Another election, same former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg working to shape the nation’s gun laws. For years, NRA has exposed Bloomberg’s relentless efforts to export New York style gun restrictions to the rest of America. With sights firmly set on Washington, D.C., Bloomberg knows that any shift in congressional control could provide an opening to try and unravel years of hard-fought Second Amendment victories and once again push sweeping gun restrictions nationwide.
A recent report from the New York Times puts the billionaire’s spending in the spotlight noting that during the current cycle he has, so far, directed a whopping $80 million dollars toward Democrat candidates and political organizations. The Times reports that at least $50 million of his spending is earmarked for U.S. House of Representative races, including $24 million going directly to the political efforts of Everytown for Gun Safety, Bloomberg's dedicated gun control organization, while another $16 million was given to the House Majority PAC, which supports Democrat congressional candidates.
For anyone who has followed the campaign politics and gun control debate over the past decade, his latest funding spree is hardly surprising. In fact, it has become something of an election year tradition.
According to Moms Demand Action, part of Bloomberg’s Everytown conglomerate, the latest $10 million dollar ad campaign for U.S. House candidates exclusively funds the campaigns of former volunteers for Moms Demand Action. The Democrat candidates include: JoAnna Mendoza of Arizona, Pia Dandiya of Florida, Christina Bohannan, Sarah Trone Garriott and Lindsay James of Iowa, Christina Hines and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan, and Paige Cognetti of Pennsylvania.
Recall that in 2021, Everytown Victory Fund launched the Demand a Seat program with a clear political objective to transform gun control advocates into candidates and campaign operatives to advance their agenda from within government. The only qualification necessary was blind acquiescence to Everytown’s gun control ambitions. And here we are just five years later with a slate of competitive races bought and paid for by Bloomberg’s millions.
This latest spending spree is also hardly surprising given their mounting frustration as Everytown President John Feinblatt lamented, "For nearly two years, a MAGA House has rubber-stamped the Trump administration as it tore up federal gun safety laws, and flipping these eight seats is how we put a stop to it."
One can only imagine the exasperation of the anti-gun crowd in watching courts reaffirm Second Amendment protections, while longstanding restrictions meet their demise. But there is always value in the cautionary reminder that constitutional victories are only as good as the government’s adherence to them. See, for example, the reaction of every anti-gun jurisdiction after a major Supreme Court decision upholding the Second Amendment.
The anti-gun dollar amounts grow ever larger, but the strategy is familiar. Bloomberg has spent years building and financing a political operation that extends well beyond any single election cycle. Even as voters and campaigns focus on other issues like economics, immigration, and global concerns, Bloomberg continues to dedicate substantial resources to organizations that make firearm regulation a central political issue.
Without a doubt, Bloomberg has been the central architect of the institutional infrastructure that has developed around the modern gun control movement. We’ve watched his influence extend far beyond campaign contributions to encompass large networks of advocacy, activist mobilization, sophisticated public messaging, lobbying, and now directly planting gun control advocates into elections for Congress. He has single-handedly made gun control the most top-down issue in American politics.
The reality of the election cycle is that even as the Second Amendment landscape changes, including important constitutional and regulatory victories along the way, the political fight is far from over. Bloomberg ultimately wants both congressional control and gun control nationwide as soon as the opportunity lines up, and the next Congress could determine which proposals gain new momentum.
Different election, same billionaire, same dangerous threat to Second Amendment rights.
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