MAIG Super Bowl Super Stunt

Vitriolic anti-gun mayor Michael Bloomberg (I-NYC) and his gun control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), are paying for their 30 seconds of fame.  According to a New York Times piece, Bloomberg will join his gun-grabbing cohort, Mayor Tom Menino of Boston (D), in a Super Bowl-themed ad calling for more gun control laws.

Despite his billions in personal wealth, Bloomberg’s MAIG is taking the frugal route in airing this ad, as the Times piece notes, “The ad will be shown regionally, rather than nationally, meaning that, according to Mr. Bloomberg’s press office, the spot will cost only ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars,’ rather than the average of $3.5 million that NBC is charging for a 30-second national advertising buy.”

In a bit of irony, apparently among the football-themed props in the ad will be bowls of popcorn and chips, normal Super Bowl fare for millions of football fans, but the type of food that Bloomberg and his health police condemn through the city’s bans and regulations on certain types of foods they feel city residents shouldn’t be allowed to consume. 

While MAIG’s claim to support laws that will lead to a reduction in crime rings hollow, perhaps a better expenditure of their time would be to focus their “crime-fighting” efforts on their own members.

Among MAIG’s coalition mayors, many have run afoul of the law themselves, having been indicted, arrested, or convicted of crimes ranging from obstruction of justice and resisting arrest, to extortion, to assault, to bond violations, to bribery, and theft.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, the Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law, sums this up well when he recently noted, “A recent study found that mayors belonging to Bloomberg’s group have been arrested at a much higher rate than Tennessee handgun-carry permit holders, for crimes ranging from perjury and embezzlement to child sexual assault. But there’s no background check for politicians.” There probably isn’t time prior to Sunday’s big game to revamp the ad, but if MAIG and Bloomberg truly want to take a bite out of crime, perhaps they should first police themselves.