Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Bellevue, WA-based Second Amendment Foundation and chairman of its sister organization, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, is at the United Nations this week in an effort to derail the long-sought Small Arms and Light Weapons treaty that seems to be getting lots of confusing publicity on the Internet.
Gottlieb’s wife, Julianne H. Versnel, is scheduled to testify at the UN about how gun control affects women around the world. Gottlieb has made a career of defending gun rights, and has engaged in debates on various news programs for years, even on ESPN.
There are concerns that such a treaty would include all kinds of bad news for American gun owners, and such worries are not without merit. Recently, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon addressed a joint session of Congress, during which he urged renewal of the ban on so-called “assault weapons” in this country, as if to suggest that his country’s crime problem might be alleviated by ratcheting down on Second Amendment rights. This speech is available in several different YouTube clips, including the edited one linked here. (A state-level effort to impose such a ban never got out of committee in Olympia earlier this year, and Attorney General Eric Holder has really never recanted his revelation that the Obama White House would like to renew the Clinton administration's ban.)
The good news is that any such treaty must first past the U.S. Senate by a super majority. So long as gun owners maintain pressure on Capitol Hill to not simply reject such a treaty, but discourage the White House and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from signing it (only to have it embarrassingly rejected), appears to be what Gottlieb is advocating.
Gun rights organizations have responded that the United States should control the borders, not firearms. National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre delivered a blistering convention speech about the border problem last month in Charlotte, N.C. A few years ago, Gottlieb and CCRKBA launched a campaign to pressure Capitol Hill and the White House to crack down on illegal aliens, rather than legally-owned firearms.
Gottlieb is no stranger to international gun politics, and neither is his wife. They have been instrumental in forming an international firearms alliance that promises to grow and become more active in the fight to stop global gun control, which is a genuine threat. This column discussed that effort here. The global gun control movement's hysteria and passion rivals that of a belief in global warming, which has been pretty much debunked and has been replaced by “climate change” as the environmental alarmist cause celeb.
As many Washingtonians know, Gottlieb is the Evergreen State’s most prominent gun rights proponent, serving as SAF executive vice president and operating the CCRKBA out of a two-building complex east of I-405 in Bellevue. SAF and CCRKBA own one of the most active gun rights websites, KeepAndBearArms.com, which is currently conducting a critical fund-raising effort for operating funds.
As a side issue, this column finds it ironic that at a time when gun prohibitionists have been claiming widespread support, they appear to be in such financial straights that they are having to sell their memberships list to raise money. My colleague, Rob Reed in Detroit, broke this story the other day here, and it has set off something of a tremor across the Internet.
Gun control appears to be a losing proposition on more than one level. Maybe it’s the economy, and maybe people have simply gotten wise to the rhetoric, but it most likely is a combination of factors that include the public’s realization that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and like-minded groups have been exposed by the test of time. Crime data is showing for the third year in a row that violent crime is down while gun ownership has risen steadily. More people are buying guns and learning to use them as public safety budgets shrink, response time expands and citizens are once again realizing that they are their own shepherds.
BULLETIN: There was no ruling this morning from the Supreme Court in the Second Amendment Foundation’s lawsuit to overturn the Chicago handgun ban. The next scheduled release of opinions is Thursday
McDonald v. City of Chicago is the case brought by SAF and the Illinois State Rifle Association on behalf of four Chicago residents. This column detailed the confusing history of this case and a similar lawsuit brought against the city by the National Rifle Association here.
For more info: Second Amendment Foundation. Illinois State Rifle Association.
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Comments
Alan got killed in the piece you put up. Sad that. He sounded defensive and bullied. He lost, even though Josh is wrong.
I hope Alan does better at the U.N...
I find it rather amusing that people are still going back to the Shooting Incident at Columbine High School to try to make their objection to Firearms, seem credible when in fact the Gun was not the Problem nor the Cure of that incident.
There is not any proof that a Gun untouched by a Person ever killed anyone, anymore that the Knife in the Kitchen Drawer killed anyone, but it is the Media that have used the Sensationalism of a tragic event to vilify the weapon never the Person that used it, sort of like the person was an innocent bystander that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In response to the Argument made against Guns in the Video, it was typical Anti gun rhetoric that has been used to again try to vilify the Gun. Little fact but a lot of fear hype.
In response to President Philippe Calderon of Mexico, He has not produced any evidence that I am aware of to prove his statement that the automatic weapons used by the Drug Cartels in Mexico came from
When it comes to the U.S. Constitution and State Rights Treaties Do Not Supersede the Constitution,Period. Check out sweetliberty.org (search under issues/staterights/treaties ) to read what The Constitution says and related Supreme Court rulings which clearly support this fact.
www.sweetliberty.org/issues/staterights/treaties
It would be a simple enough job to have each state simply incorporate the U.S. Consitution and Bill of Rights into their own state constitution and end this arguing once and for all. It would give the citizens of every state the same rights no matter where they went including gun rights. The anti-gunner to oppose that would have to be traitors and i think public opinion would sway greatly to the gun owners side. As for the Mexican president who listens to a petty dictator who can't even control his own country? He was bought and paid for before he even ran for the office. The cartels get their guns from south America, China, and Russia, not the U.S. If we send illegals back home we bankrupt his country or he has a humanitarian disaster on his hands. We don't send them home and we have trouble here unless you use them against the Muslims who want Sharia law imposed in every country they live in. Catholics versus Muslims and the holy war could be here folks. Keep your guns handy.
Was not the constitution, ratified by the states? And is not the bill of rights, a part of that document and process? And, is not the constitution, the supreme law of the land?
What controversy, is there?
NONE... Only contrivance and guile.
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