CCRKBA SAYS FAIRFAX COUNTY OFFICIALS ‘ALL WET’ ON PROPOSED GUN RESTRICTIONS

BELLEVUE, WA – Officials in Fairfax County, VA, including the county police chief, are “all wet” with their proposals to restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens because of a horrible crime committed earlier this year by a mentally ill 18-year-old who could never legally qualify to carry a firearm in Virginia or anywhere else, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron said the proposed restrictions have been on the wish list of Old Dominion anti-gunners long before the May 8 shooting rampage at the Sully district police station. Gunman Michael Kennedy was killed, but not before he murdered Detective Vicky O. Armel and fatally wounded Officer Michael E. Garbarino.

“Fairfax County’s anti-gun administrators have wanted to put restrictions on the rights of law-abiding, licensed Virginia gun owners for a long time,” Waldron asserted. “They’re just using the May 8 incident as a catalyst to revive their effort.

“Their effort to ban legally-armed citizens from entering public areas of police stations would not have prevented Kennedy’s rampage and they know it,” he added. “All their proposal really would do is drive a wedge between armed citizens and police, reinforcing an ‘us-against-them’ kind of mentality. It’s a genuine pity that Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer doesn’t get this, and instead has reportedly asked the Board of Supervisors to submit the proposal to the General Assembly.

“It is not right, and never has been, to hold all gun owners responsible for crimes committed by criminals or crazy people,” Waldron said. “Law-abiding armed citizens are no threat to police or public officials, so why treat them as would-be criminals? If such restrictions were proposed against any other social group, there would be such a public cry of outrage that it would be heard from coast to coast.

“This is just one more attempt to plant the seeds of public distrust and sanction social bigotry against firearms owners, particularly those who are legally licensed to carry,” Waldron said. “That’s ironic, because these citizens, unlike anyone else, have gone through criminal background checks and required training. If anything, they are the safest segment of the public, and it is an insult that they should be targeted as if they are terrorists.”