SAF, CCRKBA ASK CANDIDATES TO SIGN 2008 PRESIDENTIAL GUN RIGHTS PLEDGE

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today are transmitting to each of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates the “2008 Presidential Gun Rights Pledge.”

In a letter to the candidates, SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb and CCRKBA Executive Director Mark A. Taff note, “It is not enough for a candidate for this nation’s highest political office to merely mouth ‘support’ for the Second Amendment. Whoever occupies the presidency must be someone who holds the Second Amendment to be as important to individual liberty as all the other tenets of our Bill of Rights.”

“We’re asking each of the candidates to sign this pledge and go on the record in stating that the Second Amendment affirms a fundamental, individual civil right,” Gottlieb said. “We’ve heard them all claim to support the Second Amendment, but an individual civil right should not be infringed, and 85 million American gun owners have a right to know whether people who want to be trusted with the nation’s highest office are firm believers in the concept of liberty and individual freedom.”

“Our Presidential Gun Rights Pledge,” Taff added, “gives each candidate a one-time-only opportunity to either unconditionally embrace the Second Amendment or reject it. There is no middle ground, no alternative position, and no second chance. We believe the candidates will have ample time to sign or reject this pledge by Friday, February 29.”

“It is time to cut through the rhetoric,” Gottlieb observed. “With a Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment due in June, every candidate has an obligation to tell American gun owners just where they stand on firearms civil rights. Gun owners deserve a definitive answer from the candidates so that they can make their own decisions on who best will respect and protect their rights.”