A group of billionaires and elitists that includes Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett recently penned an editorial in USA Today opining that the best way to grow the economy is to grow small businesses.
“Helping them expand—to get their ideas off the ground—is one of the best ways to support economic growth,” the op-ed read.
Now don’t get the wrong idea here: We also support growth of America’s small businesses. What we don’t agree with, however, is the hypocrisy involved with how these billionaire gun-banners’ anti-gun schemes, if implemented, would result in the ruin of many small businesses.
You see, for more than a decade, Bloomberg has been throwing his money against the firearm industry, hoping to shut it—and every small-business owner inside of it—down. So while he may lend his name to a letter that proclaims “we must do more to help small businesses drive a new generation of growth” … rest assured he means elitist-approved, liberal-endorsed businesses only.
Aside from Bloomberg’s millions upon millions of dollars being spent on various gun-ban schemes throughout the country, his support of efforts to wipe out gun-related businesses—both large and small—are obvious. Bloomberg bankrolls the grossly misnamed anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety. Buffett sits on the group’s board of directors. And Bloomberg, Buffett and Everytown—along with their chosen presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton—all support repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a move that would effectively wipe out the gun industry, taking related small business right down with it.Clinton, Bloomberg and Buffett all know that. Yet they all support killing the firearm industry by a “death of a thousand cuts.”
Clinton’s campaign website proudly proclaims, “Hillary will lead the charge to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act”—a law passed by Congress to stop the tidal wave of politically motivated lawsuits that threatened to drive American gunmakers, wholesalers and retailers to bankruptcy, even if they didn’t lose a single case in court.
At every opportunity on the campaign trail, Clinton brings up the issue again and again. And, as usual, Clinton lies about the entire issue.
First of all, the law doesn’t protect “negligent manufacturers and dealers.” And Clinton’s claim that the firearm industry is “wholly protected from any kind of liability” is a lie—and Clinton knows it.
A dealer who sells a gun to someone he or she knows is a prohibited person—or even suspects that the person will use it to commit a crime—is not only still negligent, and thus not protected from lawsuits, but is also subject to felony prosecution under federal law.
The PLCAA didn’t change anything in such situations.
Clinton, Bloomberg and Buffett all know that. Yet they all support killing the firearm industry by a “death of a thousand cuts.” If successful, the bankruptcy of gun manufacturers would lead to a trickle-down of business deaths, from ammo manufacturers, to gun retailers, to small businesses that sell everything from magazines to scopes and rifle slings, to those who run gun ranges or conduct gun-safety classes.
Just how big of a deal would that be to the American economy? Consider that the most recent figures from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reveal that the firearm industry has an annual economic impact of some $49.3 billion—much of that through the small firearm-related business Bloomberg and Clinton hate. The industry also employs nearly 288,000 Americans and pays some $14 billion in wages—nothing to sneeze at, for sure.
The industry also contributes greatly to America’s tax base, contributing some $6.2 billion in business taxes and nearly $677 million in excise taxes.
In truth, these gun-ban billionaires don’t give a darn about any small business that doesn’t agree with their liberal political philosophy—and that means all of those involved in the firearm industry and related businesses. And that fact, combined with the op-ed calling for growing small business, reveals them to be among the world’s biggest hypocrites.
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