Washington Post, Jan. 23, 2007: “Bloomberg said the group is not anti-gun and does not oppose the constitutional right to bear arms. ‘This is about getting guns out of the hands of criminals,’ Bloomberg said.”
Jacksonville.com, Mar. 4, 2008: “Asked about the loophole, Bloomberg said, ‘It’s outrageous … I don’t have a problem with guns. I have a problem with the gun show loophole that doesn’t require a background check.'”
Gannett News, Sept. 17, 2009: “[Jason Post, a spokesman with Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Bloomberg’s office] clarified that Bloomberg is not against gun ownership, in fact the billionaire mayor owned a .22 rifle as a teenager.”
Mayor Bloomberg on CNN, May 29, 2013 (speaking about the threatening ricin-laced letters sent to him and to the director of Mayors against Illegal Guns, which has since then been discovered to be not from a gun rights supporter but from an estranged wife trying to frame her husband): “In terms of why they have done it, I don’t know. The letter was obviously referred to our anti-gun efforts. But there’s 12,000 people that are going to get killed this year with guns, and 19,000 are going to commit suicide with guns, and we’re not going to walk away from those efforts. And I know I speak for all of the — close to 1,000 mayors in Mayors Coalition against Guns. This is a scourge on the country that we just have to make sure that we get under control and eliminate.”