CCRKBA

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“Go Home And Write Your Memoirs”

May 5, 2011 by

The CCRKBA and Alan Gottlieb say if Eric Holder was so clueless about what was going on in the DOJ, it is time for him to go home and write his memoirs.

IF HOLDER IS SO IGNORANT ABOUT GUNRUNNER SCANDAL, HE SHOULD RESIGN

BELLEVUE, WA – Following a second day of Capitol Hill hearings in which he professed little or no knowledge about the controversial Project Gunrunner, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today called for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder.

“For the second day in a row, Attorney General Holder has stated on the record that he didn’t know about one of the most egregious government scandals in memory,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This country cannot afford the luxury of having its top law enforcement officer confess ignorance of an operation that may have allowed thousands of guns to be illegally exported to Mexico. This operation happened on his watch, and apparently right under his nose, and apparently cost the life of at least one law enforcement officer.”

Gottlieb called it an “outrage” that Holder has been unable to answer critical questions about the bungled operation, conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF whistleblowers have told Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) that Project Gunrunner, and its off-shoot, Operation Fast and Furious, apparently funneled nearly 2,000 guns into the illicit gun trafficking pipeline to Mexican drug cartels.

“It is simply unbelievable that the attorney general can act as though he never heard of an operation that has been exposed on national television by CBS News,” Gottlieb stated. “How could he not know, almost six months after the slaying of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, that guns recovered at the scene are linked directly to the Gunrunner sting?”

“Holder is either monumentally stupid,” he added, “or he is telling a monumental lie. Either way, it is obvious that Holder is either hiding something or he is hiding from something. For the attorney general to not know about Gunrunner and its direct link to the Terry slaying is a sign of gross incompetence.”

“It’s time for Eric Holder to go home and write his memoirs,” Gottlieb said.

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CCRKBA – Melson Should Quit Or Be Fired

April 21, 2011 by

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued this press release yesterday evening regarding the continued refusal of ATF to release documents related to Operation Fast and Furious.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today said Kenneth E. Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, should resign or be fired for continued stonewalling on “Project Gunrunner,” the controversial operation that allegedly allowed thousands of guns to be funneled across the border into Mexico.

Congressman Darrell Issa today threatened Melson with contempt for failing to produce documents that Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed on March 31. Melson had until April 13 to provide the documents, and the deadline passed without any response.

“Melson’s continued stonewalling on the Project Gunrunner investigation is intolerable,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “It appears obvious that he has no intention of cooperating with Congress on this serious matter. He should resign or be fired, and he should be replaced by a professional who will work quickly to clean up the ATF, and that starts with providing all Project Gunrunner documents to Congress.”

Rep. Issa sent a letter to Melson earlier today, chastising him for not complying with the subpoena. In that letter, Issa also complained that Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich’s responses on behalf of the ATF have been “largely unhelpful.”

“It appears that Mr. Weich is running interference for Melson and the ATF officials who controlled Gunrunner and its adjunct, Operation Fast-and-Furious,” Gottlieb said. “The only conclusion one can draw from this is that Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department is fully engaged in this smoke and mirrors sham.”

“Obama administration officials evidently believe this scandal will just go away if they ignore it,” he continued. “Congressman Issa’s committee has every right to demand documents and the authority to review them. Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration in history, and this cover up proves his rhetoric was as empty as the suit he is wearing.”

“If Melson, and for that matter, Weich, cannot deliver today,” Gottlieb concluded, “they should both clean out their desks tomorrow.”

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Some Pictures From CCRKBA Rally In Los Angeles

March 16, 2011 by

The CalGuns Foundation, the California Rifle and Pistol Association, CalGuns.net, CCRKBA, and the Second Amendment Foundation sponsored a rally today in Los Angeles to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayor’s plans for more gun control. It also featured CCRKBA’s Guns Save Lives rolling billboard truck.

Below are some pictures from the event posted by Eugene Tan. I see a lot of great signs with a lot of great Oleg Volk photos in them.

Congratulations are due to Gene Hoffman and all the attendees at this event as well as to the sponsors.

Links to all the pictures from the event can be found here.

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Go Alan!

March 15, 2011 by 3 Comments

This time the Alan is Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He said he is willing to take Obama up on his offer to talk about firearms. He’d like to ask Obama about Project Gunrunner (aka Gunwalker) and Operation Fast and Furious.


BELLEVUE, WA – While other gun rights groups reportedly have declined to participate in a “new discussion” about firearms and crime with the Obama administration, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today it would be eager to talk with the White House, especially about the “Project Gunrunner” and “Fast and Furious” scandals, where federal agents helped facilitate gun sales to suspected gunrunners.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb acknowledged that his organization has not yet been asked to participate in the “new discussion” outlined by President Barack Obama in an Op-Ed article that appeared in a Tucson newspaper.

“However,” he said, “we would be delighted to sit down with the president and talk about how his administration has supplied guns to criminals.”

Gottlieb said it seems odd that neither CCRKBA nor its sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), had not been invited to the table despite the president’s desire to open a dialogue with gun rights advocates.

“After all,” he observed, “it was SAF’s Supreme Court case, McDonald v. City of Chicago, that solidified the Second Amendment’s protection of an individual civil right that the president now seems to energetically embrace.

“If we were to be invited,” Gottlieb insisted, “it won’t be for a photo op. There are serious issues American gun owners want discussed, such as restoration of rights, national concealed carry reciprocity, cracking down on states like New Jersey, New York and California that routinely violate gun owners’ rights, lifting the administration’s ban on importation of historic WWII-era rifles, reining in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, especially the Phoenix office and its ‘Fast and Furious’ operation, and the nomination of anti-gun rights Andrew Traver to head BATFE. That’s like putting an arsonist in charge of the U.S. Forest Service.

Gottlieb said the president’s timing for this new approach “seems suspiciously like an effort to deflect public attention away from the growing “Project Gunrunner” and “Fast and Furious” scandals, now that CBS, Fox News and other major news organizations have started probing the controversial operations.

“If Obama were really serious about opening a dialogue about firearms and crime,” he said, “it should not have taken him more than two years in the White House before claiming he wants to meet with gun rights advocates.”

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Holder – Investigate and Fire, Or Resign

February 25, 2011 by

CCRKBA issued a blistering press release this afternoon calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Project Gunwalker and to fire those responsible. It goes on to say that if he isn’t willing to investigate it, he should resign himself.

CCRKBA TO HOLDER ON ATF SCANDAL: INVESTIGATE AND FIRE, OR RESIGN

BELLEVUE, WA- Following new revelations regarding the growing scandal over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Project Gunrunner- the most recent on Wednesday’s CBS Evening News – the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today is calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the allegations and remove ATF officials responsible, or hand in his resignation.

“Instead of cracking down on American gun owners, it is time to crack down on the ATF,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who earlier this week urged gun owners to pressure Congress to cut ATF’s budget.

The Gunrunner scandal was originally uncovered by National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea and independent blogger Mike Vanderboegh. The case now has the attention of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. CCRKBA believes the committee should launch a full-scale investigation of ATF and that Grassley should not stand alone in his pursuit of the truth.

“Two weeks ago,” Gottlieb noted, “Sen. Grassley called on Holder to ‘come clean’ about this scandal, and the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. He was greeted with silence. Agent Terry was likely killed with a gun that ATF allowed one of the Gunrunner suspects to purchase more than a year ago. We have seen documents that show the gun was recovered at the Terry crime scene.

“Almost immediately after he took office,” he continued, “Holder joined other members of the Obama administration in calls for new gun laws to crack down on American gun dealers and gun owners. He wanted to renew the ban on so-called ‘assault weapons’.” Now, thanks to independent Internet reporters and CBS News, it appears hundreds, if not thousands of U.S.-origin guns that made their way to Mexican criminals were allowed to cross the border by an inept ATF operation that was even criticized by ATF agents.

“Senator Grassley’s inquiry has been met with stonewalling,” he said, “but with these new revelations, the time for silence has passed. ATF officials in Phoenix who allowed this travesty to continue, over objections from field agents who knew better, should be fired. Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson should go immediately, and a new director, from outside of the agency, should be appointed to clean up this mess. If Eric Holder is not willing to hold ATF officials accountable, he should resign.”

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CCRKBA Joins Fight Against Nomination of Traver

November 19, 2010 by

This was released yesterday by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms regarding the nomination of Andrew Traver to head ATF:

CITIZENS COMMITTEE OPPOSES TRAVER NOMINATION TO HEAD BATFE
Thursday, November 18th, 2010

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today is announcing its opposition to the nomination, by President Obama, of Andrew Traver as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Traver is currently special agent in charge of Chicago’s BATFE field division, where he has a history of working with gun prohibitionists. He served as an advisor to the International Association for Chiefs of Police on that group’s 2007 “Gun Violence Reduction Project,” in cooperation with the anti-gun-rights Joyce Foundation. This project involved several high profile anti-gun-rights advocates, but there was not a single representative from the firearms community on the advisory panel.

“The nomination of Andrew Traver is more proof that Barack Obama has complete disregard for the Second Amendment and the rights of firearms owners,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “We have serious concerns that the agency, under his leadership, will maintain any semblance of cooperation with the firearms industry, over which BATFE exercises considerable control.”

Traver helped develop the IACP/Joyce Foundation report, which recommended banning an array of modern sport-utility rifles and .50-caliber rifles used in long-range competition. The report also encouraged Congress to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment that protects sensitive trace data used by law enforcement in criminal investigations from being misued in frivolous municipal lawsuits that have consistently lost in court, and urged the adoption of restrictive gun show regulations that would effectively force them to close.

“Mr. Traver appears to be joined at the hip to various gun control and gun ban efforts,” Gottlieb observed. “The Citizens Committee, its members and supporters across the country oppose this nomination because Traver’s history clear shows that he is not the right man for such an important job.”

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City of San Francisco Must Have a Big Legal Budget

August 12, 2010 by

From the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms:

SAN FRANCISCO EYES AMMUNITION
REGISTRY – CCRKBA VOWS LAWSUIT

BELLEVUE, WA – Today’s revelation that the City of San Francisco might consider an ammunition registry scheme brought a promise from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that a lawsuit would quickly follow.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in a report in the San Francisco Examiner that Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier is working with the City Attorney’s Office to “craft legislation” regarding an ammunition registry shows the city has learned nothing from its defeat in court over a 2005 gun ban proposition. CCRKBA joined the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit that nullified the ban because it violates state statute. Now that the Second Amendment has been incorporated to the states by the U.S. Supreme Court, proposals like this one are even more dubious, he observed.

“It appears that Alioto-Pier is trying to be too clever by half,” Gottlieb said. “It’s a de facto registration scheme hiding behind a make-believe effort to crack down on violent crime, and she knows it. We will fight it.”

He noted that it is ironic for the city to be considering such an idea on the eve of the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 24-26 at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency hotel. Gun rights activists and experts from across the nation will gather at the hotel to discuss recent court cases, current legal actions and anti-gun proposals like the one now reportedly being formulated by Alioto-Pier.

“It would seem to me that with the state’s economy in tatters, cutbacks in public safety budgets and federal courts mandating that more criminals must be released from prisons that the city would not make it harder for citizens to defend themselves,” Gottlieb stated. “But in San Francisco, it is politically fashionable to penalize honest people for the misbehavior of the criminal element. It makes you wonder whose side the government is on.

“You can bet we’ll be discussing this at our conference in September,” he concluded. “Ms. Alioto-Pier has an open invitation to attend and explain her scheme to a room full of experts.”