks for the good fortune to live in the greatest country on Earth, and for at least a day or two, trying to abstain from argument and controversy.

"Normal people," that is.

There are some other people out there--waaaaay out there--who come up with things that are so off the wall, that we can hardly describe them without saying "we are not making this stuff up."

In this instance, we're talking about the weird holiday vision being urged by Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns' "Demand Action" campaign, which seems to take its cues from another well-known holiday spoilsport.

"This Thanksgiving, when talk around the table turns to politics and current events, you can help set the record straight on some of the most common myths about guns," the campaign's Talking Turkey About Guns advises.

Say what?  Americans who gather for a Thanksgiving celebration, after family members have driven hundreds of miles to be together, should sit down to be harangued with fictional factoids designed to promote gun control?

Is Bloomberg serious?  Before Christmas Day in 1914, Allied and German soldiers otherwise embroiled in the carnage of World War I informally declared a cease fire, and even exchanged gifts and sang carols together, for crying out loud!  So, give it a rest for a day or two, Bloomberg!  You want to debate over gun control, bring it on, but not over cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce and pecan pie!   What's next, gun control talking points on the Turkey Talk Line?

At least come up with some new material.

Your claim that "40 percent of guns are transferred without a background check?"  That one is so far from the truth that even the anti-gun Washington Post's "Fact Checker" gave President Obama "Three Pinocchios" for using it back in March.

You say "if more guns in the hands of more people stopped gun crime, we'd be the safest country in the developed world," but that simple-minded, worn-out line fails to acknowledge that as the numbers of guns and carry permit-holders have risen to all-time highs, the nation's murder rate has fallen to nearly an all-time low.

You say that it is a "myth" that "all gun laws are unconstitutional."  But no one is saying that laws prohibiting possession by dangerous felons are unconstitutional or that people who misuse guns shouldn't be punished.  The debate is over legislation, which you support, that would prohibit the ownership of firearms and magazines that are best suited for defensive purposes, that would take America one crucial step closer to implementing a national gun and gun owner registration database under the "universal background checks" label and that would only impact the law-abiding.

You say it is a "myth" that "criminals don't follow the law," to which all we can say is "maybe on Planet Bloomberg."  The very definition of a criminal is one who disregards the law.

You say that all private transfers of firearms should be subject to background checks.  Yet not only would that pave the way for gun and gun owner registration, the existing background check system hasn't stopped anyone with serious criminal intent from stealing a gun, buying a stolen gun, or getting his girlfriend or buddy to go into a gun store and illegally straw purchase a gun for him on the sly, knowing that there is only a slight chance that he will ever be prosecuted for doing so.

Between his unyielding and well-known obsessions over gun control and the dietary habits of others, Thanksgiving dinner at the Bloomberg mansion is sure to be regular laugh riot.  As far as his suggestions for holiday conversation, all we can say is, what a turkey…and hold the salt!