The tens of millions of dollars that flow into Micheal Bloomberg’s gun control lobby via his direct, personal donations are complimented by millions that he spent for SKDKnickerbocker to make gun control look popular and achievable.
SKDKnickerbocker is a PR firm where managing director Josh Isay has secured victories for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and been part of Bloomberg’s multi-million dollars gun control campaigns.
The SKDKnickberbocker website sums up Isay’s work, in part, by saying:
Josh managed Chuck Schumer’s 1998 upset of Al D’Amato and served as Schumer’s first chief of staff in the U.S. Senate. After leaving Sen. Schumer’s office, Josh worked as the head of public affairs for DoubleClick and then co-founded SKDKnickerbocker. …[His] political work includes being a member of President Barack Obama’s direct mail team, Mike Bloomberg’s media and mail team, and the lead media and mail consultant for dozens of governors, mayors, senators, members of Congress and other elected officials.
On October 26 Breitbart News reported that Bloomberg dumped over $50 million into the gun control lobby in the year 2014 alone. Slate reported that this money consisted of a $36 million gift to Everytown for Gun Safety and $16.7 million to “[support] governors who favor tighter gun laws.”
In addition to the $56.7 million, Open Secrets shows that Bloomberg’s Independence PAC paid SKDKnickerbocker $6,816,541 during the 2012 election cycle and $11,659,753 in 2016.
This brings Bloomberg’s gun control lobby expenditures to $71,176,294 during three election cycles alone. (This is not counting the more than $6 million the Everytown for Gun Safety fund reportedly paid SDKnickerbocker during the 2013 and 2015 election cycles.)
So, we have over $70 million spent during three election cycles and Politico describing SKDKnickerbocker’s Josh Isay as “a go-to media guy for Bloomberg.” This means the gun control lobby not only has the the financial wherewithal to keep fighting to restrict the Second Amendment but also the PR help necessary to craft the gun control message in a way that makes it seem attractive.
This is what law-abiding gun owners and freedom lovers everywhere are up against. The gun control lobby has very deep pockets.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com
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