In response to the recent launch of a new gun control organization consisting of state legislators from all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) immediately called on the new American State Legislators for Gun Violence Prevention (ASLGVP) to immediately publish a roster of their members, and disclose their funding sources.
“Private lobbying organizations might expect to have some degree of privacy,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb, “but when an organization consists of elected public officials, there must be complete transparency. The public deserves to know who belongs to this organization, and who is providing financial support.”
He noted that the group’s mailing address is at a Post Office box in New York City’s Madison Square Station.
Reuters news service reported in early December that “200 state lawmakers from 50 states had launched a nationwide non-partisan coalition, in part because the Congress has failed to reform gun laws.
The group’s founder was reported to be Democratic New York State Assembly member Brian Kavanagh. He told a news conference they would focus on state-level “gun control reforms,” including the prevention of interstate gun trafficking and tightening background checks on buyers.
Lawmakers from eight states were at the news conference, including Virginia, Alabama, New Hampshire and Kansas. Although ASLGVP claims to be bipartisan in makeup, only one Republican lawmaker was listed, state Rep. Barbara Bollier from Kansas.
The group has not released information on its preliminary donors, but Kavanagh said fundraising efforts were under way.
Reuters reported that the ASLGVP had not released information on its preliminary donors, acknowledging only that fundraising efforts are in progress. Another report said that the group had not yet published a list of members.
“If these state lawmakers are worried about political backlash back home,” Gottlieb observed, “they must have good reason for that. Reports say Kavanagh founded this group because Congress has not adopted certain gun control measures. This has become the argument of the gun prohibition lobby. They failed to pressure Congress, so now the strategy is to attack gun rights at the state level, where presumably members of this new anti-gun lawmakers’ group will push their gun control agenda through the state legislatures.
“Frankly,” he continued, “elected officials promoting an agenda to erode state and federal constitutional rights, as members of a New York-based group whose roster is apparently secret, ought to expect some political backlash.
“Gun owners in all 50 states deserve to know, before legislative sessions begin next month, which law-makers in their states will be pushing this new group’s agenda,” Gottlieb con-cluded. “And they also deserve to know who is paying for it.”
