Alan Gottlieb
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Forty-eight hours after the Seattle Times announced that Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $1 million to the Initiative 594 campaign in Washington State, veteran gun rights advocate Alan Gottlieb, who opposes the 18-page gun control measure, publicly challenged the billionaire Microsoft founder to a public debate.
Gottlieb, who is spearheading the campaign for competing Initiative 591, issued his challenge, demanding that Gates “Put his mouth where his money is!”
“It’s one thing to be for background checks,” said Gottlieb, who is chairman of the Washington-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. “But, I-594 is poorly written bad law, and all the money in the world won’t make it better.”
The remark was aimed not only at Gates, but at other Seattle-area wealthy elitists who are supporting the anti-gun-rights initiative. That list includes Microsoft alumni Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, and investment capitalist Nick Hanauer. About a dozen people have provided half of the money in the $6 million I-594 war chest.
On the other side, the I-591 campaign has raised about $1.1 million from grassroots organizations, including CCRKBA, the Washington Arms Collectors and Washington Gun Oweners Action League.
Gottlieb’s challenge raises some serious issues. This campaign has clearly become an issue of class warfare. As noted recently by the Spokane Spokesman-Review, the overwhelming financial support for the initiative is coming from ten Seattle-area zip codes. A lot of five-figure contributions have come from those enclaves.
Initiative 591 is a simple one-page measure that prevents government gun confiscation without due process and requires background checks in Washington State to comply with a uniform national standard.
Gottlieb also used the opportunity to remind Washington voters that I-594 is opposed by rank-and-file law enforcement organizations representing more than 7,500 police and sheriffs’ deputies. That information has not been widely reported by the mainstream press.
In addition, the state’s sportsmen and women, competitors and gun collectors are lining up against the gun control scheme. Their message, however, is being overwhelmed by the financial juggernaut that has been launched by the $6 million-strong Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and an independent campaign supporting background checks, launched by the Center for Gun Responsibility earlier this month. Much of the money came from Hanauer.
Gottlieb assured TGM that he is absolutely serious about the challenge. He has been fighting an uphill battle to prevent Washington gun owners from being overwhelmed by regulations that criminalize common activities such as loaning firearms to friends or in-laws without expensive bureaucratic red tape that seems designed more to entrap honest citizens than prevent crimes and catch criminals.
The measure would also expand the state’s handgun database to include all privately-transferred handguns, whether sold, loaned or gifted. Critics of the initiative believe that this is part of a registration scheme.
The National Rifle Association is opposing I-594 but with a limited financial effort. The NRA has taken no public position on I-591.
