Chelsea Kiene @ The Huffington Post:
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) criticized New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s federal gun control push on Tuesday, advising the mayor that he should be more worried about gun violence in his own city than in North Dakota, the Grand Forks Herald reported.
“North Dakota continues to have one [of] the highest rates of gun ownership and lowest incidences of gun crime in the country,” Heitkamp said in a statement. “Yet New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg insists on taking gun-driven crime statistics in his city and from other major cities and trying to force those numbers into a narrative that just does not fit North Dakota.”
Heitkamp, who previously served as North Dakota’s attorney general, added, “I do not need someone from New York City to tell me how to handle crime in our state.”
Her statement came in response to the recent $12 million ad buy from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, pushing senators in key states — including Heitkamp — to support such gun control legislation as comprehensive background checks. Bloomberg, who co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns in 2006 and is personally financing the ad campaign, is spending roughly $156,000 in North Dakota.
“Frankly, there are far better uses for Mayor Bloomberg’s $156,000 than buying ads attacking a way of life he clearly does not understand,” Heitkamp wrote.
