Mike Bloomberg vs. the Imaginary All-Powerful Gun Lobby

Mike Bloomberg’s Super Bowl ad combined two standard elements of contemporary anti-gun rhetoric: emotionalism and falsehoods. As Kyle Smith points out, the fatuous spot was little more than taste signaling: “Vote for me, I hate the same stuff you hate.” And Reason’s Jacob Sullum points out, the ad is predicated on an obvious lie.

It’s also worth noting, though, that anti-Second Amendment activists always feel the need to portray themselves as Theseus fighting the Minotaur, rather than highly funded powerful political operatives battling millions of ordinary gun owners.

Bloomberg’s ad, for example, informs us that the candidate isn’t afraid to take on “the gun lobby.” Who is?

Let’s put this in perspective.

Bloomberg has, in a just a few months of running for presidency, spent around $200 million in the primary — approximately $194 million more than the NRA spends on an average year in lobbying Congress and approximately $170 million more than the NRA spent on the entire 2016 election.