SEATTLE MAYOR’S ANTI-GUN AGENDA WOULD NOT PREVENT GUN CRIMES, SAYS CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, WA – The anti-gun agenda unfurled today by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels would not have prevented any of the recent crimes involving firearms in Washington State, including Wednesday morning’s tragic incident at Tacoma’s Foss High School, said Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Waldron, whose office is in Bellevue, said the Nickels gun legislation “wish list” has nothing to do with any of last year’s high-profile shootings, including the March Capitol Hill slayings and last July’s attack on the Jewish Federation offices.

“It seems hardly a coincidence that Mayor Nickels has announced a legislative package that is virtually a mirror image of that being pushed by Washington CeaseFire,” Waldron said. “Sales of semiautomatic sport-utility rifles and private sales at gun shows are not remotely connected to any of the crimes Nickels and CeaseFire are exploiting to push their agenda, and they know it.

“We have offered to work with the Seattle Police Department’s newly-hired ‘crime gun specialist,’ and our calls have not been returned,” Waldron said. “We’ve never been contacted by Mayor Nickels or his staff. What sense does it make to develop proposed solutions to gun crimes when you ignore available expertise on the other side of Lake Washington, and refuse input from the very community of concerned firearms owners who will be directly affected by these proposals?

“As for Wednesday’s school shooting, and last year’s crimes, Capitol Hill gunman Kyle Huff brought his firearms from Montana, and Naveed Haq, the suspect in the Jewish Federation shooting bought his guns legally from retail outlets in the Tri-Cities area,” Waldron noted. “Not one firearm used in these crimes was a semiautomatic rifle, and there is no indication Huff or Haq ever went near a gun show. And there are already state and federal laws against students bringing guns to campus, especially handguns, which they may not legally carry.

“We would be delighted to sit down with Mayor Nickels, the Washington Legislature and anyone else for a serious, rational discussion on fighting crime,” Waldron said. “But preventing crime isn’t what Nickels or CeaseFire is after. Their only interest is in eroding the firearms rights of law-abiding Washington citizens, and capitalizing on any tragedy to accomplish that end.”