Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik Leaves MAIG and Reveals Confiscation Agenda
I’m the mayor of one of the largest cities in the Hudson Valley, just 90 minutes north of New York City. I’m a life member of the National Rifle Association and a former member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, or MAIG, started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.
I’m no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And I’m not alone: Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did. MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda - violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and taking resources away from initiatives that could actually work to protect our neighborhoods and save precious lives. Gun control will actually make a bad situation worse.
I was first elected mayor of Poughkeepsie in 2007. At the time, it was a city that had grown weary of burying its young. Homicides were so commonplace that a newspaper without a murder story was news. Gangs roamed downtown streets and neighborhoods, terrorizing law-abiding citizens and selling drugs in broad daylight. As the drug wars escalated and gangs battled over turf, kids were killing kids.
I vowed to do everything in my power to make our streets and neighborhoods safer. MAIG approached me with the promise that they’d assist me in developing effective approaches to clear our streets of criminals, get guns out of the hands of convicted felons, crack down on the drug trade and rid our streets of gangs that were terrorizing a city. I joined MAIG with this understanding.
It did not take long to realize that MAIG’s agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns; that under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. I don’t believe, never have believed and never will believe that public safety is enhanced by encroaching on our right to bear arms, and I will not be a part of any organization that does.
Those who doubt this hard fact might want to study Chicago, which has among the most restrictive gun-control laws in the country, as well as some of the highest rates of gun-related crime and killing. Depriving law-abiding citizens of their right to own firearms only makes them more vulnerable.
What works against gun violence is reducing the number of illegal guns available to criminals through cash-for-tips programs; eliminating plea bargaining in cases of gun-related crime; and strengthening surveillance and neighborhood policing in problem areas - initiatives I’ve spearheaded.
And, fundamentally, troubled urban areas desperately need an economy that welcomes businesses to locate and remain in our cities. Robust respect for the Second Amendment rights of the law abiding does this by discouraging theft and enhancing personal safety.
Unless Bloomberg and MAIG recognize and implement these principles, their efforts are doomed not only to fail, but also to cause further - if unintended - harm.
http://www.poughkeep...un-agenda-wrong
There are even a few Georgia Mayors signed up with the Bloomberg cowards. Much to my surprise I found my Mayor on this short list for Georgia here in Roswell. Feel free to email him let him know how you feel:
Mayor Jere Wood: mayorwood@roswellgov.com
Other Georgia Mayors:
Mayor Kasim Reed, Atlanta, Georgia
Mayor Deke Copenhaver, Augusta, Georgia
Mayor William F. Floyd, Decatur, Georgia
Mayor Donna Pittman, Doraville, Georgia
Mayor Earnestine D. Pittman, East Point, Georgia
Mayor James Thomas, Jr., Hinesville, Georgia
Mayor Robert A. B. Reichert, Macon, Georgia
Mayor June D. Bradfield, McRae, Georgia
Mayor Kathie deNobriga, PineLake, Georgia
Mayor Jere Wood, Roswell, Georgia
Mayor Patricia Wheeler, Stone Mountain, Georgia
Mayor Ralph Moore, Union City, Georgia
I’m the mayor of one of the largest cities in the Hudson Valley, just 90 minutes north of New York City. I’m a life member of the National Rifle Association and a former member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, or MAIG, started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.
I’m no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And I’m not alone: Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did. MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda - violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and taking resources away from initiatives that could actually work to protect our neighborhoods and save precious lives. Gun control will actually make a bad situation worse.
I was first elected mayor of Poughkeepsie in 2007. At the time, it was a city that had grown weary of burying its young. Homicides were so commonplace that a newspaper without a murder story was news. Gangs roamed downtown streets and neighborhoods, terrorizing law-abiding citizens and selling drugs in broad daylight. As the drug wars escalated and gangs battled over turf, kids were killing kids.
I vowed to do everything in my power to make our streets and neighborhoods safer. MAIG approached me with the promise that they’d assist me in developing effective approaches to clear our streets of criminals, get guns out of the hands of convicted felons, crack down on the drug trade and rid our streets of gangs that were terrorizing a city. I joined MAIG with this understanding.
It did not take long to realize that MAIG’s agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns; that under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. I don’t believe, never have believed and never will believe that public safety is enhanced by encroaching on our right to bear arms, and I will not be a part of any organization that does.
Those who doubt this hard fact might want to study Chicago, which has among the most restrictive gun-control laws in the country, as well as some of the highest rates of gun-related crime and killing. Depriving law-abiding citizens of their right to own firearms only makes them more vulnerable.
What works against gun violence is reducing the number of illegal guns available to criminals through cash-for-tips programs; eliminating plea bargaining in cases of gun-related crime; and strengthening surveillance and neighborhood policing in problem areas - initiatives I’ve spearheaded.
And, fundamentally, troubled urban areas desperately need an economy that welcomes businesses to locate and remain in our cities. Robust respect for the Second Amendment rights of the law abiding does this by discouraging theft and enhancing personal safety.
Unless Bloomberg and MAIG recognize and implement these principles, their efforts are doomed not only to fail, but also to cause further - if unintended - harm.
http://www.poughkeep...un-agenda-wrong
There are even a few Georgia Mayors signed up with the Bloomberg cowards. Much to my surprise I found my Mayor on this short list for Georgia here in Roswell. Feel free to email him let him know how you feel:
Mayor Jere Wood: mayorwood@roswellgov.com
Other Georgia Mayors:
Mayor Kasim Reed, Atlanta, Georgia
Mayor Deke Copenhaver, Augusta, Georgia
Mayor William F. Floyd, Decatur, Georgia
Mayor Donna Pittman, Doraville, Georgia
Mayor Earnestine D. Pittman, East Point, Georgia
Mayor James Thomas, Jr., Hinesville, Georgia
Mayor Robert A. B. Reichert, Macon, Georgia
Mayor June D. Bradfield, McRae, Georgia
Mayor Kathie deNobriga, PineLake, Georgia
Mayor Jere Wood, Roswell, Georgia
Mayor Patricia Wheeler, Stone Mountain, Georgia
Mayor Ralph Moore, Union City, Georgia
