Mayor Bloomberg: We Need an Assault Weapons Ban Because Mass Shootings 'Only Happen in America

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is known for his staunch support for stricter gun control, and his outspokenness in championing that cause.

After Friday's shootings in Newtown, Conn., Bloomberg made a point of opining about the necessity for another assault weapons ban, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday and claiming that the kind of mass shooting under discussion "only happens in America."

National Review Online reports:

“What the president can do is number one, through executive action, he can order his agencies to enforce the laws more aggressively,” Bloomberg said. “I think there’s something like 77,000 people who have been accused of lying when they applied for a gun permit. We’ve only prosecuted 77 of them.”

Bloomberg didn’t mention his source for those numbers during the program.

“Nobody questions the second amendment’s right to bear arms,” the mayor continued, “but I don’t think the founding fathers had the idea that every man, woman, and child could carry an assault weapon.”

Dismissing the idea that politicians had reason to fear going against the NRA, Bloomberg remarked, “The NRA’s number one objective this time was to defeat Obama for a second term. Last time I checked the election results, he won and he won comfortably. This myth that the NRA can destroy political careers is just not true.”

Host David Gregory did push back on Bloomberg at one point in the broadcast, pointing out that the guns involved were all purchased legally, and that only one of them could have been prohibited under an assault weapons ban. Bloomberg admitted that his policy preferences couldn't necessarily have stopped this particular incident, but still argued that there was a trend at work that could be mitigated by stricter gun laws.

Watch Bloomberg's appearance below: