WASHINGTON, D.C. – “The Supreme Court’s landmark decision puncturing
the Brady Law is a turning point in the struggle for personal
protection and public safety,” John Michael Snyder, Public Affairs
Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear
Arms, said here today.
Snyder, designated “a champion of the right to self-defense”
by THE WASHINGTON TIMES, was named “dean” of gun lobbyists by both THE
NEW YORK TIMES and THE WASHINGTON POST.
For years, Snyder has opposed Brady’s national mandated
handgun purchase waiting period as an “interference with the right of
law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and their loved one from
violent criminals.”
He says “it undermines the right to self-defense.
“It undercuts the right to life itself.
“It is not an effective crime-fighting tool.
“An annual survey of Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs in the
United States shows year after year that the Nation’s command officers
do not believe that the waiting period prevents criminals from
obtaining handguns. So why have it?
“It makes more sense to proceed with implementation fo the
national, instantaneous, point-of-purchase criminal records check for
handgun purchases.
“Now is the time for a truly positive public policy in support
of the right to personal protection and the promotion of genuine
public safety.
“Recent studies of FBI crime statistics, such as that
conducted by Professor John R. Lott, Jr. of the University of Chicago
School of Law, show state laws which permit the carrying of concealed
handguns by law-abiding citizens correlate with reductions in violent
crime rates.
“Now is the time for enactment of a federal law allowing a
citizen who has a permit to carry a concealed handgun in any state to
carry that firearm in any state.
“Now is the time for passage of the Personal Safety and
Community Protection Act, H. R. 339, by Rep. Clifford Stearns of
Florida, and S. 816, by Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho.”
Snyder, Vice President for Public Affairs of the National
Association of Chiefs of Police, also is Treasurer of the Second
Amendment Foundation and Chairman of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society,
Inc.
CONTACT: John Snyder, (202) 543-3363, (703) 418-0849