October 2007

A Brady Campaign news release headline claiming that “huge” crowds turned out across America for anti-gun protests in late August was both false and misleading, CCRKBA said last month. “Careful analysis of news coverage, or the lack of it in the 24 hours following the protests, confirm that these events were pretty much a bust,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb. “The biggest crowds reported were ‘about 200’ people bused to an event in Lake Barrington, Illinois, and another in Philadelphia. A Maryland protest outside a District Heights gun shop drew about 60 demonstrators, and one at Seattle’s Green Lake Park attracted two people who spent 32 seconds lying on the grass. And this was supposed to be a ‘huge’ event? That gives a whole new definition of the term ‘lie-in’ that was used to describe this protest.”
In Washington, D.C., the Parker v. District of Columbia case regarding a move to overturn the D.C. handgun ban has a new case name. It now will be known as District of Columbia v. Heller. The reason for this is that Dick Heller now is considered the only plaintiff who has legal standing. He is a D.C. police officer who is licensed to carry a firearm in Washington, D.C. because of his employment at the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building. In March, an appellate court declared the ban unconstitutional. The D.C. government has asked the Supreme Court to review the appellate court decision.
The arrests last month in New Jersey of 11 public officials, including state lawmakers, mayors and city councilmen, in communities across the state shows why anti-gun politicians in the Garden State don’t want citizens to have gun rights, said CCRKBA. These arrests are just the latest developments in a deeply-rooted culture of corruption that has seen more than 100 New Jersey public officials convicted on federal charges. The FBI made the latest arrests, according to the Associated Press. “The people of New Jersey can’t even trust their own state government to root out corruption,” said CCRKBA Executive Director Mark A. Taff. “The Feds have to come in and do it. This is the kind of thing one expects from a government that works so feverishly at all levels to strip its citizens of their firearm rights.”
The U.S. Senate last month approved a proposal by Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana to prevent any funding of foreign organizations that infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of lawful American citizens. Vitter offered his amendment to the foreign operations appropriations bill, which the Senate passed. CCRKBA opposes attempts by United Nations bureaucrats to impose international restrictions on gun rights of law-abiding citizens of the United States and other countries. CCRKBA believes that the global registration and tracking of firearms promoted by UN gun grabbers would lead to the disarmament on a world-wide scale of freedom-loving, law-abiding individuals.
A proposal by anti-gun Mayor Frank Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio to make firearms possession illegal by anyone under age 21 is a non-solution to a genuine problem of violent crime and, like all gun control laws, it targets the wrong people, CCRKBA noted last week. Mayor Jackson’s suggestion came after the killing of a 12-year-old girl caught in a crossfire near her home early last month. However, one of the suspects in that gun battle, Eric Romel Wilson, would not have been affected by such a law because he is 35 years old and, due to his criminal history, cannot legally own a gun. “Mayor Jackson’s call for more gun restrictions was nearly as predictable as the sunrise,” commented CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb. “What happened to the proposition that individuals be held accountable for their misconduct? Instead, politicians like Jackson want to blame the firearm, and punish everyone who owns one, or may want to own one…the armed thugs on Cleveland’s streets aren’t going to pay attention to some new gun law.”
BCN Telecom has partnered with Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear to help provide the financial resources for front line Pro Gun Organizations from the proletariat and national arena. For each customer activated by Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear, BCN Telecom will donate a meaningful portion of your monthly telecom usage spending to Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear. To sign up, go to: http://tbs.bcntele.com/TBS/LOA/LOACustomerStart.aspx