Politics

Gun rights group draws federal, state legislative battle lines

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb announced the group’s legislative agenda, admitting that gun owners are up against a billionaire-backed juggernaut. (Dave Workman)

Legislative battle lines have been drawn by a national grassroots gun rights organization whose headquarters are located “behind enemy lines” in western Washington, where anti-gun lawmakers have already introduced legislation to attack that state’s model preemption law.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms announced its intentions in a news release and on its website and Facebook page. The group’s chairman, gun rights veteran Alan Gottlieb, acknowledges that Second Amendment activists are up against a well-financed gun prohibition lobby that is using billionaire money as a political weapon.

CCRKBA claims some 650,000 members and supporters nationally.

“We need to raise at least $2.1 million for our direct and grassroots lobbying efforts to fund these priorities and advance gun rights,” Gottlieb explained. “That’s less than ten percent of the $25 million that billionaire Michael Bloomberg has pledged to advance his anti-gun rights agenda.”

Bloomberg, the wealthy elitist former mayor of New York City, founded and bankrolled the anti-gun Everytown for Gun Safety by joining two other groups, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

When Bloomberg founded Everytown for Gun Safety, he financed the group with $50 million. He has also spent millions more in efforts to influence elections in several states, including Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado and Maine. He is not alone among wealthy anti-gunners whose dollars have fueled gun control efforts. Bill and Melinda Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer and Nick Hanauer are also identified as big bucks donors to gun control efforts, especially in the Evergreen State where they all live.

At the state level, CCRKBA is focused on California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington. Coincidentally, CCRKBA’S agenda was announced on the heels of an Elway Poll that revealed Washington State voters do not consider gun control a big concern, yet some state lawmakers are busy proposing gun control legislation. Conservative Firing Line reported on that here.

“Elitist anti-gunners in those states are using their wealth as a weapon against honest firearms owners whose only sin is the desire to be left alone to exercise their rights,” Gottlieb said.

CCRKBA said it will focus much of its effort at the national level on passage of national concealed carry reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act that deregulates noise reduction devices for firearms. The reciprocity legislation was passed by the House of Representatives late last year and is now facing a difficult fight in the U.S. Senate.

Anti-gun Democrat Senators Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal have declared the legislation DOA in the Senate. The Reciprocity bill passed the House on an almost party line vote.

But that legislation is becoming increasingly important as the number of legally-armed American citizens continues to expand, and horror stories like ones out of New Jersey involving gun owners who enter the state with firearms have created a sense of outrage.

Gottlieb said the only way to reverse this is to pass the reciprocity legislation, which will likely be signed by President Donald Trump. He mentioned reciprocity several times during the 2016 campaign.

The Hearing Protection Act would deregulate firearm suppressors, which are popular with shooters, but require a special tax stamp to own. The proposed Act would eliminate the paperwork.

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