by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
About the same time that President Barack Obama landed in Roseburg, Oregon to visit with families of the Umpqua Community College shooting victims, the Second Amendment Foundation announced the launch of a television campaign challenging him for “gun control lies.”
The Bellevue, Washington-based gun rights organization advertisement urges at least one million people to call a toll-free telephone number and answer a simple question: “Do you think Obama is lying to push his gun control agenda?” The telephone number is (800) 292-9044.
Greeting the president in Roseburg was a crowd of protesters, many visibly carrying sidearms, and displaying some provocative signs. Messages including “Obama Free Zone,” “Go Golf,” and “No Bama” contrasted with welcome signs along the roads and around Roseburg High School, where the president spent about an hour with the families.
There’s been lots of grumbling in the Northwest since Obama told a press conference that he intends to politicize such incidents to fuel gun debate. In Roseburg, depending upon the source, there were hundreds of pro-Second Amendment protesters, some who had traveled from neighboring Washington state a couple of hundred miles north.
Alan Gottlieb
The SAF advertisement, which also appears on YouTube, is pretty hard-hitting. As SAF founder Alan Gottlieb explained it, “We’re fed up with the president’s repeated exploitation of tragedies to promote a failed agenda of public disarmament.” The one-minute spot bristles as it repeatedly accuses the president of lying about guns.
“Law-abiding gun owners are not the problem, nor is their right to keep and bear arms,” Gottlieb said, “and Obama knows it. But true to the left wing principle of never letting a tragedy go to waste, the president and other anti-gunners have launched a massive attack on the Second Amendment.
“The president has argued that states with the toughest gun control policies experience less violent crime,” he added. “Apparently he thinks Chicago and Baltimore are no longer part of the United States, much less Washington, D.C., New York or Los Angeles.
“He has referred to Australia’s gun laws,” Gottlieb added, “without mentioning that the cornerstone of that country’s effort was a massive and mandatory surrender of privately-owned firearms. That suggests to us that his agenda just might include gun confiscations if people don’t meekly turn them in.
“He claims that more guns in the hands of honest citizens, and the elimination of gun-free zones would not reduce gun-related crime,” he said. “You never see mass shootings at gun stores or shooting ranges, but only places like schools, churches and shopping malls where firearms are forbidden.”
The Roseburg and television ad campaign launch came one day after Senate Democrats gathered on the Capitol steps to call for tougher laws that many believe will further erode the average citizen’s right to keep and bear arms, while they enjoyed protection from more than a dozen Capitol police officers, the Washington Times reported.
NBC News described the proposed changes as “sweeping,” and the Washington Post reported yesterday that President Barack Obama is “seriously considering circumventing Congress with his executive authority” to press his gun control agenda. The president will travel today to Roseburg, Oregon and then spend the afternoon snarling traffic in Seattle to attend a fund-raiser for anti-gun Washington Sen. Patty Murray.
The Washington Post might be accused of creating a false impression about current gun laws. The newspaper reported that, “Under the proposed rule change, dealers who exceed a certain number of sales each year would be required to obtain a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and perform background checks on potential buyers.”
Btu dealers are already required to have a federal firearms license. It appears the president wants to target private sellers who make occasional sales or purchases; the kinds of folks one often sees at gun shows. “The proposed executive action aims to impose background checks on individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year,” the story explains. Translation: Close the so-called “gun show loophole.”
According to the Washington Times story, veteran anti-gun Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is predicting “a groundswell” of support for the new gun control measures. The package “centered on measures to expand and strengthen background checks for gun purchasers,” the newspaper said.
However, the mass shooting incidents upon which the Senate Democrats and the president seem to be building their new effort on were perpetrated by people who passed background checks. And none of them bought guns at gun shows, but from retail outlets operated by licensed dealers.
Also, say critics that include Gottlieb, who is also chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, contend that the bulk of these incidents have occurred in so-called “gun-free zones,” where, even if carrying guns is not specifically prohibited by law, it is strongly discouraged.
CCRKBA has accused Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun lobbying group, Everytown for Gun Safety, of “working to keep schools vulnerable to violent attack.” The group also challenged Everytown’s claim that there have been more than 140 school shootings since 2013.
Everytown published a map of the United States, showing where it says there have been 142 school shootings over the past two years. A list with very brief details of each incident accompanied the map.
“The only thing this map proves, which Everytown ignores,” Gottlieb said, “is that ‘gun free school zones’ do not work and are a magnet for violent and crazy people to commit atrocities in a target rich environment. It’s more than a bit ironic that the very thing that Everytown is railing against is the one thing that will optimally protect students, teachers and faculty from a crazed and armed sociopath.”
Gottlieb also questioned the validity of Everytown’s count. Earlier this year the Washington Post Fact Checker reported that “it is difficult to see how many of the incidents included in Everytown’s list — such as suicide in a car parked on a campus or a student accidentally shooting himself when emptying his gun and putting it away in his car before school — would be considered a ‘school shooting’ in the context of Sandy Hook.”
“The Washington Post in June gave this claim Four Pinocchios, which is tantamount to calling it a bald-faced lie,” Gottlieb said in a press release. “At that time, the newspaper was criticizing U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) for using the figure in a speech on June 24, but the numbers came from Everytown.
“Whether the numbers are accurate or not,” he said, “the fact remains that Everytown is perpetuating a dangerous situation that leaves our schools, colleges and universities vulnerable to tragedy. Even if it saves just one life, the ‘gun free school zones’ concept must be abolished. The safety of our children depends on it.”
