BELLEVUE, WA – The weekend shooting rampage at a bar and restaurant on Manhattan’s East Side is yet another clear demonstration that New York state’s anti-gun laws have failed to protect the public.
Joe Waldron, Executive Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, called the racially-motivated shooting of three persons by alleged gunman Steven Johnson a “failure of gun control.” Johnson reportedly invaded the bar, intent on killing as many white people as he could before being gunned down by police in what appears to be a planned “suicide by cop.”
“New York has some of the most draconian gun laws on the books,” Waldron observed, “and every one of them was promoted by their sponsors as a measure to prevent this kind of rampage. But all these gun laws have done is disarm law-abiding citizens, making them easy prey for criminals and lunatics who will always managed to get a gun, no matter how many laws are passed to keep firearms out of the hands of honest people.”
Comparing the June 16 shooting to the December 1993 Long Island commuter train slaughter mounted by Colin Ferguson, Waldron called Johnson’s act an “outrage” that might not have been possible had even one customer of the Bar Veloce been legally armed.
“Thanks to New York’s insane gun restrictions,” Waldron observed, “The ‘Big Apple’ is one big target-rich environment for maniacs who can invade a business establishment, herd patrons into a back room, douse them with kerosene and threaten to burn them to death.
“We’re all fortunate for the courage shown by two young women, Annie Hubbard and Ann Margaret Gidley,” Waldron continued. “Heroes in the true sense, they fought back while others cowered, unable to defend themselves because New York has effectively disarmed victims. Miss Hubbard suffered a gunshot wound which she might not have had to endure, had there been at least one legally-armed citizen in that bar.
“It is outrages like this,” he concluded, “that should galvanize New Yorkers to demand repeal of restrictive gun laws that leave them at the non-existent mercy of urban terrorists and madmen.”