CFPHR letter to Michael J. Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “to immediately investigate and prosecute New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his associates for conspiring to violate the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 as amended by the Brady Act of 1995.”
CFPHR letter to Michael J. Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “to immediately investigate and prosecute New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his associates for conspiring to violate the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 as amended by the Brady Act of 1995.” January 2007.
Michael J. Sullivan
Acting Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
U.S. Department of Justice
SUBJECT: Prosecute Bloomberg
Dear Director Sullivan:
We the undersigned individuals and organizations ask you to immediately prosecute New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his associates for conspiring to violate the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 as amended by the Brady Act of 1995.
It is well known that Mayor Bloomberg has organized a multi-state vigilante-style campaign against federal gun dealers. Bloomberg’s gambit is simple – without any federal or state law enforcement authorization, he sends people to federal firearms dealers to break federal law by providing false information on the federal ATF Form 4473 firearm transfer form, and then purchasing guns for persons prohibited by law from taking possession of guns (a so called “straw” sale). Bloomberg then files a civil lawsuit against the dealer in a New York court while using a covertly made video tape of the transaction to blackmail the dealer into “settling” on terms where the City of New York’s “Special Master” will supplant ATF supervision of the dealer and peruse Americans’ confidential federal gun transfer records at will.
“Not only did Bloomberg engage in an improper and unlawful transaction, but then he and others issued public statements that we believe are slanderous and defamatory.” - Former Congressman Bob Barr
Bloomberg chortles that the ATF is “asleep at the switch” out of one side of his mouth, while his Criminal Justice coordinator John Feinblatt declares that New York City won’t turn over the evidence, which includes videotapes of gun dealers allowing so-called straw purchases of guns, until the ATF signs an evidence-sharing agreement that would prohibit the agency from “publicly disclosing evidence without notice and consent from the city.”
Bloomberg’s staff told the Boston Globe that New York “[C]ity hired a private investigative firm to conduct a sting operation against these 15 dealers [and that i]nvestigators, working in pairs, videotaped store clerks illegally selling guns.” Based on this public claim, the ATF should obtain a warrant to raid Bloomberg’s offices and seize these records of illegal conduct and prosecute the gun dealers. But as it is impossible for a gun dealer to be guilty of straw sale misconduct unless the purchaser was a straw purchaser, the ATF needs to prosecute Bloomberg and his agents too.
“Regardless of where you stand on the issue of guns and Second Amendment rights, the mayor’s plan is a foolhardy one. His tactics have been deemed reckless for interfering with as many as 18 ongoing criminal investigations, in the process jeopardizing the lives of law enforcement officers and others.” - Ted Novin, Director of Public Affairs, National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Congress’ charter to the ATF to regulate federal gun dealers and interstate gun sales did not come with a command for the agency to step aside when a wealthy New York City mayor wants break federal criminal statutes and impose New York City style gun control across the nation as a publicity stunt. Moreover, American’s Second Amendment Rights are at risk because the ATF has not done its job to intervene in Bloomberg’s travesty of justice.
The job of enforcing federal law upon federally licensed firearms dealers belongs to the ATF, not the Mayor of New York City. After all,
“where Congress has legislated concerning a subject, on which it is authorized to act, all State legislation which interferes with it, is absolutely void.” - Chief Justice John Marshall, 1824
Director Sullivan, the ball is in your court. The ATF needs to take action now to show that no one is above the law, not even the Mayor of New York.