Alan Caruba

Alan Caruba of South Orange, New Jersey is the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month for November. In nominating Caruba for the Award, John M. Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said the noted public relations counselor and editorial consultant “for years has been a gun owner and fierce defender in public of the individual Second Amendment civil right of lawabiding American citizens to keep and bear arms. He’s always been forthright and articulate in defense of our freedom. He certainly is most deserving of this Award.” Just recently, Alan Caruba wrote that, “Every despotic regime in the last century favored gun control laws. Today, the gun grabbers are on the move again and are being led by the Obama regime.” Caruba recalled that, “During last year ’s campaign both Hillary Clinton and John McCain tore into Barack Obama for saying that residents of small-town America ‘cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them over bitterness over lost jobs.’ “Obama quickly retreated from that statement, but it revealed his real thinking and real feelings about people who own guns for any reason, as well as his contempt for people whose religious values are an important part of their lives. In both cases he was condemning large segments of the nation’s population.” Caruba wrote that, “In America today, the figure I hear most often is an estimated 90 million people who own guns. No matter the source one cites, there is no question that most Americans have no qualms about owning guns for hunting, sport shooting or for protection. It is no coincidence that, since Obama’s election last year, gun and ammo sales have been off the charts.” The Garden State resident said it was instructive again to “look back at what history teaches us regarding the right to bear arms. The Soviet Union established gun control in 1929. Unable to defend themselves, the regime killed an estimated 20 million Russian dissidents. Turkey established gun control in 1911 and, from 1915 to 1917, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were rounded up and killed. Germany established gun control in 1938. Prior to and throughout World War Two, the Nazis systematically murdered an estimated six million Jews and another five million others deemed ‘enemies of the state.’ This pattern was repeated in China which outlawed gun ownership in 1935. Gun ownership was outlawed in Guatemala, Uganda and Cambodia. “It is estimated that 56 million people were killed by their own governments in the last century. Despite that, both England and Australia passed laws prohibiting gun ownership. The result has been a surge in deaths of people who were killed because they were left defenseless against criminals. In Australia, armed robberies increased 44 percent.” With this relevant, fairly recent history as background, Caruba noted that now, “there are proposed laws in the House of Representatives and Senate that would strip Americans of their Second Amendment right to ‘keep and bear arms,’ a right the Constitution says ‘shall not be infringed.’ “Recently, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (NJ) introduced S. 1317 that would give the Attorney General the discretion to block gun sales to people on terror watch lists. The government’s consolidated watch list, used to identify people suspected of links to terrorists, has now grown to more than a million names since 9/11. In Lautenberg’s New Jersey, one must have a government issued certificate to purchase a firearm and undergo a difficult process to secure the right to carry a weapon, concealed or otherwise.” Caruba noted also that the proposed “Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 would make it illegal to own a firearm unless you are fingerprinted and can provide a current driver ’s license along with your Social Security number. It requires people to submit to a physical and mental evaluation each and every time a firearm is purchased. It would require that guns must be locked away and inaccessible to any child under age 18. It would empower law enforcement officers to come into your home to inspect whether or not you are in compliance. Failure to comply includes a fine and incarceration up to five years in prison. In a case of criminal home invasion this would render the gun owner defenseless. This replicates the 1938 German Weapons Act that restricted ownership of firearms to ‘persons whose trustworthiness is not in question and who can show a need for a (gun) permit.” Caruba warned these “are incremental steps taken to ultimately render the Second Amendment null and void.”