Beating Guns the Bloomberg Way

[srican69]

Obama’s first instinct is for the moral approach. He gives a powerful speech, like the one he delivered in Connecticut on Sunday night, announces that the time for change has finally come, and calls on Congress to act. This is the classic, and preferable model of reform. It is transparent, persuasion-based, employs the democratic process, and doesn’t smack of the nanny state. At this point, however, we would do well to acknowledge that America’s gun problem is not amenable to that kind of change

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been the exemplar of the alternative, paternalistic model, in which government uses any regulatory, legal, or political power at hand to protect its citizens from harm, self-inflicted or otherwise. The case study is smoking, where Bloomberg in 2002 championed an initially unpopular ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. This became, in a few short years, the national and even global norm. Combined with punitive taxes and a program of supportive services for people who wish to quit, New York has reduced smoking rates, which had been stagnant for years, from 22 to 14 percent over a decade. Teen smoking has gone from 19 to 7 percent in the same period. Bloomberg has lately been trying a similar approach with unhealthy fast food.
With guns, a public health approach would begin by focusing on the legal anomaly that federal agencies can regulate devices meant to keep people alive, but not those designed to kill them.

Full Article : http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2012/12/newtown_massacre_bloomberg_not_obama_knows_how_to_beat_the_nra.html

[srican69]

1. Tobacco and Firearms are related arent they?

The both have huge commercial interests backing them and are highly divisive.

Both of them are equally deadly.

[BlueStreak]

2. I would point out that across the board, Bloomberg has actually been far more progressive than Obama

Gun violence is not the only issue. Bloomberg isn't such a wimp. He is willing to say things OUT LOUD. He is willing to call the "skeptics" out on climate change. He has been willing to call out the food industry on our obesity problem. It is no surprise he is taking the lead on gun safety.

When we look toward 2016, we could do a lot worse than Bloomberg.

[srican69]

4. What I like about bloomberg is that he calls it like it is...

and given how successful he has been in his life - people listen.


I will pull the lever for Bloomberg if he runs in 2016

[Squinch]

5. He is a mixed bag. I either wholeheartedly agree with him, or think he's an idiot. There's never

any middle ground. He's awful on education and unions. Seriously, no one is worse in these areas than he is. And I think his policies in these areas can ruin lives for a generation to come.

And yet, I was proud of my mayor when the "ground zero mosque" idiocy was going on, and on a number of other occasions..

[BlueStreak]

6. It always is a mixed bag, and I take your point re: unions

I don't know about his education positions.

And I see no indication that he is interested in running. If the Republicans are smart, they will draft him. He could get a lot of Democratic votes.

[freshwest]

3. Regulating guns for public health reasons is a no-brainer. Dead or maimed is not healthy.