Bloomberg’s Mayors, Back in the News!

Just a few short weeks ago, we wrote about Michael Bloomberg’s controversy-dogged gun control organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), and how another high-ranking member of the group had been indicted for allegedly committing serious crimes: bribery, campaign finance, and conspiracy felonies. MAIG was created by then-New York City Mayor Bloomberg in 2006 to further his radical gun control agenda at the state and local levels, and since then, its anti-gun mayors have regularly appeared in the headlines on being charged with, pleading guilty to, or convicted of various kinds of illegal behavior.    

It’s time to revisit this topic again, as breaking news reveals yet another MAIG-associated civic leader has been caught up in a federal criminal investigation. On November 7, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed indictments charging Chokwe Lumumba, the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi (along with Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens II, and Aaron Banks, the president of the Jackson City Council) with bribery and conspiracy felonies.

Mayor Lumumba’s city is listed as a “coalition member” of MAIG, and he has supported various MAIG/ Everytown initiatives in the past. In 2021, for example, as one of the MAIG mayors “elected to ensure the safety of our residents,” Lumumba signed a letter calling for the confirmation of David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The letter states that the appointment would “benefit our efforts” to curb criminal conduct like the “continued trafficking of illegal guns” and cites the need to “regulat[e] the gun industry to root out bad actors.”

Lumumba’s other gun-control exploits include an April 2020 executive order in which he purported to suspend the state’s “open carry law” throughout the city during the COVID-19 civil emergency, despite Mississippi’s firearm preemption law which generally prohibits any municipality from adopting laws that restrict the possession, carrying, transportation, sale, transfer or ownership of firearms. At the same time, Lumumba launched an online petition (“Join Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba in the fight to repeal the Open Carry Law in Mississippi!”) urging members of the public to support his demand that the state law at issue be repealed. According to the petition, although Lumumba had “no principal disagreement with the Second Amendment right to bear arms,…a right that interferes with another person’s right to live is not a legitimate right to be maintained.” The petition was a dismal flop, failing to reach even a minimal 200-signature threshold.

Lumumba’s executive order fared no better. It was almost immediately condemned as invalid and unconstitutional by the Mississippi Attorney General, who found “no evidence that the State’s open carry law was implicated in” the crimes the mayor cited as the justification for the order. In quick succession, the mayor’s order was challenged in a civil rights lawsuit that culminated in a consent degree, which continues to prohibit the City of Jackson, the mayor and city council, and all other city agents or employees from adopting “any orders, resolutions, ordinances, policies, or practices which have the purpose or effect of directly or indirectly prohibiting, restricting, or inhibiting the open carry of firearms,” unless and until a valid state law permits them to do so.

While MAIG’s mayors fret about “bad actors” in the gun industry, the federal Department of Justice works at rooting out rotten apples in the public sector. The press release regarding the November indictment of Lumumba, Owens, and Banks observes that “[o]fficials who abuse their positions of authority to enrich themselves undermine public confidence in government. The Justice Department is committed to restoring that confidence by working with its law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute public corruption.”

That document alleges that Lumumba accepted a bribe of $50,000 from FBI undercover employees posing as Nashville real estate developers, “in exchange for exerting his influence and taking official action relating to the Developers’ proposed project in downtown Jackson ... [T]he bribe payments were concealed as five $10,000 campaign-donation checks from third-party entities and individuals, including Owens. Lumumba then laundered that money through his campaign account before cashing out a portion of the payment.” (A strange little detail in the indictment claims that when the FBI raided Owens’s district attorney office, they discovered cash paid by the purported developers to Owens in a “lockbox made to appear like a book bearing the title ‘The Constitution of the United States of America.’”)

The press release lists the charges against Lumumba as one count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, honest services wire fraud, and money laundering; one count of federal program bribery; one count of using a facility in interstate commerce in furtherance of unlawful activity; one count of honest services wire fraud; and one count of money laundering. If convicted, he potentially faces decades in prison.

The FBI continues to investigate the case. Lumumba has denied the accusations and pled not guilty to the charges, and it must be emphasized that a criminal charge is only an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of the criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.

Two major federal bribery and corruption indictments against MAIG members have been announced in just over a month, yet these are leading public officials who clamor about “gun industry accountability” for the acts of third-party criminals, demand the repeal of lawful open carry and other “harmful laws” (like permitless carry and state preemption), and smear law-abiding gun owners as the “armed intimidation” that threatens “our democracy.” 

While MAIG and its propagandistic politicians busy themselves with “reimagining public safety” (whatever that means) for the rest of us, a reimagining of their mission and values may be more of a priority – starting with the amendment of the MAIG “Statement of Principles” that members are asked to sign to include a pledge to curb criminal conduct by refraining from committing actual felonies and other illegal acts themselves.