CCRKBA ASKS WA. DEMOCRATS WHY THEY OPPOSE GUN RIGHTS FOR D.C. RESIDENTS

BELLEVUE, WA – When the House of Representatives adopted legislation Wednesday to force the District of Columbia to abide by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment earlier this year, five Washington State Democrats turned their backs on their colleagues who supported this important civil rights measure.

The Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said Evergreen State voters deserve to know why. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb suggested that voters in the state’s First, Second, Sixth, Seventh and Ninth congressional districts ask Reps. Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith why they have a problem with District of Columbia residents exercising their right to keep a firearm in their home for personal protection.

“This legislation was written by Rep. Travis Childers, a Mississippi Democrat, co-sponsored by some 50 Democrats and supported by 85 Democrats, including Washington’s own Third District Rep. Brian Baird,” Gottlieb noted. “In June, the Supreme Court struck down the District’s 30-year-old handgun ban as a violation of the Second Amendment. This bill makes it possible for District residents to exercise their regained civil right.

“Every one of these Washington State Democrats, perhaps with the exception of McDermott, tells voters in their districts that they support the Second Amendment,” he observed. “But when the opportunity came to demonstrate that support by voting for a bill that strengthens gun rights for their fellow citizens living in the District of Columbia, all five of these men turned their backs on the Constitution, a document they swore an oath to uphold.

“Representative Baird joined 84 of his fellow Democrats and voted for this measure,” Gottlieb stated. “Also supporting this important legislation were Washington Republicans Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dave Reichert.

“We can only surmise that Dicks, McDermott, Smith, Inslee and Larsen either succumbed to the hysteria launched against this measure,” Gottlieb concluded, “or that their professed support for the Second Amendment is empty rhetoric, used only at election time, to fool voters in their district. Those voters deserve an explanation.”