CCRKBA

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Great New Hire At SAF/CCRKBA

October 9, 2012 by 7 Comments

Brandon Combs of the CalGuns Foundation and Cal-FFL was just appointed Director of Programs and Outreach for SAF and Director of Advocacy and Coalitions for CCRKBA. I have corresponded with Brandon many times and this is a great appointment. He’ll bring a new vibrancy to both organizations’ outreach and advocacy efforts. Having cut his gun rights teeth in the notoriously gun unfriendly state of California where innovative tactics are a must to get noticed, I hope he’ll bring that same verve to SAF and CCRKBA.

There is a lot of innovative advocacy going on at the state level ranging from the guerrilla tactics of CalGuns to the outreach technology that Maryland Carry used to shut down the Maryland State Capital that need to be shared with other gun rights groups. I’m glad to see that the SAF and CCRKBA has recognized this need. For example, I would love to see the outreach technology of Maryland Carry used by Grass Roots North Carolina when we push for restaurant carry (again) in the next session of the General Assembly.

From the e-mail announcement:

SAN CARLOS, CA & BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment
Foundation announced today that Brandon Combs, a veteran California gun
rights advocate, has joined the Second Amendment Foundation as its
director of Programs and Outreach.  He will also serve as director of
Advocacy and Coalitions at Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and
Bear Arms.

In addition to his roles at SAF and CCRKBA, Combs will
continue working with The Calguns Foundation (CGF) and California
Association of Federal Firearms Licensees (Cal-FFL) as Secretary and
President, respectively, and as an elected member of the board of
directors for the California Rifle & Pistol Association, the Golden
State’s NRA affiliate organization.

“Developing relationships and effective programs are key to
really being successful in the long term,” explained SAF founder and
Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.  “When you can add a creative,
experienced leader like Brandon to your arsenal, you do it.  I’m very
excited for the future and delighted he is here with us.”

“I’m excited for Brandon and thrilled that we have an
opportunity not only to export some of our gun advocacy culture and
concepts nationally, but also to develop a much closer relationship with
the larger network of gun rights organizations,” said Calguns
Foundation chairman Gene Hoffman.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to have this opportunity to
serve SAF’s and CCRKBA’s members and work to advance our fundamental
rights,” said Combs.  “I’m looking forward to building the next
generation of gun rights advocacy and the new gun rights culture with
supporters and fellow advocates from organizations across the United
States.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s
oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal
action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to
privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has
grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many
programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of
gun control.

The Calguns Foundation (calgunsfoundation.org) is a 501(c)3
non-profit organization which serves its members by providing Second
Amendment-related education, strategic litigation, and the defense of
innocent California gun owners from improper or malicious prosecution.
The Calguns Foundation seeks to inform government and protect the rights
of individuals to acquire, own, and lawfully use firearms in
California.

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CCRKBA On The Republican Platform

August 29, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a statement yesterday congratulating the GOP on their strong pro-gun platform.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is “encouraged by the strong pro-gun rights platform” put forth at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

“This is the strongest pro-gun rights platform I’ve ever seen,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who was in Florida this week.

The platform includes language supporting the “law-abiding citizens’ God-given right of self-defense,” and national concealed carry reciprocity. It opposes revival of a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and normal capacity ammunition magazines, and it also takes a swipe at the Justice Department over Operation Fast and Furious.

“This is strong stuff that squarely puts the GOP behind, ahead of and alongside every one of this nation’s millions of law-abiding gun owners,” Gottlieb noted. “I was delighted to see such a bold position put forth because it clearly provides a contrast between those who offer lip service to the Second Amendment, and those who live by it.”

The Republican platform also supports gun owner privacy with language supporting “the right to obtain and store ammunition without registration.”

“I think it is important to American gun owners that, even in the wake of the tragedy in Colorado, and the soaring homicide rate in Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago that the GOP platform framers can intelligently separate the acts of criminals from the civil rights of peaceable citizens,” Gottlieb stated. “Others would dredge up cliché-ridden programs that have been demonstrable failures, and that punish law-abiding citizens for the acts of social losers, thugs and lunatics.

“The Republican platform does none of that,” he concluded. “It is clear that this platform language was crafted by people who understand that the rights of law-abiding gun owners should be expanded not eroded. Their platform recognizes gun owners as first-class Americans, not second-rate citizens.”

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Bloomberg Declines An Invitation

August 8, 2012 by 2 Comments

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is almost as big a media whore as the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer. Given half a chance he’ll pontificate about salt and sugar and guns and breast milk ad nauseum.

That is why I agree with Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation and CCRKBA that it is strange that Bloomberg declined an invitation to speak at the 2012 Gun Rights Policy Conference. He would look brave for going before a group of gun rights activists and he’d get tons of publicity out of it. Moreover, while in Orlando, he could check on how his taxpayer paid MAIG regional coordinator is doing.

Alan sent out a notice about Bloomberg’s declining his invitation this afternoon.

BELLEVUE, WA – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been challenging President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to speak out about gun control, but Bloomberg declined a chance to do it himself at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) in September, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms noted.

According to CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, Bloomberg was invited to the 27th annual event, scheduled Sept. 28-30 in Orlando, Fla., but he turned it down.

“What does it say about someone who demands that others shill for his agenda, but when given the chance to take his fight to the gun rights community, he retreats,” Gottlieb wondered. “Mayor Bloomberg is always quick with his tongue in front of a friendly media audience, or in the confines of a broadcast studio, but when he has an opportunity to meet with people who have differing viewpoints about a fundamental civil right, he takes a powder.”

This will be the first time in its history that the GRPC is held in the Sunshine State. Among the anticipated speakers will be Mark O’Mara, defense attorney representing George Zimmerman, the man now charged in the death of Trayvon Martin. The announcement has stirred considerable media attention for the upcoming event.

“It seems odd for a guy like Michael Bloomberg, who rushes to every television news camera and microphone, to avoid what could be a major media event,” Gottlieb mused. “He’s been complaining about the ‘deafening silence’ from Romney and Obama, but when he is offered the chance to confront gun owners, whose rights he wants to see trampled, he voluntarily puts on a muzzle.

“Mayor Bloomberg has spent the past several months,” he said, “establishing himself as a Nanny State monarch, telling people give up their guns, to drink less soda, eat fewer fries and forego giving baby formula to newborns. He’s good at criticizing people he calls gun ‘nuts,’ but lately he seems a few cashews short of a full can, himself.

“Perhaps he’s worried that a trip to Orlando might end with a sunburn,” Gottlieb concluded. “From all indications, he’s had a little too much sun already.”

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US Refuses To Sign Arms Trade Treaty According To CCRKBA

July 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms just sent out a news flash a few minutes ago applauding the United States for its refusal to sign the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty. They said the announcement was made in New York this morning.

I did see that Russia is refusing to sign the draft treaty saying they are dissatisfied with it and the draft needs more work.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today applauds the decision by the United States to not sign the proposed International Arms Trade Treaty, and CCRKBA credits grassroots action for the gun rights victory.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who is at the United Nations in New York, said the announcement came Friday morning after a week of intense negotiations.

“I think the grassroots surge by American gun owners against this treaty convinced our government to not sign this document,” Gottlieb said. “The proposed treaty, as written, poses serious problems for our gun rights, and the sovereignty of our Second Amendment.”

CCRKBA has been active in raising public awareness about the proposed treaty, and Gottlieb said he is proud of members and supporters who made “stepped up to the plate” and contacted their U.S. senators.

“This is freedom in action,” Gottlieb stated. “We are gratified that so many did so much to protect their Second Amendment rights from an international gun rights grab.

UPDATE:  According to Colum Lynch, UN reporter for the Washington Post and Turtle Bay blogger for Foreign Policy Magazine, the US isn’t actually refusing to sign the ATT. They and the Russians are putting out a joint statement saying that they need more to study the proposed treaty. From his Tweet on the subject, “UN diplomat said Washington wants to put off action on a new arms trade treaty, after the US election.”

From his blog:

The United States upended a major international treaty negotiation, telling foreign delegates at the final session today that they needed more time to consider the pact. Some diplomats said that Washington is seeking another six months, pushing off any decision on the politically sensitive treaty until after the U.S. election. Russia, Indonesia, and India also asked for more time.

Thomas Countryman, U.S. deputy secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, informed representatives of the U.N.’s 193 member states that the United States still needed time to consider the text.

He continues:

The United States told delegates that it did not have “core” objections to the draft treaty under consideration, but that it needed more time, saying that while the U.N. negotiations have been playing out since July 2, they only received the final text in the past 24 hours.

In my opinion this is something for great concern. That the US doesn’t have “core” objections and wants to wait until after the election spells trouble for gun rights. I say this because they have no real objections to a treaty that, despite their denials, has negative implications for the Second Amendment. Moreover, putting it off until after the election means a treaty could be approved by a lame duck US Senate. This may seem paranoid but I don’t trust either Obama or his State Department on this issue.

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CCRKBA – Bloomberg Should Go On Strike

July 25, 2012 by 3 Comments

In response to Mayor Bloomberg’s incredibly stupid remarks suggesting that police nationwide should go on strike in the name of more gun control laws, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms had this response:

BELLEVUE, WA – Anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s call for American police officers to “go on strike” in an effort to force Congress and state legislatures to push his gun prohibition agenda is “a new low in demagoguery,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Mayor Bloomberg has gone from bluster to blackmail with his extremist gun ban campaign,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “He would have police officers quit their posts and abandon their public safety missions in what would amount to an exercise of national extortion.

“Perhaps he believes it would be better,” he noted, “for cops to walk off the job than to engage in illegal gun and drug transactions, as some of his own New York City police have done lately.”

Bloomberg was on CNN Monday speaking to Piers Morgan when he encouraged police officers stage this strike. Gottlieb noted that by even making the suggestion, Bloomberg might be close to violating a New York statute known as the Taylor Law. Under that 1967 law – officially titled the Public Employees Fair Employment Act – public employees and employers are prohibited from encouraging strikes by public employees.

“If Bloomberg is violating the law, it would not be a first for a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the anti-gun organization he founded,” Gottlieb added. “At least 18 members of that group have been prosecuted for various crimes, which is not a track record I’d be proud of.

“Obviously,” he observed, “Mayor Bloomberg did not think things through before he suggested this preposterous course of action. If the nation’s police were to walk off the job today, by tomorrow, American citizens would be flocking to gun stores to purchase firearms for personal protection. All his stupid statement will do is increase gun sales.

“Maybe Bloomberg wants to replace Barack Obama as the unofficial gun salesman of the year,” Gottlieb concluded.

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CCRKBA On HR 3594 And The Arms Trade Treaty

July 20, 2012 by

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) is not your average Chicagoland congressman. He is actually pro-gun and pro-Second Amendment unlike many of others. Walsh spoke at the 2011 Gun Rights Policy Conference held in Chicago and gave a very pro-gun speech.

This past December he introduced HR 3594, the Second Amendment Protection Act, which hits directly at proposed the Arms Trade Treaty. It would cut off all funding to the United Nations unless the president certified that the UN had not taken actions that would infringe on the rights of Americans to possess firearms and ammunition.

(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the United States may not provide any funding to the United Nations for a fiscal year unless, before the last day of the preceding fiscal year, the President makes the certification described in subsection (b).

(b) Certification- The certification described in this subsection is a certification submitted to the Congress by the President, that states that the United Nations has not taken action to restrict, attempt to restrict, or otherwise adversely infringe on the rights of individuals in the United States to possess a firearm or ammunition, including by imposing burdens on international commerce, or abridge any of the other constitutionally protected rights of citizens of the United States.

The bill currently has 60 co-sponsors including 26 just added recently. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms released the statement below on HR 3594 and the new sponsors.

26 NEW CO-SPONSORS TO 2A PROTECTION ACT IS ‘GOOD NEWS,’ SAYS CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, WA – Twenty-six more members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors to the Second Amendment Protection Act, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms announced today.

“This is good news,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb. “With a vote looming on the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, this sends a clear message to the Obama administration that the president will face real trouble if he or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signs any document that threatens our constitutionally-protected individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Sponsored by Illinois Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, H.R. 3594 was written with help from CCRKBA staff, Gottlieb noted. It now has 60 co-sponsors, and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. CCRKBA has been urging members and supporters to contact Congress and demand action on this bill.

“The U.N. is scheduled to vote on the proposed treaty next week,” Gottlieb said. “Right now they are pushing to include small arms and ammunition, and because the Devil is always in the details, when they finally hammer out a document that the Obama administration has already indicated it will sign, this could be extremely bad for American gun owners.

“Fortunately, Congressman Walsh had the foresight to understand this,” he continued, “so he introduced this legislation to protect Second Amendment sovereignty. We want the United Nations gun grabbers, and the Obama administration to understand that they are treading in perilous waters if they adopt a treaty that even remotely threatens the firearms freedoms of our citizens.

“We are coming down to the wire on this treaty,” Gottlieb stated. “Our constitutional rights far outweigh the administration’s desire to push its ‘citizen-of-the-world’ philosophy down the throats of American gun owners. We want to see action on the Second Amendment Protection Act, and with 26 new co-sponsors, we are one step closer to achieving that goal.”

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CCRKBA On The Vote For Contempt

June 29, 2012 by

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued statement last night saying that the vote to find Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress was “necessary for justice to be served.”

The full statement is below:

BELLEVUE, WA – The historic 255-67 vote by the House of Representatives to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to provide documents relating to the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious was “necessary for justice to be served,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

Holder repeatedly did not comply with a subpoena issued last October by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Instead, he successfully appealed to President Barack Obama to claim executive privilege at the last minute in an attempt to shield the documents from Congressional review.

“As the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the nation, the attorney general is not above the law,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb declared. “It should not have come to this. Eric Holder should have complied with the subpoena. If he had cooperated fully with the Fast and Furious investigation from the outset, none of this would have been necessary and he knows it.

“The only conceivable reason that Holder and the Obama administration do not want to turn these documents over,” he said, “is that they contain damning evidence of either incompetence or complicity, or both.

“We are disappointed, but not surprised,” Gottlieb continued, “that Holder’s Democrat cheerleaders tried to portray this as a witch hunt, and tried to blame the Bush administration, but their arguments do not wash. This is about the rule of law and finding the truth about a horribly mis-managed gun trafficking operation, the murder of an American Border Patrol agent and what appears to have been a cover-up by the Department of Justice.”

CCRKBA had urged gun owners to contact their congressional representatives in support of the contempt vote.

“We are proud,” Gottlieb noted, “of the 17 Democrats who joined the Republican majority on this vote. This was not about partisanship, but accountability and transparency. Fast and Furious has a body count, and so long as people provide cover to the attorney general, the blood is on their hands.”

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Gun Rights Organizations React To Contempt Resolution

June 21, 2012 by 1 Comment

The National Rifle Association and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have both released statements backing the actions of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on a contempt citation for Eric Holder.


From the NRA-ILA:

Fairfax, Va. – The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform passed a resolution recommending that the House find Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. in contempt of Congress by a 23 to 17 vote.

“The NRA fully supports this contempt resolution,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “The American people – including millions of NRA members and tens of millions of NRA supporters – deserve the truth, and we will support any effort that leads us to that truth.”

The Committee’s report thoroughly details the immediate reasons for the resolution: the Justice Department’s open defiance of legitimate demands for documents that are needed for oversight and investigation of one of the most disastrous episodes in the history of federal law enforcement.

Since taking office, Attorney General Holder has seized on the deadly violence in Mexico to promote more gun control. He perpetuated the lie that “90 percent” of firearms used in Mexican crime come from the U.S. and he called for resurrecting the 1994 Clinton gun ban; and to justify the illegal multiple sales reporting scheme, which amounts to gun registration for honest Americans who buy long guns in southwest border states.

There is little doubt that the White House used the Fast and Furious program to advance its gun control agenda. The White House actively sought information from the operation to support its plan to demand reporting of multiple rifle sales by the nearly 9,000 federally licensed firearm dealers in border states.

“The NRA’s support of this resolution was not undertaken lightly. Eric Holder and the Justice Department owe it to the American people to produce the truth,” concluded Cox.

A letter to Chairman Issa from Chris Cox can be found here: http://nraila.org/media/7733622/cc-letter-to-issa.pdf

From the CCRKBA:

BELLEVUE, WA – President Obama’s claim of executive privilege to prevent Congressional access to documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious smacks of monumental hypocrisy and looks like an attempt to cover blood on the administration’s hands, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

It did not prevent the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from voting 23-17 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

“In a March 2007 interview with Larry King on CNN, then-Senator Barack Obama complained about a ‘tendency’ on the part of the Bush administration to ‘hide behind executive privilege’,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “Now we must find out what is in those documents that the White House wants to hide from the American public.”

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has been investigating Fast and Furious since March 2011. Guns linked to the operation are also linked to the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, and untold numbers of Mexican citizens.

“Today’s action by the White House creates the strong suspicion that the Obama administration is trying to hide from the fact that they have blood on their hands,” Gottlieb observed. “That’s not rhetoric; we’re talking about the deaths of countless Mexican citizens and especially a dead federal officer. Fast and Furious has given us a verifiable body count.

“There is evidence that those involved in Fast and Furious thought it could bolster calls for additional gun control,” Gottlieb said. “If that’s accurate, it demonstrates a callousness that goes beyond the limits of human decency. It is imperative that that the American public knows all the facts of this case prior to the election. The people responsible for this disaster must be held accountable, and that will not happen so long as the administration continues to stonewall, and hiding behind executive privilege suggests that Holder and the president have no intention of coming clean.”

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CCRKBA Nails Chinese On Hypocritical Comments

June 1, 2012 by 2 Comments

I mentioned the Red Chinese criticizing the US for human rights violation the other day. For the ChiComms, those violations were that we allowed citizens to own firearms. I thought that was rich and so does the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

BELLEVUE, WA – When the People’s Republic of China accused the United States of violating human rights because of our Second Amendment, they voluntarily became the world’s laughing stock, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

China’s State Council Information Office in Beijing criticized the United States’ human rights record because of this country’s high level of firearms ownership. In their report, the Chinese alleged, “The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens’ lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership.”

An outraged CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted, “It’s appalling that the Chinese complain that our constitution and Bill of Rights allows wide civil liberties latitude, including the right to keep and bear arms.” He accused the Chinese of engaging in world class hypocrisy by complaining about poor human rights in another country.

“The Chinese have hardly set a sterling example for protecting and advancing human rights,” he observed. “Perhaps what offends them most is that our Second Amendment was authored to prevent this country from going down the same road toward totalitarianism that rulers in the People’s Republic have embraced. We are not like China, and we will never be like China so long as American citizens retain their right to keep and bear arms, and they know it.”

The Chinese also criticized this country’s crime rates, to which Gottlieb responded that in the United States, citizens accused of crimes have the right to a fair trial, legal counsel and judgment by a jury of their peers.

“We don’t imprison political dissidents simply for speaking their minds,” Gottlieb noted. “We consider people to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, not the other way around. We afford an array of legal rights to people accused of crimes. Of course we don’t have a perfect system or a perfect country, but it’s better than all the rest. When was the last time we saw an American asking the Chinese embassy for political asylum?”

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Citizens Committee On HB 489

May 25, 2012 by

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms just released an alert on North Carolina’s HB 489 and the attempt to overturn the Bateman ruling.

The alert:

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is alerting North Carolina gun owners that state lawmakers are attempting to pass a new “emergency powers” law that may be more restrictive than the one a federal judge just struck down.

House Bill 489, according to Grass Roots North Carolina, would enable cities to restrict firearms rights in the home in emergencies, something they never had the authority to do. Attorney Alan Gura, who represented GRNC and the Second Amendment Foundation in the recently-won federal lawsuit striking down the state’s emergency power to regulate firearms in a declared emergency, says that anyone who tries to enforce a ban on guns under this new legislation would lose qualified immunity.

The legislation, now in the Senate Judiciary I committee, establishes “dangerous weapons restrictions in emergencies.”

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said the new proposal suggests that North Carolina lawmakers responsible for this bill “either simply don’t get it or they are determined to undermine a constitutionally-protected civil right no matter what a judge says.”

“The federal court ruled against this sort of emergency regulation, but the legislature is turning around and trying to pass an even more restrictive law,” he observed.

CCRKBA is urging firearms owners to contact their state senator to oppose the measure.

“Try to adopt bad legislation in an effort to replace a bad law that was struck down by a federal judge is not just bad policy,” Gottlieb said, “it is an egregious abuse of legislative power.”