Alan Gottlieb

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CCRKBA Says Anti-Gunners Stymied By The Facts

November 9, 2017 by

The Citizens’ Committee Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a statement yesterday regarding the Sutherland Springs church shooting. They say the gun prohibitionists are stymied by the facts given that Stephen Willeford, the nearby hero who shot the killer, used an AR-15 to stop more carnage.

I have to disagree with Alan Gottlieb on this. While rational people would look at the facts and say that the presence of a firearm prevented further bloodshed, the gun prohibitionists ignore facts. They work on emotion and the facts be damned. The fact that Mr. Willeford used an AR-15 was ignored yesterday when Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a coterie of her power and control mad colleagues introduced the Assault Weapons Ban of 2017.

Rational people like thee and me, Alan, and Texas AG Ken Paxton recognize that an armed man using an AR-15 helped to end the killing sooner than later. You can read Alan’s statement on this below:

ANTI-GUNNERS STYMIED BY FACTS IN TEXAS SHOOTING, SAYS CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, WA – As more facts emerge from the tragic Sutherland Springs, Texas church shooting, gun prohibitionists and their cheerleaders in the media are stymied in their efforts to exploit this case, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“The perpetrator’s rampage was stopped by a law abiding citizen, using an AR15-type rifle,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “The shooter bought his guns at retail and passed background checks because the military failed to forward his criminal records to the National Instant Check System. Now it is being reported that the gunman once escaped from a mental health facility in New Mexico.

“Isn’t it ironic,” he mused, “that a private citizen, who the anti-gunners would prefer to be defenseless, used a rifle that gun control extremists have tried to ban with the claim that such guns do not belong in civilian hands?”

Gottlieb noted that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told two different cable news networks that adding more gun control laws that penalize honest citizens and interfere with their right of self-defense is not the answer.

“We stand in agreement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who told both MSNBC and Fox News that Kelley had already violated laws against murder, so another gun law would not prevent this from happening,” Gottlieb said. “Sunday’s incident proves that the kind of gun controls advocated by politicians and anti-gun groups would have prevented the heroic actions of Stephen Willeford and Johnnie Langendorff, and may have allowed the shooter to continue his rampage.

“Mr. Willeford’s heroic intervention and his pursuit of the wounded madman, with Mr. Langendorff, is exactly what the Second Amendment is about,” Gottlieb observed. “They followed the killer and kept him covered with a semiautomatic rifle until lawmen arrived.

“America is blessed to have men like these,” he said. “But gun control extremists? Not so much.”

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CCRKBA On The 49ers

October 31, 2017 by 1 Comment

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, takes the 49ers to task for the half million dollar donation to anti-gun efforts. In doing so, he weaves in more football lingo than your average ESPN analyst in an amusing takedown of the hapless 49ers.

In other words, Alan is in the red zone when he steps under center, takes the snap, surveys the defense, and rifles a touchdown pass for the winning score.

From CCRKBA:

BELLEVUE, WA – While the San Francisco 49ers racked up their eighth consecutive defeat over the weekend, the team’s announcement last week that it is contributing $500,000 to gun control efforts just might seal their fate as losers on a different level in the eyes of millions of American gun owners, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“We’re throwing a flag on this play,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “After weeks of protests at various NFL games that have seen players disrespect the National Anthem, resulting in sliding television ratings and fan disapproval, giving a half-million dollars to people who attack gun rights is worse than a clipping penalty.

“The money is earmarked to support legislation in conflict with the constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” he added. “First the NFL disrespects the National Anthem, and now they disrespect our constitution.”

According to a report on ESPN, the money will also be used to support legislation that not only bans “bump stocks” but will also be aimed at prohibiting “silencers and armor piercing bullets.”

“The Hearing Protection Act might have a chance in Congress,” Gottlieb noted, “but for the Niners to give that kind of money to the opposition amounts to pass interference, and it should cost them more than 15 yards.

“Halfway into the season,” he continued, “San Francisco hasn’t put a single victory on the scoreboard. Now they’ve essentially insulted millions of NFL fans by helping bankroll the gun control effort. That’s like punting on a first down.”

“Professional football is supposed to be a sporting event that entertains and thrills fans,” Gottlieb observed, “not help finance efforts to erode their constitutional rights. Politics is threatening to ruin the games.

“By making this pledge to gun control,” he concluded, “the Niners are definitely off sides.”

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Alan Gottlieb Of SAF/CCRKBA On Trump Win

November 10, 2016 by

Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms released this statement congratulating Donald Trump and Mike Pence on their win.

BELLEVUE, WA — In a joint statement, the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms congratulated the nation’s gun owners for making possible Tuesday’s victory that will send Donald J. Trump to the White House in 2017.

SAF and CCRKBA also offer their sincere congratulations to President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence for their historic and stunning victory, and especially for Mr. Trump’s gracious call for unity among all Americans.

“What happened Tuesday night was a reaffirmation that Americans can make the system work, and that this nation’s gun owners are a cornerstone of that system,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “It cannot be ignored that this nation’s tens of millions of honest firearms owners turned out to protect their constitutional rights. From the outset, Mr. Trump made it clear that the Second Amendment will be safe on his watch.

“While America’s hard-working gun owners can celebrate the victory they helped make possible,” added Gottlieb, who also chairs the CCRKBA, “we must remain mindful that the gun prohibition lobby, which is largely funded by elitist billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, will almost certainly double down on their efforts to erode our Second Amendment rights at the state level, whenever and wherever they can.

“Every gun owner owes a huge ‘Thank You’ to our good friends at the National Rifle Association for their efforts and expenditures to educate and guide voters,” Gottlieb noted.

Having talked with Alan at the Gun Rights Policy Conference and listened to all the speakers there, I think there was a sense then that we were going to have to work very hard to preserve our gun rights and, even then, we might fail. That was September and this is November. My how things have shifted.

I would like to point out Alan’s thanks to the NRA for their immense efforts in this election. Alan is not only the Executive Director of SAF but also a Life Member of the NRA.

As to the NRA’s efforts, see this clip with NBC’s Chuck Todd and Tom Brokaw.

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CCRKBA Calls Out Sit-In Democrats

June 23, 2016 by

Alan Gottlieb of the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that the Democrats no longer represent the ideals of a free society. Due process to them is just something that stands in the way of their gun prohibitionist goals.

Alan’s full statement is below:

Dems No Longer Represent Ideals Of A Free Society

BELLEVUE, WA – While Capitol Hill Democrats staged a symbolic “sit-in” today in the House chambers to demand action on new gun restrictions, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said these lawmakers clearly define by their actions how far the party has strayed from the ideals of liberty their predecessors stood for.

“Democrats in the 1960s used sit-ins to expand Constitutional rights,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “But today, they are using a sit-in to restrict those same civil rights.”

While Democrats professed to be interested in curbing gun-related violence, he said, their true motives are aimed more at eroding not only firearms rights, but the right of due process. Clearly, Gottlieb asserted, the sit-in is a carefully-choreographed attempt to fool the public into believing that it is right to pass legislation to strip someone of their rights without any criminal charge, much less a conviction, by placing them on a secret “watch list” without benefit of due process.

“Their party no longer represents the ideals of a free society,” Gottlieb said. “Democrats who are participating in this exhibition think they symbolize the frustration of American citizens. What they’re really symbolizing is the fact that they have been sitting down on the job rather than addressing the genuine threat of worldwide terrorism that has once again erupted in this country while Democrat Barack Obama sits in the Oval Office.

“Instead of demanding direct action against dangerous Islamic extremists,” he continued, “they’re distracting the public by pushing gun control measures that they know would not have prevented Orlando, Boston or San Bernardino. But it creates the deceptive impression that they are doing something, when in fact they are doing less than nothing by trying to penalize the wrong people.

“This is an insult to many of us that participated in sit-in demonstrations to extend civil rights a generation ago,” he added. “Many of us were armed to protect participants from the Ku Klux Klan and other bigots. We were also armed with the facts, something that today’s gun prohibitionists know little about. This demonstration is a disgrace, but today’s crop of Democrats don’t seem to care.”

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A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations

April 15, 2013 by 5 Comments

Clint Eastwood’s character “Dirty Harry” Callahan uttered the famous words, “A man’s gotta know his limitations”, in the movie Magnum Force.

So it is with gun rights organizations and their leaders. In the past I’ve criticized the NRA-ILA and Chris Cox for claiming credit for Heller and McDonald when the latter was a project of the Second Amendment Foundation. At the time, I also said in an ideal world there would be a division of labor with the Second Amendment Foundation and Alan Gura doing litigation and the NRA-ILA handling the lobbying of Congress. Those are, and continue to be, the strengths of the respective organizations.

Thus, when news broke that Alan Gottlieb and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was claiming credit for the Manchin-Toomey “compromise” on gun background checks, I was dismayed and, to be perfectly frank, outraged.

It’s time to get real. The Second Amendment Foundation does litigation really well just as the NRA-ILA does lobbying at the national level really well. Just as the NRA is only so-so when it comes to gun rights litigation, SAF’s 503c4-affiliate, the Citizens Committee is only so-so on lobbying. Neither are really as effective at the state level as the state-level organizations such as ISRA, CalGuns, GRNC, or Virginia Citizens Defense League among many others.

Alan Gottlieb and CCRKBA had no business getting involved in writing Manchin-Toomey. Gun control legislation was slowly dying in the Senate until the “grand compromise” revived it. The gun prohibitionists have already jumped on Alan’s statement. Mark Glaze, executive director of Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors, called it “a helpful development” in the Washington Post. Conversely, groups like the CalGuns Foundation and Cal-FFL are not that enthused about it even if it might make things a little easier in California.

There are neither enough goodies nor poison pills for the opposition to make Manchin-Toomey palatable to me. To put it bluntly, I think Alan Gottlieb screwed up royally on this one. The sad part is that it will probably hurt gun rights litigation, which his organization does well.

As I said in the headline to this post, a man’s gotta know his limitations.

UPDATE: Second Amendment scholar and attorney Dave Kopel does an excellent job dissecting the supposedly “pro-gun” portions of Manchin-Toomey and concludes that they are actually very strong anti-gun provisions. He calls its a “bonanza of gun control”. It should be noted that Dave has been both a speaker and attendee at a number of the Gun Rights Policy Conferences put on by CCRKBA and the Second Amendment Foundation.

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CCRKBA Calls For Background Checks …. On Poiliticians

April 11, 2013 by



The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has weighed in on universal background checks. Given the higher incidence of crime by mayors associated with MAIG than that of lawful gun owners, Alan Gottlieb makes the suggestion that we should be doing background checks on politicians instead of gun owners.


BELLEVUE, WA – “If politicians want universal background checks, we should start with them,” said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

He pointed to recent political scandals in the New York Legislature, which just passed a new restrictive gun control law, where a state senator and state assemblyman were arrested last week, as “one small example.”

“But look at politics in recent years,” Gottlieb observed. “From state and federal scandals, to arrests involving several members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, we have had example after embarrassing example of public officials being charged with violating various laws. Does anyone think former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who had to quit his post over a lewd e-mail scandal, should clear a mental health screening to buy a gun?

“If you compare percentages,” he continued, “the rate of criminal activity by politicians is probably far higher than the rate of crimes committed by the general public.

“What this underscores,” he said, “is the reason gun laws don’t work and never will. People who make the laws we have to live under break them anyway, just like criminals routinely disobey gun laws. Based on their own experience, politicians should know that the gun laws they pass will not prevent crime.”

Gottlieb pointed to crooks like former Louisiana Congressman Bill Jefferson, sent to prison after authorities found $90,000 in his freezer during an investigation. He cited former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, now in prison for racketeering and extortion.

“It is both sad and disgraceful that the list goes on and on,” Gottlieb said. “There are politicians with domestic violence problems, others who accepted bribes, some who stole money or were involved in other criminal acts.

“No wonder citizens are disgusted with politicians and don’t trust them,” he concluded, adding tongue-in-cheek, “And these people want to know why there’s a run on guns and ammunition?”

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CCRKBA Blasts Passage Of S.150 Out Of Committee

March 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a statement this afternoon blasting the party-line vote on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Assault Weapons Ban of 2013.

From their statement:


CCRKBA BLASTS PARTY-LINE PASSAGE OF FEINSTEIN GUN BAN MEASURE

BELLEVUE, WA – Thursday’s strict party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to move anti-gun Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s measure banning so-called “assault weapons” was an insult to millions of law-abiding American citizens who own such firearms and have harmed nobody, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

“Instead of banning the most popular firearm in the country,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “we need to ban politicians who assault our rights. We are appalled and disappointed that Sen. Feinstein and her cronies have advanced this measure, which demonizes firearms that are used thousands of times each year to protect lives and property from criminal attack.”

Gottlieb noted that FBI crime data says that rifles of any kind are used in only a fraction of violent crimes annually, “yet Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have allowed this legislative travesty to move forward.”

“Demonizing certain firearms, and by default the people who own them, has become a scapegoat strategy by politicians who have allowed a broken justice system to release violent offenders back on the street while disarming their potential victims,” Gottlieb said. “By focusing their energy on disarming law-abiding citizens, politicians like Sen. Feinstein are perpetuating a myth that firearms cause crime. That’s as foolish as believing that cars cause drunk driving.”

Sen. Feinstein acknowledged that her legislation faces an uphill battle when it reaches the full Senate.

“We will encourage our members to contact their senators about this legislation,” Gottlieb said. “Public policy and constitutional rights should not be subject to the whims of gun prohibitionists who are quick to exploit the crimes committed by a few crazy people, in order to advance their agenda of public disarmament.”

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CCRKBA Responds To Obama’s Proposals

January 16, 2013 by



Alan Gottlieb and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have issued a quick response to the legislative proposals and executive actions coming from the White House on gun control.

OBAMA MISSES TARGET DELIBERATELY


WITH ANTI-GUN AGENDA, SAYS
CCRKBA



BELLEVUE,
WA — President Barack Obama has deliberately missed the target with his
proposed gun control scheme, announced today at the White House,
because it is now clear he wants to blame law-abiding gun owners for the
actions of criminals and madmen, the Citizens Committee for the Right
to Keep and Bear Arms said.

“Suddenly Mr. Obama wants to get more criminal and mental
health records into the NICS background check data base and get a
permanent director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,”
observed CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Where has he been for the last
four years?”

Gottlieb noted that these proposals have been suggested in
the past and supported by the firearms community, but they have
repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. But now, as he exploits the Sandy Hook
school tragedy, these items are high on his anti-gun agenda.

“Perhaps he was too busy during his first term, while his
administration was running thousands of assault rifles, millions of
rounds of ammunition and countless high capacity magazines to violent
criminals and drug cartel thugs through his administration’s Fast &
Furious program,” Gottlieb observed. “Now he wants to take away our
Second Amendment rights when he and his friends have put more assault
weapons in the wrong hands than all of organized crime?

“These firearms have been used not only to kill a Border
Patrol agent, but also hundreds of people including women and children,”
he added. “This policy has resulted in more deaths and carnage than all
the mass shootings in the United States in last ten years.

“The measures being proposed by the president will not
prevent a repeat of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and he knows it,” Gottlieb
continued. “The initials ‘B. O.’ stand for more than Barack Obama. They
stand for the bad odor of his blame game.”

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CCRKBA Responds To Brady’s “Not About 2nd Amendment”

January 10, 2013 by

Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign, said yesterday after Biden’s meeting with him and other gun prohibitionists that it wasn’t a debate about the Second Amendment. Alan Gottlieb of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms took great exception to that and issued this today.

Thursday, January 10th, 2013 .
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BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today issued a bristling response to Brady Campaign President Dan Gross, who insisted as he left the White House meeting with Vice President Joe Biden that the current push for more gun control “is not a debate around the Second Amendment.”.
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“The hell it’s not,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb declared. “The right to keep and bear arms is at the core of this anti-gun campaign, and Dan Gross knows it.”.
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The Brady Campaign is one of several so-called “gun safety” organizations that have already met with Vice President Biden and his gun control task force. Gottlieb challenged that definition..
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“The Brady Campaign and other such organizations are all about gun prohibition, not safety,” he said. “They’re not interested in safety when all they want is to disarm law-abiding Americans and taking the best means of self-defense away from crime victims while doing nothing to disarm criminals..
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“The White House calling the gun prohibition lobby a ‘gun safety’ group is tantamount to suggesting that Ted Bundy was an advocate for battered women,” he said.

In comments to reporters, Gross insisted that “Words like ‘comprehensive’ and ‘broad’ don’t mean taking guns away from law-abiding citizens.”

“That statement is so demonstrably untrue it’s ridiculous that he expects anyone to believe it,” Gottlieb said. “Banning an entire class of firearms based primarily on cosmetics is taking them away from people. Imposing extremist regulations on the exercise of a civil right amounts to taking that right away and treating gun ownership like a privilege.

“Among gun prohibitionists,” he concluded, “the definition of safety is disarmament. Sure they’re not debating ‘around the Second Amendment,’ they’re trying to erode it and ultimately erase it from the Bill of Rights. We’re not going to let them get away with it.”

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“Calm Down And Take A Valium”

December 13, 2012 by 2 Comments

Al Gore’s Current TV featured Alan Gottlieb discussing yesterday’s win in the 7th Circuit this evening. He was on The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur.

Uygur started ranting about Chicago being an “island in an ocean of guns”, the gun show loophole (sic), and how Chicagoans can just go to a gun show in another state and buy a pistol. To which Alan Gottlieb responded, “Calm down and take a Valium”. Alan then proceeded to explain how it was illegal for an out of state resident to purchase a handgun in another state and take possession of it there. As we know Federal law requires it to be shipped to an FFL in the home state of the purchaser.