Category: Gun Control

CCRKBA: Obama Prosecutes Fewer Gun Crimes, Penalizes Honest Citizens

BELLEVUE, WA – While Barack Obama has been pushing harder for more gun laws to disarm honest citizens, his Justice Department has been prosecuting fewer gun crimes despite announcing more than two years ago he would increase such prosecutions, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Here we go again with Barack Obama talking tough on crime, but actually being less aggressive, while at the same time he’s been pushing for more gun control,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This raises a question that the president needs to answer. Does he want to put criminals behind bars, or just discourage legal gun ownership?”

According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, gun crime prosecutions have been declining since 2013, the same year President Obama began ramping up the rhetoric about more and stronger gun laws as a response to the Sandy Hook tragedy. Read more

Gun Control

Over 40,000 Californians Ask California Gov. Jerry Brown to Veto SB 707

SACRAMENTO – Yesterday, Second Amendment civil rights advocates at Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) delivered over 40,000 individual letters from concerned Californians demanding that Governor Brown veto Senate Bill 707.

The gun control bill would prohibit gun owners issued a license by their local police chief or sheriff after passing a strict, fingerprint-based background check and agency-approved training course from carrying handguns for self-defense on California school grounds. It would also subject those with a carry permit to harsh new criminal liability for merely possessing a single round of ammunition on the grounds of any school or college campus, even if they don’t also possess a firearm.

If signed by Governor Brown, victims of domestic violence and stalking, judges, prosecutors, and public defenders who have a carry license would have to leave their registered self-defense handguns at home when picking up their children at school. Read more

Gun Control

SAF: It’s Not the Supreme Court That’s Wrong on the 2A, It’s Hillary

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today fired back at Democrat Hillary Clinton, who claimed that the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment, saying that it is Clinton who is actually wrong, and that it is “disturbing that someone running for president would show such little respect for a constitutional right.”

Audio of her remarks was released by the Washington Free Beacon. In that audio, Clinton can be heard stating, “The Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment and I am going to make that case every chance I get.”

“If anybody is wrong about the Second Amendment,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “it’s Hillary Clinton. She has spent a career working to disarm average citizens, and she now wants to become president in hopes of making her anti-gun philosophy the law of the land.” Read more

Gun Control

SAF to Seattle City Attorney: “Tax Pot Sales Like You Want to Tax Firearms”

BELLEVUE, WA – Responding to statements made by Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes Thursday to KING 5 News that the so-called “gun violence tax” is “not too drastic,” Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation – which is suing the city over the tax – suggested that Holmes should apply that same principle to legalized marijuana sales in the city.

SAF, along with the National Rifle Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation, filed suit last month against the new tax, asserting that it violates the state firearms preemption law.

Gottlieb recalled that Holmes was among the first in line at a Seattle pot shop in July 2014 to purchase a couple of two-gram bags of weed, one of which he said he was keeping “for posterity, and one for personal enjoyment at some point when it’s appropriate.”

“For Holmes to brush off this new gun and ammunition tax as no big deal suggests he’s been smoking some of that weed already,” Gottlieb quipped. “A person would have to be stoned to believe that a tax, no matter how large or small, doesn’t affect somebody.

“But,” he continued, “if that’s the way economics works in Pete’s alternate universe, then he should support a tax of $25 on the sale of every ounce of marijuana, and a five-cent tax on every joint. Think of the money that could be raised for drug treatment and gang violence prevention programs. It would force drug gangs and pot smokers to pay for those efforts.” Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

CCRKBA Blasts New Gun Control Measure

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today blasted a new gun control measure sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) as “beyond unreasonable” because it would hold commercial and private gun sellers liable for crimes they didn’t commit.

Sen. Kaine’s “Responsible Transfer of Firearms Act” creates what one newspaper described as “an affirmative responsibility” for gun sellers to take “reasonable steps” to assure that a buyer can legally own a firearm. But it doesn’t define what those steps might be, and doesn’t explain what other ‘reasonable steps’ a dealer or private seller might take if a person passes a background check.

“The language in Sen. Kaine’s bill seems intentionally vague and designed to create a chilling effect, especially on perfectly legal private firearms transactions,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “It appears Sen. Kaine also expects gun dealers and private sellers to be clairvoyant. Just what else could a retailer do beyond a background check? Sen. Kaine seems to suggest background checks on all transactions may not be good enough. The bill just talks about ‘reasonable steps,’ but what does that mean, especially to a private seller? Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

Litigation Promised Should California Senate Bill 707 Become Law

SACRAMENTO, CA– Civil rights advocates at Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) are preparing to file a federal lawsuit should California Senate Bill 707 become law.

The bill, passed by the Legislature last week, would expand criminal liability under the “Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1994” to handgun carry license holders and criminalize the mere possession of ammunition on the grounds of any school or college campus, even for trained gun owners who have a license to carry issued by their police chief or county sheriff.

Among the tens of thousands of licensed California residents who will be immediately impacted by SB 707 are victims of domestic violence and stalking, judges, prosecutors, and public defenders. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control, Self Defense

NSSF, NRA, 2AF, Seattle Businesses and Individuals Sue Over Gun and Ammo Tax

NEWTOWN, Conn.—The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry, joined forces with the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, Seattle-based retailers and gun owners in filing a lawsuit today in King County Superior Court challenging the City of Seattle’s recently approved sales tax of $25 on each firearm sold and five cents for each round of ammunition (two cents for .22 caliber).

NSSF and other pro-gun groups fought the city ordinance, labeled a “gun violence tax,” but the City Council nevertheless approved the measure on Aug. 10 and Mayor Ed Murray signed it last week.

“NSSF has no alternative but to be an active party in this lawsuit against the City of Seattle’s attempt to interfere in the lawful commerce in firearms and ammunition on the grounds that it violates Washington State’s preemption statute that blocks cities from regulating the sale of firearms on their own.” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “The Seattle ordinance is nothing but a ‘poll tax’ on the Second Amendment and an effort to drive Seattle’s firearms retailers out of business.” Read more

Ammunition, Gun Control

CCRKBA Calls for Congress to Reopen “Fast & Furious” Probe

GW:  Good luck with pushing the investigation with this administration…

BELLEVUE, WA – The weekend revelation that one of the two would-be terrorist gunmen killed at a Garland, Texas attack earlier this year had purchased a handgun “through a botched federal firearm sting” is ample reason for Congress to re-open its probe of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

The New York Daily News reported that slain would-be terrorist Nadir Soofi purchased a 9mm pistol in 2010 from the same gun shop that was heavily involved in the Fast and Furious gun trafficking case. At the time, the firearms retailer was cooperating with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in what was supposed to have been a gun trafficking “sting” effort.

“But Fast & Furious was a fiasco,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “The gun shop operator even expressed concerns about the way the investigation was being handled. Although the Garland gunman was not connected with Fast and Furious, because he was allowed to buy a handgun after a reported delay was placed on the transaction, we think Congress has good reason to ask more questions about the operation.

“This new revelation shows that not only did the operation put guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartel gunmen,” he added, “it now appears that a future would-be terrorist was allowed to buy a handgun at the same time. Read more

Gun Control
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