BELLEVUE, WA – Since billionaire Bill Gates has not accepted a one-on-one debate challenge from Alan Gottlieb to reveal the myriad problems with Initiative 594, Gottlieb announced today that he will allow Gates to bring former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and make it a two-on-one discussion.
Both Gates and Bloomberg have each contributed over $1 million to the I-594 campaign. Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and spokesman for competing Initiative 591, challenged Gates to debate the gun control measure last week, but received no response.
“In addition to bringing Bloomberg along,” Gottlieb said, “I’m willing to loan Gates my Apple iPhone, so if he doesn’t know the answer to a question, he can ask Siri for help.” Siri is a voice-activated “personal assistant and knowledge navigator” offered with Apple’s IOS-7.
“The public needs to know,” he added, “why Gates supports doubling the state waiting period to get a firearm for personal protection. They need to know why I-594 criminalizes the lawful practice of loaning firearms to friends for hunting or target practice. They need to know why I-594 would prevent loaning a handgun to your sister-in-law for self-defense. They need to know why the initiative would prevent a police officer from loaning a firearm to a fellow officer.
“Voters also need to know why no state law enforcement group has endorsed I-594, and why it is opposed by two major statewide police groups, the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs, and the Washington State Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association, which both endorse the rival Initiative 591,” he said. “These are questions the media need to ask so they can inform the public of what’s really in the 18-page gun control measure that Gates and Bloomberg support.”
Gottlieb also said that a Bloomberg appearance would give the Big Apple billionaire an opportunity to explain to Washington voters why he wants to bring New York-style gun control to the Pacific Northwest.
“He could explain why he defends a $340 permit fee and $90 background check fee on New York City residents just to keep a gun in their own homes,” Gottlieb noted. “He could also discuss his support for New York State’s gun law that bans and allows for the confiscation of many semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and handguns, and why he favors a law that only allows a person to keep seven rounds in a pistol at home for personal protection.
“If Gates is willing to debate, and if he can bring Bloomberg,” Gottlieb concluded, “we need to know soon, so we can book a larger venue, with room enough for their armies of bodyguards, and still allow room for the general public to attend.”
