OAK PARK, IL OFFICIAL SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR ‘GANGBANGER’ SLUR

BELLEVUE, WA – The village manager in Oak Park, IL should immediately apologize for a slur leveled at gun rights activists and organizations, likening them to criminals in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the individual citizen’s right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.

National Public Radio quoted Oak Park Village Manager Tom Barwin, an ex-police officer, observing, “It’s just completely befuddling that our Supreme Court would be in alliance with the gangbangers.”

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, found Barwin’s remarks insulting to millions of law-abiding gun owners, and organizations that represent them.

“Clearly,” Gottlieb stated, “this ‘us-against-them’ mentality is inappropriate and misplaced, and we would hope that it does not reflect the positions of Oak Park residents or their elected village leaders. The Supreme Court is not in alliance with anyone, but the learned majority certainly has issued a ruling that squares with the history of the Second Amendment, and the intent of its authors.

“Comparing us or our good friends and colleagues at the National Rifle Association, the Illinois State Rifle Association, or any of this nation’s millions of law-abiding gun owners to drive-by assassins is despicable,” he observed. “Such a remark shows that some public officials either cannot, or prefer not to differentiate between honest citizens and thugs.”

Remarks such as Barwin’s only adds to the polarization that has existed in America over gun rights, and has intensified since the high court handed down its landmark ruling, Gottlieb added.

“How sad that American citizens should argue over a fundamental civil right,” he stated, “when we should all be celebrating a victory for individual liberty. Mr. Barwin’s comment reflects the view of a bitter, divisive minority of people who believe rights should be privileges, and that everyone who owns a firearm is automatically a criminal. Thankfully, such irrational thinking is far outside the American mainstream, where it belongs.”