WA GUN OWNERS, LAWMAKERS SHOULD TELL NICKELS ‘NO’ ON ILLEGAL GUN BAN

BELLEVUE, WA – Washington State gun owners should send a clear message to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels next Monday, Dec. 15 that his illegal plan to ignore state law by banning legally-carried handguns from public property will not be tolerated, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb encourages all gun owners in the Seattle/King County area to attend a Monday evening hearing on the mayor’s scheme to ban handguns from all city property by executive order. The meeting will be held in the Bertha Knight Landes room at Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Avenue, with sign-in beginning at 5:30 p.m.

“We hope gun owners from across the state fill the room,” Gottlieb said. “If they can’t attend, we hope they contact their state legislator and demand that the state put a stop to this nonsense. The mayor is choreographing this effort in hopes that lawmakers will exempt Seattle from having to comply with Washington’s model preemption act, so that Nickels can run Seattle like Richard Daley runs Chicago, which is the mayor’s home town.

“Mayor Nickels and Seattle’s far left establishment arrogantly believe that state statute can be ignored,” he added. “The mayor thinks he can simply issue an executive order in defiance of an opinion from Attorney General Rob McKenna that such a ban would be illegal. Washington’s preemption statute has been in effect for more than 20 years, and it is so efficient that other several states have copied it.”

For those who cannot attend, opinions can be submitted at the city’s website: www.seattle.gov/firearmsrule.

“This is an issue that affects all Washington residents, not just those who live in or near Seattle,” Gottlieb noted. “That’s why state legislators from Newport to Neah Bay cannot ignore the mayor’s plan. Nickels is challenging exclusive legislative authority over state firearms regulations. Claiming this is a local problem is a cop-out.

“Seattle’s establishment Democrats are out of touch with other areas of the state, and with their own party on this issue,” Gottlieb said. “It’s time to remind Greg Nickels that he is a public official, not a plutocrat.”