by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
http://gunweek.com/
Permanently disabled Reagan Press Secretary Jim Brady, reportedly frustrated that efforts to pass increasingly restrictive gun laws have been unsuccessful in the past dozen years, recently launched a new campaign ostensibly to crack down on illegal gun trafficking.
However, the leader of a major grassroots gun rights organization contended that Brady’s new multi-year initiative “isn’t a new campaign against illegal guns, it’s the same old campaign against all guns, and the American citizens who own them.”
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) took the verbal gloves off after the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence announced its “Campaign Against Illegal Guns.” Brady and his wife, Sarah, announced the new effort on the 25th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan during which Brady was shot by gunman John Hinckley.
Brady Campaign
Over the last quarter-century, the Bradys have become leaders of the gun control lobby, and Handgun Control Inc. changed its name to the Brady Campaign and made Sarah Brady the active spokeswoman for that organization.
In addition to launching their campaign against “illegal guns,” the Bradys also announced another project, called the Gun Industry Watch. This effort is designed to “systematically monitor the gun industry and expose the practices of gun manufacturers and sellers that ensure the continued and profitable supply of guns to the illegal market.”
Hit Republicans
Speaking to ABC News, the Bradys blamed the Republican Party for stalling the gun control agenda. Sarah Brady told a reporter, “The Republican Party today is not what the Republican Party was 20 years ago.”
(Neither is the Democratic party for that matter.)
She accused Republicans of no longer “doing the right thing” but “looking out for themselves.”
(Many politicians including some Democrats learned in 1994 that supporting you wasn’t healthy for their careers Sarah.)
However, she made no mention of the nation’s shift away from extremist gun control laws, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack. Nor did she acknowledge that gun control has proven itself a loser politically since gunowners revolted in November 1994, throwing out more than 50 anti-gun Democrats from the House of Representatives, including House Speaker Tom Foley of Washington state.
Instead, the emphasis now is on the new campaign, which did not get much exposure in the press. That effort reportedly will push for tougher laws allowing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to “crack down on corrupt gun dealers,” require National Instant Check System (NICS) background checks on every gun sale, including private gun sales, and impose measures that “stop large volume gun sales.”
Gottlieb called it a re-packaging of more gun control with different wrapping.
While anti-gunners have claimed credit for reductions in violent crime over the past several years, Gottlieb insisted there are other reasons.
“Three Strikes and You’re Out laws put violent repeat offenders out of circulation,” he said, “and Hard Time for Armed Crime statutes have kept more thugs behind bars.
‘Shall-Issue’ Laws
“Expansion of shall-issue concealed carry laws that are now on the books in 38 states have allowed law-abiding citizens the means to fight back,” Gottlieb continued. “While the gun control crowd has continued to push one failed policy after another—all designed to prevent American citizens from defending themselves, their families and their homes—it has been the tough legislation, mandatory sentencing guidelines and expansion of self-defense rights that has truly carried the day, and the Brady Bunch knows it.”
Gottlieb is intimately familiar with Three Strikes and Hard Time initiatives, because both were born within the Second Amendment Foundation, CCRKBA’s sister organization. Both groups are headquartered in a complex called Liberty Park in Bellevue, WA.
While the Bradys are promising to carry on their campaign against firearms, Gottlieb issued a statement in which he vowed to keep fighting to restore lost gun rights and push for common-sense legislation targeting criminals.
“We will continue working with progressive members of both parties on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures to promote sensible legislation that focuses on felons, not firearms,” he concluded. “The battle to regain our firearms rights is hardly over, but we will cut through the smokescreens thrown in our path by anti-gun extremists. Our goal is to return common sense to the law, so that rights prevail over rhetoric.”
(Sorry Sarah, but our rights need to prevail over your rhetoric.)