BELLEVUE, WA – A new policy announced by the British Home Office recently to allow unannounced searches of the homes of registered British gun owners should raise alarms among Americans who are threatened with increasingly restrictive gun laws pushed by wealthy anti-gunners including billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
“This is an alarming development in Great Britain,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and it ought to serve as a warning to American gun owners and Constitutional activists concerned not only with their Second Amendment rights but also their Fourth Amendment rights. In Washington state, where CCRKBA is headquartered, there have already been attempts to include such language in so-called ‘assault weapons’ ban legislation.
“There are also privacy concerns about Initiative 594, the 18-page gun control measure requiring background checks on nearly all firearms transfers,” he added, ” including temporary loans and gifts to friends and in-laws. All too frequently, we’ve heard the gun prohibition lobby urge adoption of gun laws and regulations like those in the United Kingdom, and now we can see what they’re ultimately after.”
According to Fox News, prior to the new regulations, British gun owners were subject to visits by the authorities. However, these required prior notification. The new policy does not.
“British authorities argue that the new policy is necessary based on so-called ‘intelligence’ indicating a specific threat,” Gottlieb observed, “but there is considerable danger in this revision because such guidelines could be easily abused.
“We are living in an era when government, under the rather broad arguments of national and local security, is becoming ever more intrusive,” he continued. “Our delineated civil rights, at least in America, include the right to keep and bear arms, and the example now coming from Great Britain is that this right is being systematically eroded to the point that it is becoming a heavily-regulated privilege.
“Let this be a warning to tens of millions of law-abiding American gun owners,” Gottlieb concluded. “What’s happening now in the United Kingdom will be touted as the next ‘common sense’ step for gun control in the United States. Just because someone exercises their right to keep and bear arms should not be an excuse to nullify their right to privacy.”
Sincerely yours,
Alan M. Gottlieb
Chairman
Citizens For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms (CCRKBA)
