In this screen capture from YouTube, Judge Kenneth Walker declared that he would like to dump all guns in the ocean. (Source: YouTube)
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
When an Oregon Circuit Court judge went off on guns from the bench during the sentencing of a convicted killer, admitting that he would prefer to dump all the guns in America in the ocean, the
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms publicly called on him to resign.
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Walker said that if it were up to him, he would “take all the guns in America, put them on big barges and go dump them in the ocean.”
That did not go over well with CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who said in response that Judge Walker “should not use the bench as a bully pulpit to attack a constitutionally-protected civil right.”
Walker was in the process of sentencing Marcell Lee Daniel Jr. to 17 ½ years in prison for the drive-by shooting of Andrew Coggins back on June 30, 2014 in North Portland, according to the Portland Oregonian and OregonLive.
“There’s no defense to guns,” Judge Walker said in a video that is now posted on YouTube and even made the news broadcasts on Fox News. “There’s just absolutely no reason to have them. But it is a right of people in this country to own and possess them, and I will not say anything to affect that right.”
However, according to Gottlieb, that is precisely what the judge did by making his comments. Gottleib, who lives in neighboring Washington state, suggested that Walker’s comments could be used in a campaign to further ratchet down on gun rights. About two months ago, Ceasefire groups in Oregon and Washington announced they will lobby the legislatures in both states starting in January to ban so-called “assault weapons.” A few weeks later, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, an anti-gun Democrat, announced his own plans to press for such a ban.
In his prepared statement, Gottlieb suggested that the judge seemed to blame the gun more than the convicted shooter standing before him.
“Judge Walker is absolutely wrong about firearms,” Gottlieb said. “There are many good reasons for honest citizens to have guns, including self-defense against criminals like the man he just sent to prison.”
And he quickly added this: “Indeed, law-abiding citizens don’t need any reason at all to exercise a civil right. Whether Judge Walker likes it or not, keeping and bearing arms is a right protected by the constitutions of both the State of Oregon and the United States.”
The judge’s comments have stirred up a tempest on social media. There’s a spirited discussion in progress at the Northwest Firearms forum and other chat groups.
Gottlieb said Judge Walker should at least apologize for his comments.
“Such an extremist viewpoint is offensive and has no place on the bench,” he said.
