Michael Bloomberg to launch $12m advertising blitz on gun control "He can't spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public," Wayne LaPierre, the group's chief executive, told the network. He can't buy America. The clips are designed to pressure congressmen to approve measures drawn up by President Barack Obama and Joe Biden, his Vice-President, following the shootings at Sandy Hook elementary school. They feature messages from ordinary-looking Americans in rural heartlands. In one of the clips, a bearded man perched on the back of his truck and holding a shotgun tells viewers that tougher background checks are required "so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can't buy guns." He stresses that he supports the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that Americans have the right to bear arms. However, "with rights come responsibilities," he states. Mr Bloomberg's group, citing research from the 1990s, says that urgent action is needed because 40 per cent of gun sales in the US are made by private sellers, who are not subject to the federal checks. Its new campaign makes no mention of the reinstatement of a ban on the sale of assault-weapons, which Mr Obama called for. Amid inadequate support in Washington, the proposed ban will not even make it to the bill that members of Congress are due to debate next month. Plans to restrict the capacity of ammunition clips, which were also endorsed by Mr Obama and Mr Biden, are also expected to be left out of the gun control bill. Mr LaPierre yesterday also argued against expanded background checks on buyers, saying that the existing system only serves as a "speed bump for the law-abiding"