Two anonymous letters loaded with the deadly poison ricin were mailed to Mayor Bloomberg, who was targeted because of his tough stand on gun control, police revealed yesterday.
“You’re not going to take my guns. You’ll have to kill me before you take my guns. If you take my guns, you should see what I’m going to do to you,” read the letters, which were typed on a computer, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
The author also made a reference to his Second Amendment rights, saying that he had a “constitutional and God given right and I will exercise that right til I die,” the law-enforcement sources said.
Neither letter reached Hizzoner, but three Emergency Service Unit cops who came into contact with one of the notes experienced “minor symptoms of ricin exposure” that went away on their own, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
Bloomberg last night was defiant in the face of the threats, declaring at an unrelated event, “No, I don’t feel threatened.”
“The letter obviously referred to our anti-gun efforts, but there’s 12,000 people who are going to get killed this year with guns, and 19,000 are going to commit suicide with guns, and we’re not going to walk away from those efforts,” Bloomberg went on.
If swallowed or inhaled, a dose of ricin the size of a few grains of salt can be fatal.
One letter was addressed to Bloomberg at City Hall. The other was sent to the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, based in Washington, which Bloomberg founded and funds with millions of his own dollars.
Both were sent on May 20 from Shreveport, La., law-enforcement sources said.
The text is identical in both and they contain the same postmark on the same day, cops said.
The first was opened Friday at the City Hall mail facility at 100 Gold St. in lower Manhattan.
When opened, there was a “pink/orange oily substance” inside, Browne said.
Ricin is made from castor beans, which can be orange colored.
Two tests were conducted in New York City — one was negative for ricin, the other positive.
Then, a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force took the letter to the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland, the top US facility for detecting evidence of bioterrorism.
The substance officially tested positive for ricin yesterday.
Civilians who handled it didn’t have any symptoms.
The second letter was opened on Sunday in Washington by Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
He was not harmed, but that letter was sent for testing and it, too, was found to contain ricin.
“I know I speak for all of the close to 1,000 mayors in the mayors coalition against guns, this is a scourge on the country that we just have to make sure that we get under control and eliminate,” Bloomberg said .
“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 is a very complex world out there and we just have to deal with that.”
The three Emergency Service Unit cops apparently poisoned by ricin suffered symptoms such as diarrhea and “a strong smell to their urine,” a law-enforcement source said.
The case is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the NYPD Intelligence Division, which is responsible for the mayor’s protection.
A spokesperson for Gov. Cuomo yesterday called the incident “extreme and reprehensible” and said those responsible should be “prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Bloomberg, who has long been an outspoken supporter of stronger gun controls, became even more of a target when he intensified his crusade following the Newtown school massacre.
Additional reporting by David Seifman