The Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms essentially served notice yesterday to 19 mayors in Washington State that an anti-gun effort they are supporting is being challenged.
Perhaps the mayors of Chewelah, Pe Ell, Morton, Mesa, Kalama and Connell didn’t realize they are helping anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his campaign, but they are because they are all members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). This column wonders how that will square with constituents in those communities; people among whom NRA membership is about as common as rain gear and wood stoves.
CCRKBA announced that it is launching a multi-city public education effort to counter what it says is Bloomberg’s hysteria-driven campaign to literally scare up public support for new gun control initiatives. Former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was a founding MAIG member, and his successor, Mike McGinn is on board, along with 18 other mayors of cities and towns in Washington State. This column will name them all, below.
Bloomberg’s rolling billboard effort is motoring around the country, telling people that 34 Americans are murdered every day with guns. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb’s counter-offensive begins Monday in Chicago. His mobile billboard reminds the public that “Guns Save Lives,” -- a lot of them if his math is even halfway accurate.
"Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns, and most of them are purchased or possessed illegally," Bloomberg said in a statement on Wednesday. "It is time for
Washington to take action: since the Tucson shooting more than 1,300 people have been killed with guns in the United States and that number continues to grow."—Huffington Post
Using data from various sources that suggests between 800,000 and 2.5 million Americans successfully prevent crimes or defend themselves with firearms annually, Gottlieb has divided those estimates by 365 and come up with numbers that put the debate in perspective.
“You realize that between 2,100 and 6,800 people successfully defend themselves every day of the year with firearms in the United States,” he said. “The majority of those incidents result in nobody being injured or killed (because nobody fires a shot). In some cases where shots are fired by armed citizens, several lives are saved. Bloomberg and his cronies at Mayors Against Illegal Guns evidently don’t think their lives are valuable enough to notice.”
Gottlieb asserts that Bloomberg is telling “less than half of a story.”
“We’re setting the record straight,” the longtime Bellevue resident and nationally-recognized gun rights advocate said. “What Mayor Bloomberg is not telling you with his roving billboard is that violent crime has declined during the same period when gun ownership in this country has skyrocketed, and the number of Americans legally licensed to carry concealed handguns has risen dramatically. Today, more than 6.2 million private citizens are legally carrying in more than 40 states, and yet according to FBI data, violent crime has decreased.”
There are about 6 million Washington residents. At least a million of them are gun owners, among whom more than 270,000 are licensed to carry concealed handguns, and others choose to openly carry their defensive sidearms, which is perfectly legal here.
“If Bloomberg was really interested in public safety rather than publicity, he would park that truck and take all the money he’s spending on the billboard and the fuel, and give it to local gun clubs for firearms safety training and education.”—Alan Gottlieb
Gottlieb and I collaborated on America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age, detailing the need, as well as the right, for private citizens to be armed.
“We’re answering Bloomberg’s flash with genuine substance,” he said yesterday. “While Bloomberg is shooting blanks, CCRKBA will be hitting the bull’s eye with information Americans need to protect their civil rights.”
Gottlieb is convinced Bloomberg’s campaign is a smokescreen designed to mask his real intentions – which may, or may not, be shared by many of this state’s MAIG members. Some of them are probably gun owners, too.
“America needs to look behind the façade to see that his ultimate goal is to convince Congress to implement New York-style gun control laws, ban most semiautomatic firearms, stretch background checks out to between six and nine months, and to put gun shows out of business,” Gottlieb said. “No mayor, regardless how wealthy he is, should dictate to Congress or the people the terms of their civil rights. Michael Bloomberg wants to spread hysteria about gun rights. We’re going to spread the truth.”
Washington State’s MAIG members, according to the group’s website, are Mike McGinn, Seattle; H. Clarence Bauman, Chewelah; Garland D. Walton, Connell; Robert F. Sheckler, Des Moines; Tamara Jenkins, DuPont; Will Ibershof, Duvall; Gary S. Jensen, Ferndale; Ron “Pete” Poulson, Kalama; David M. Ferguson, Mesa; Daniel N. Mork, Millwood; James F. Gerwig, Morton; Russ Rickett, Oakesdale; Spencer Nichols, pe Ell; Paul Warden, Prosser; Terry Anderson, SeaTac; Charlotte L. Mackner, Skykomish; Mary Verner, Spokane; Diane W. White, Stanwood, and Marilyn Strickland, Tacoma.
MEANWHILE, my colleague, National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea, continues hammering on the “Project Gunrunner” controversy, today asking gun prohibition groups why they are uniformly silent about this story. Yesterday, this column mentioned remarks by the Brady Campaign’s Dennis Henigan that carefully omitted any mention of “Gunrunner’s” connection to the slaying of Customs and Border Protection agent Brian Terry, even after Wednesday night’s expose of the controversy by CBS Evening News.
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Atlanta Ed Stone | Austin Howard Nemerov | Boston Ron Bokleman | Charlotte Paul Valone | Cheyenne Anthony Bouchard | Chicago Don Gwinn | Cleveland Daniel White | DC Mike Stollenwerk | Denver Dan Bidstrup | Des Moines Sean McClanahan |Detroit Rob Reed | Fort Smith Steve D. Jones | Knoxville Liston Matthews | Los Angeles John Longenecker | Minneapolis John Pierce | National David Codrea | Seattle Dave Workman | St. Louis Kurt Hofmann | Tucson Chris Woodard
ALSO VISIT:
‘Winning Firearms Freedom One Lawsuit at a Time’
CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS
READ:
America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age
These Dogs Don’t Hunt: The Democrats’ War on Guns
Assault on Weapons: The Campaign to Eliminate Your Guns
Washington State Gun Rights and Responsibilities
Comments
I hope we can keep that truck following Bloomberg's wherever it goes. The 2 messages speak for themselves when seen together. I tossed in a few bucks but I hope we have some well healed supporters too cause I'm guessing Bloomberg does.
The police chief of Washington DC is bragging about the lowest number of murders in decades and credits herself and gun control. The truth is that the DC murder rate last year was 27 times more than El Paso, Texas. The two cities are almost identical in size and both sit on the edge of the country.
In 2010, Chicago had a murder rate 19 times higher than El Paso's but you will not find the media citing either as proof that extreme gun control is dangerous.
The state with the most gun control (according to the Brady Campaign) is California. The state with the least is Utah. California has a murder rate over 400% higher than Utah's.
Think about that. The state with the most gun laws has a rate of murder over 400% higher than the state with the LEAST gun laws.
Go Alan.
And I am..... E. Zach Lee-Wright
*sources: Brady Campaign Scorecard, FBI, and local media counts for 2010 murder numbers. Population numbers from Wikipedia.
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