Bloomberg Backtracks on Police Strike Comment

(Newsroom America) -- A day after calling for the nation's police officers to go on "strike" in a push for tougher gun control laws, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg backtracked somewhat, saying he didn't mean it "literally."

Bloomberg, who has been vocal in calling for new curbs on gun rights since the recent massacre at a midnight premier showing of the new Batman movie in Aurora, Colo., said on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" program Monday that cops should take a tougher stand and push Congress to renew a national ban on so-called "assault weapons."

"I don’t understand why the police officers across this country don’t stand up collectively and say, ‘We’re gonna go on strike. We’re not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what’s required to keep us safe,'" Bloomberg said.

"After all, police officers want to go home to their families and we’re doing everything we can to make their jobs more difficult," he said.

On Tuesday, however, Bloomberg found himself clarifying his provocative remarks.

"I don’t mean literally go on strike," he told reporters in NYC. "Keep in mind, it is police officers who run into danger when the rest of us run out. Police officers have families. They want to come home to their families safely."

He went onto say he hoped police would help him in his campaign.

"I’m counting on them to help us lead the charge," he said.

Congress passed a ban on certain types of high-powered, semi-automatic rifles in 1994, but it came with a 10-year "sunset" clause, meaning lawmakers would have to renew it in 2004. They did not.

Bloomberg said Congress was being "hypocritical" for approving strict gun control measures for Washington, D.C., but not for the rest of the country.

Gun rights advocates have said gun bans and heavy restrictions, such as those in Chicago and New York City, have not curbed violence. They add that Americans, under the Second Amendment, have a right to own firearms for self-defense.

"Government should stop all this running from crime and tragedy by passing laws that demand or expect citizens to cower in the corner while their lives are threatened by people that have no conscious or concept of anything other than taking from others their property or their lives as a way of life," writes Alan P. Halbert, with the Western Center for Journalism.

© 2012 Newsroom America.

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