By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Soon after President Barack Obama made it official to NBC’s Meet the Press that he will push for a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms promised “there will be resistance.”
The president told NBC that he expects some resistance, and gun owners appear only too eager to oblige.
“Will there be resistance,” Mr. Obama asked. “Absolutely there will be resistance.”
To which CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb replied, “We will be on the front lines of that resistance.”
The gun rights community already appears to be gearing up for a battle on Capitol Hill, even though the president told NBC’s David Gregory that he intends to “call all the stakeholders together.”
“I will meet with Republicans,” he insisted. “I will meet with Democrats. I will talk to anybody.”
However, TGM checked with the National Rifle Association, CCRKBA and the Second Amendment Foundation, and none of them have so far been invited to participate in any discussions.
“He has insisted that he will talk to anybody,” Gottlieb noted. “If the discussion is all about penalizing honest gun owners, banning guns and eroding the Second Amendment, it’s going to be an awfully short conversation.”
During his interview with Meet the Press, the president promised to put his “full weight” behind an effort to ban so-called “assault weapons” and standard-capacity magazines. He wants to accomplish this “in my first year,” meaning early in his second term. That translates to sometime this year.
Fears of a looming gun ban have caused sales of AR-15 type rifles and magazines to skyrocket. Brownell’s sold out of a three-year supply of magazines in less than a day. Gun shops all over the country are selling every AR-15 rifle they can, and the situation is reminiscent of the days leading up to the 1994 Clinton ban.
“The guns that President Obama and Capitol Hill gun grabbers don’t want the people to have,” Gottlieb observed, “are the ones people are buying by the bushel. Criminals won’t turn them in, so why should law-abiding gun owners be expected to do that?
“Mr. Obama admitted that he has historically supported banning semi-autos and magazines,” he added. “His philosophy is to focus on an object when we should focus on perpetrators and the horrible pattern of violence that has resulted from the creation of so-called ‘gun-free’ zones. Gun-free zones and gun bans only disarm victims and create risk-free conditions for criminals and crazies.”
Gottlieb suggested that people are not safe when all they have is the illusion of safety. That comes with the so-called “gun-free” zones, he insisted. Banning guns also offers the appearance that something has been done to stop criminals and madmen, he added, but in reality, “You do not stop criminals by penalizing law-abiding citizens and demonizing their firearms.”
