Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Taylor Made Gun Control?

Sure it was unlikely to have been literally true, but if there were some of you in this town that thought Kathy Taylor’s tough-on-crime rhetoric during the mayoral campaign made her the likely nominee as Tulsa’s most recent version of a “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” it looks like you’re going to have to rethink that image of our new mayor.

Mayor KT spent the early part of this week in the Big Apple hobnobbing with other big city mayors at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “Gun Summit.”

Even though Bloomberg is officially listed as a Republican, readers should not assume that his kind of gun summit would consist of avid gun owners and hobbyists wearing fashionable “camo while standing around a table littered with ammo, clips and self-loader kits, talking about the most effective way to bring down a six-point buck with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. Remember that Bloomberg is the Republican mayor of a city that is obscenely liberal and democrat.

New Yorkers like Republican mayors because they seem to be tough enough on crime in the big city to keep Gotham’s creative-classes safe while hailing a hack or purchasing a pierogi from a street vendor. To the average New Yorker, buying a hot glue gun one might use to attach fabric remnants to a Moroccan dining room canopy, as seen on Christopher Lowell’s show, is dangerously close to an activity requiring a permit and a three day waiting period to take possession. In New York City, talking about serious gun control is considered talking tough on crime.

So who attended the Bloomberg Gun Summit? According to the Associated Press, “Bloomberg said organizers cast a wide net to a number of cities and the mayors set to attend are those who were able to work it into their schedules.

Flashback to Tulsa’s reality. Chief Been hasn’t been re-instated, the arena is massively over budget (and no, it should have surprised on one), the FY07 city budget is due on Monday, we have two massive legal judgments that are waiting to be paid, her staff hasn’t been selected, we’ve got two open seats on the TMAPC that are going to draw fire no matter who is named to them and the FAA is now less than a month away from releasing its report on Tulsa, and Mayor Taylor had time to fit a gun control summit into her schedule?

Just the sheer learning curve of the job should keep junkets out of the picture for six months at least. This is especially for junkets, the purpose of which, are wildly out of touch with your community's values.

For those of you who are reading this and thinking that our mayor went to an Illegal Gun Summit, instead of a Gun Control Summit, read on.

The AP’s Desmond Butler writes, “Bloomberg has focused on gun control as a priority for his second term.”

In calling this summit, Bloomberg has teamed up with Boston mayor, Thomas Menino, who has recently begun studying the idea of limiting the sale of ammunition in his city, possibly limiting the amount of ammo one could by at a time. Menino’s team is also looking into micro-stamping, a new technology that could trace bullets to their owners.

All of this sounds wonderfully logical and pro-active, but ignores the simple fact that most liberal policy ignores; criminals, by definition, do not obey the law.

Bullets can be bought over the Internet. Bullets can be bought out of state. Bullets can be stolen, so that when a local Crip or Blood decides to participate in a drive-by shooting, it is likely that the cops will be standing at my doorstep at 3AM, holding a micro-stamped shell casing I got for Christmas last year, while asking me if they can search my garage for a blue, 1968 Chevy Impala.

It will be interesting to see how the Erling/Turnbo spin machine sells this trip to the public. I’m sure they will center in on the “brainstorming” that took place among the bi-partisan assemblage of big city mayors. Can’t you just hear billionaire Bloomberg brainstorming with millionaire Taylor?

Bloomberg: “Okay…but we tried to limit gun ownership by making everyone take a class on gun safety in order to get a carry permit, but record numbers of citizens went out and too the classes and now they’re packing heat on the street!”

Taylor: “Ooh-ooh! I’ve got an idea. Let’s change the law so that you have to take the course in gun safety, but afterwards YOU don’t get to carry a gun. Only your chauffer can carry the gun and only when they’re driving YOU!”

Bloomberg: “Gosh Mayor Taylor…I sure do love that down home, Oklahoma savvy. It’s almost “street smart.”

Aside from fitting this gun control junket into her schedule, I’ve spoken with two city councilors, neither of whom remembers the mayor getting her travel authorized, which is required of all city employees. Not that it will break the Lobeck/Taylor bank account, but failure to get authorization from the Council means that Mayor Taylor will be footing the bill for her travel out of her household soap account. It will be interesting to see if such self-financed trips become a common occurance.

It will be even more interesting to see if she submits a bill to the Council upon her return, as if she had a corporate expense account. I could see the Council forgiving her one such trip, but travel such as this, with the budget so tight, is not something the public should allow our new mayor, if she plans to bill the tax payer.

3 comments:

Paul Tay said...

One, this is nothing but da Boss Dudette campaigning for Sully's job. Git over da implications Bloomie's gun control wingdig. Two, there are some things in Been's dossier which suggests he would be better suited for DCI, DoE. Three, da Boss Dudette is a carpetbagger, has no clue, so she leaves town and let's da Baker git 'er done. I am soooooooooo unreal.

bamlock said...

My question has been, did our local press by their own mistake headline mislabel this trip at first as a Crime Summit or did Taylors staff try to fool the press until the AP story came out with what it really was and everyone had to retitle their stories. Then again maybe her staff was to busy to read the invitation to begin with..

Paul Tay said...

Look at da guest list. Da only big player besides Bloomie is Dallas. No Villarigosa. No Miami. Where's Chi-Town? What's Tulsa, a third-rate, Tier III market, besides a Rich Chick in charge? I venture to submit[gulp] dat dis is not really an "illegal gun" summit. But, a campaign junket to showcase rising(ie rich) stars. Bloomie's a playa, with Presidential ambitions.