By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Mind your own business.
That's the message from Arizona's top lawyer to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was slammed Tuesday for overstepping the bounds when he staged an undercover investigation at a Phoenix, A.Z. gun show following the tragic Tucson shooting on January 8.
The mayor released video footage Monday intended to show just how easy it is to buy the type of gun and ammunition used in the shooting, without a background check.
But Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne was not amused by the stunt.
"I would suggest that Mayor Bloomberg consider the skyrocketing crime rate in New York City before he asks any more of his city’s police to leave town on these P.R. missions," Horne said in a statement.
Horne also criticized the mayor for failing to coordinate with local law enforcement officials or inform them about the operation.
"The fact that no such notification was made indicates this so-called sting is nothing less than a public relations stunt," he said.
Bloomberg, a long-time advocate against illegal guns, has been lobbying lawmakers in Washington to strengthen the federal background check system, and wants to make checks mandatory, even at gun shows which are currently exempt.
In the video released Monday, undercover agents were able to buy guns in a matter of minutes, even after telling sellers that they likely couldn’t have passed a background check if they'd needed to.
Bloomberg spokesman Jason Post said the agents who purchased the guns were licensed private investigators who live in Arizona, not New York.
