New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg `Not Angry’ About Ricin-Laced Letters, Not `Going To Walk Away’ From Gun Control Efforts

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is keeping a New York attitude after he received two threatening letters that were laced with the deadly poison ricin. Letters tainted with the substance were also mailed to Bloomberg's gun control group in Washington.

Shortly after the threats became public yesterday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters, "No, I'm not angry. There are people who, I would argue, do things that may be irrational, do things that are wrong, but it's a very complex world out there, and we just have to deal with that."

Bloomberg said he’s not intimidated by the threats. He said, "There's 12,000 people that are gonna get killed this year with guns and 19,000 that are going to commit suicide with guns, and we're not going to walk away from those efforts."

A joint Federal terrorism task force including the New York Police Department and the FBI is investigating the incident. Media reports say that officers who came into contact with the letters suffered minor symptoms. No one was seriously hurt.

A worker at a lower Manhattan mail facility intercepted a letter addressed to Bloomberg on Friday that was laced with the highly toxic poison ricin. Two days later, another ricin-laced letter was found in Washington at a building that houses the non-profit group that Bloomberg co-founded, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The letter was addressed to Mark Glaze, the group's director. Both letters came from Shreveport, La., and were postmarked May 20. The envelopes had no return address.

A law enforcement official told reporters that the letters promised, "This is a taste of what's to come if you come to take my gun."

Mayor Bloomberg has become one of America’s leading advocates of gun-control. New York City’s richest man helped pay for television advertising to urge Congress to approve background checks for gun-buyers earlier this year.

Federal investigators are conducting more tests to confirm the presence of ricin. A Mississippi man was arrested last month for attempting to send ricin-laced letters to President Obama, a U.S. senator and a judge.