Northern Colorado Gazette

by Craig Masters
A New York judge has placed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s marquee nanny state legislation on hold. The ruling will stop the mayor from enforcing his rules on maximum drink sizes New Yorkers would be allowed to buy in some restaurants and other outlets.

Lawyers for Bloomberg and the city of New York immediately announced they will appeal the judge’s order. The cost to taxpayers for the legal battle to follow was not made available. Two things are certain, however, and those are that regardless of the outcome of the legal battles, the billionaire mayor won’t be paying the bills and the taxpayers will.

While New York taxpayers dig deeper into their pockets to pay for Bloomberg’s socialist agenda, Colorado residents should be bracing themselves for some serious Bloomberg legal expenses of our own. Constitutional lawyers are ready and waiting to challenge the litany of gun control bills currently working their way toward the governor’s desk. Just how much state taxpayers will have to pay to litigate these gun control laws is anyone’s guess. A more important question might be to determine the economic and social cost the billionaire nanny will wreak on Colorado.

The political spending began in January when Headwaters Strategy, a Denver-based lobbying firm, was hired by Bloomberg’s national gun-control organization known as Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). The lobby firm has been instrumental in convincing democrats in the Colorado legislature they need not fear the wrath of voters. The Mayor’s money seems to have been well spent. From all indications the democrats were comfortable ignoring all the fact-based opposition to the proposed gun control bills. The influence of money is proving to trump the Constitution when money and emotion combine to promise re-election and more power over the people.

Comprised mostly of Democratic mayors, MAIG was formed by Bloomberg in 2006 with a mission that aims to keep criminals from illegally possessing guns and using them. To date the group has proven to be impotent against criminals while being successful only against legal weapons. A closer look at the MAIG record suggest the almost entirely democrat group may actually be promoting criminal activity rather than having anything to do with safety or the public interest.

The billionaire nanny might be sent home if republicans in the Colorado legislature would point out that in 2011 (the most recent complete statistics available) New York had a murder rate by guns that was over 66% above the U.S. average compared to Colorado’s rate which was 45% below the U.S. average. The message is clear, Bloomberg’s gun policies resulted in his state having a gun murder rate more than 2-3/4 times higher than Colorado. Is this the guy our state should be following?

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