“Mary Landrieu will not protect your right of self-defense….who will stop the Obama/Bloomberg/Landrieu Gun Control Agenda?”

–flier mailed by the National Rifle Association to voters in Louisiana

During the campaign season, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become quite the boogeyman in conservative districts. He’s been attacked for his stance on the environment (even by Democrats) and guns.

In this flier, aimed at voters in the coming runoff election, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), in a very unflattering photograph, is sandwiched between a smirking Bloomberg and a serious-looking Obama. The message is clear — Landrieu is part of a cabal that “poses a serious threat to your freedoms.”

Some of the language in this ad mirrors a scary television commercial from the NRA that had previously earned Four Pinocchios. Let’s explore the Bloomberg connection in this ad.

The Facts

Bloomberg has been featured in other NRA attacks on Landrieu, such as this television ad (which the NRA says is no longer airing):

Note that the ad says that Bloomberg “spends millions” in support of Landrieu. That’s a stretch. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam says that line stems from the fact that Bloomberg gave $2.5 million to the Senate Majority PAC, which in turn spent more than $2 million on behalf of Landrieu. But Bloomberg’s contribution amounted to just under five percent of the more than $50 million raised by SMP, so on a pro-rated basis it certainly doesn’t add up to “millions.”

Bloomberg has funded the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, but it only spent about $335,000 on congressional races this year, none of which went in support of Landrieu, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Bloomberg’s group has endorsed Landrieu — but Landrieu spokesman Tyson Brody said the endorsement was “neither touted nor accepted.”

“Mike Bloomberg supports a much more intense gun control agenda than what is supported by Mary Landrieu,” Brody added. “Bloomberg has backed an assault weapons ban, limitations on high capacity magazines, and other restrictions that Senator Landrieu has voted against. The common ground they share is universal background checks, something supported by the vast majority of Americans that even the NRA admitted to you would not do anything like they claim in their ads.”

Landrieu did receive backing, nearly $600,000, from the group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband after Giffords was nearly killed with a gun in 2011 by a mentally ill man. That group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, advocates for universal background checks but also says it supports Second Amendment rights.

Giffords’ group also spent nearly $350,000 attacking Rep. Bill Cassidy, Landrieu’s GOP opponent, according to CRP. The group received $500,000 from Bloomberg, according to CRP, which is about 2.5 percent of its total funding.

Ultimately, this once again comes down to a dispute over Landrieu’s vote in favor of an amendment to bolster gun background checks, authored by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.). The amendment, on a vote of 54-46, failed to overcome a Senate filibuster in 2013.

The Manchin-Toomey proposal was intended as an effort to bridge the wide gap between gun-rights supporters and gun-control advocates over whether to overhaul the current background-check system, which is limited to federally licensed gun dealers. Essentially, the proposals would have expanded background checks to gun shows and Internet sales, but the lawmakers said it would not have affected sales between friends and family members.

Despite the language in the ad, there was nothing in the Manchin-Toomey bill that would have prevented people from buying a weapon to defend themselves, even on short notice — unless they had criminal records.

The Pinocchio Test

As we have said before, the NRA has every right to offer its interpretation of various proposed laws, or to suggest that a single change in gun laws would take away a person’s rights. But the NRA goes too far when it tries to lump Landrieu in with Bloomberg.

Bloomberg’s gun-control group may have endorsed her, but he has spent no money on her behalf, despite the NRA’s claim of “millions.” He espouses a more expansive gun-control agenda than Landrieu. Their interests may have briefly overlapped on one amendment, Manchin-Toomey, but that’s not enough to declare that there is such a thing as a “Obama/Bloomberg/Landrieu gun control agenda.”

Three Pinocchios





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