Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I., N.Y.) touting his new gun control initiative said that the NRA has lost political power and can be beat Tuesday morning on MSNBC:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: There's reporting you have been in contact with the vice president tasked do something. The president has vowed to try and get legislation through as soon as possible, but there are realities to this.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: There are realities. The reality is most Americans think it's crazy to have assault weapons and high capacity magazines. The vast majority of the people think they should be reasonable. The majority of the Supreme Court justices as well think there should be reasonable controls so you shouldn't have guns in the hands of minors or criminals or people with psychiatric problems or substance abuse problems. There are some legislators who think differently or they think that their careers would be limited if they go against the NRA. I don't happen to think that's true. The NRA was notoriously unsuccessful in this last election term. They set one major priority, and that was to defeat Barack Obama. In a couple weeks you will see an inauguration. Barack Obama is getting inaugurated again. Shows you the power of the NRA. [We] created a little PAC, we went against three members and in our cases the opponents won. We can beat the NRA. All you have to do is accept reasonable restrictions. Nobody is trying to take away your gun or right to go hunting or target shooting or have protection in your home. Simply trying to have reasonable things so people aren't killed. You saw this woman talking about her 9-year-old daughter. Every parent sits there and thinks, if it was my kid.