The office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received letters with traces of the poisonous substance ricin, according to officials on Wednesday, making him the latest heavy-hitter in government to be sent threatening postage.
According to ABC News, the letters indicated the sender was making threats based on recent gun control debates, and that he would have to die before anyone took his guns away from him.
The letters were identical in text, and while initial reports did not reveal the post markings, the media learned they were printed from a computer and were marked May 20 from Shreveport, La.
"The city of Shreveport in conjunction with the F.B.I. and the Join Terrorism Task Force is working to apprehend those responsible for mailing ricin laced letters to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg," Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover said in a statement. "We are also taking the necessary steps to protect local (Postal Service) and Government Plaza personnel as well as local citizens from any possible harm."
One of the two letters were opened in Bloomberg's' nonprofit startup, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the other was opened at City Hall.
Those who opened the letters did not show any immediate signs of symptoms attached to exposure from ricin, yet later on the police officers who later handled the letters seemed to demonstrate minor symptoms. Upon examination, both letters contained "an oily pinkish-orange substance," Chief New York police spokesman Paul Browne said.
According to the CDC, ricin "works by getting inside the cells of a person's body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need. Without these proteins, cells die. Eventually this is harmful to the whole body, and death may occur."
Symptoms include, trouble breathing/respiratory distress, nausea, fever and tightness in the chest. Death may occur within one-and-a-half to two days.
Bloomberg has been rallying to control the sale and acquisition of illegal guns in America, but the businessman received severe backlash from around the country.
"No, I do not feel threatened," Bloomberg said Wednesday night. "This was not the first letter that was sent to anybody. In terms of why they did it - I don't know - the letter referred to our anti-gun efforts.
"I speak for close to 1,000 mayors in the effort against gun violence. This is a scourge against the country and we need to make sure to get this under control," he said.
MSNBC's "Jansing & Co." released the entire text of one of the letters on Thursday morning.
"You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. Anyone wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. The right to bear arms is my constitutional God-given right and I will exercise that right till the day I die. What's in this letter is nothing compared to what I have planned for you."
