CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb delivered a sharp rebuttal to gun control lobbyists after the Florida high school tragedy. (Dave Workman)
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The chairman of a leading national gun rights organization has ripped the media and gun prohibition lobbying groups over what he called the “feel-good fakery of gun control and gun-free zones” as emotions continued to run high in the wake of the mass shooting at a Florida high school.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Washington State-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, took a gloves-off approach to gun control advocates who have been exploiting the tragedy. One Seattle-based lobbying group has been sending out “beg” emails, asking for small contributions to push its agenda in the Evergreen State capitol.
Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and many in the dominant media have been blaming the National Rifle Association, and by default all gun rights groups and gun owners in general, for the attack.
Seventeen students and adults were murdered in the Valentine’s Day attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the aftermath, high school age students across the country have mobilized with support from gun control groups. They have announced plans to walk out of school in March on two dates, and to stage another protest in April.
Anti-gunners and the media have made gun owners the collective bogeyman, according to Gottlieb.
“Honest citizens and the Second Amendment are through being the national whipping boy for these abysmal failures,” he stated. “For years, we have endured the efforts of anti-gun elitists and their political lap dogs to erode our rights and hold honest gun owners responsible for crimes they didn’t commit. We have been slandered, marginalized and demonized… Enough is enough.”
Gottlieb noted that “the authorities had multiple warnings about the shooting suspect and repeatedly failed to act. The gun-free school zones law failed. And yet anti-gunners want to blame firearms and penalize law-abiding gun owners.”
The veteran gun rights advocate also indicated support for the notion of armed teachers in schools, and opposition to proposals that the minimum age for buying rifles or shotguns be raised to 21 years.
“Instead of stripping young Americans of their Second Amendment rights,” he contended, “we must give teachers and administrators a fighting chance, especially if armed authorities hesitate.”
That was in reaction to reports that one and possibly four Broward County deputies took cover outside the school building where the shooting was unfolding. They reportedly held in position for several minutes until officers from another agency showed up.
“Instead of treating gun owners as second class citizens we should allow them the option of being first responders,” Gottlieb suggested.
But there is plenty of opposition to that idea. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and other Democrats don’t care for armed teachers. Anti-gunners continue supporting “gun-free zones” despite plenty of evidence that such designations have never prevented a mass shooting. Indeed, most mass shootings have occurred in such “zones.”
“Creating victim disarmament zones such as schools, shopping malls, theaters and office buildings must cease,” Gottlieb said in statement to the press. “The simple truth is that criminals and crazy people do not obey gun control laws.”
He said “It’s time to reverse course and stop this lethal march toward a mythical Utopia. Fantasy world solutions do not stop real world threats. Years of gun control extremism have left us with nothing but tears, sorrow and lost lives.”
