BELLEVUE, WA – When Roll Call reported Sept. 28 that several members of Congress, including advocates of tough gun control laws, have sought firearms training to protect themselves and their families from possible terrorist attack, it brought a quick response from one of the nation’s leading gun rights organizations.
“Once again, those in Congress who would strip American citizens of their gun rights, and the ability to defend themselves from harm, are revealed to be world-class hypocrites,” declared Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA). “While they don’t want other citizens to be capable of fending off a violent attack, whether from a domestic criminal or an international terrorist, they apparently think it is perfectly fine for them to have guns to protect themselves and their families.”
Roll Call reported that, “Several lawmakers described colleagues – including some advocates of strict controls on handguns – who are now seeking firearms training in hopes of protecting themselves if the need should arise.”
Said Joe Waldron, CCRKBA executive director: “Isn’t it amazing how suddenly these people have become ‘enlightened’ to the fact that their lives are worth defending, with a gun if necessary. That’s what firearms rights advocates have been insisting for years, but until now, these people have had very deaf ears. They haven’t been too concerned for anyone else’s safety, but when it is they who are in danger, they’re all for carrying guns.”
Added Dave Workman, CCRKBA communications director, a certified firearms instructor, “Roll Call didn’t identify any of these hypocrites, but it really isn’t necessary. It’s contemptible when politicians consider their safety more important than the safety of law-abiding gun owners whose rights some in Congress have been trampling for years.”
According to the Roll Call story, pro-gun rights Republican Congressman Todd Tiahrt of Kansas summed it up best: “I think we need some means of protecting ourselves.”
Observed Gottlieb: “Rep. Tiahrt has long understood this issue in its proper perspective. Millions of honest American citizens have been defending their gun rights for years against unrelenting attacks by Congressional anti-gunners. It is so terribly sad that it took a tragedy of this proportion to wake some of these people up. The fact that we have fought so hard to protect the Second Amendment is what makes it possible for these people to now consider arming themselves as a viable option.
“If the anti-gunners had had their way,” Gottlieb concluded, “they would now be as defenseless as they have tried to leave the rest of us. Let this be a lesson to anyone on Capitol Hill who has fought to take gun rights away from honest citizens. The Second Amendment has never been about duck hunting, it has always been about personal defense. When it’s your life that may be in danger, that’s about as personal as it gets.”