NEWS RELEASE

Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms
12500 N.E. Tenth Place
Bellevue, WA 98005

Democratic Leadership Council courting gun owners with fraud, says CCRKBA

For Immediate Release: October 17, 2003

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) today called the Democratic Leadership Council’s joint weekend conference in Atlanta with the anti-gun Americans for Gun Safety “a fraud designed to fool gun owners into thinking that Democrats are truly interested in gun rights, when they are really pushing gun control disguised as gun safety.”

The DLC and AGS conference is entitled “God, Guns and Guts: Seizing the Cultural Center.” It is an effort, according to published reports, to portray the Democratic Party as more pro-gun. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb’s response was blunt: “Dream on.”

On Friday AGS released a “7-Step Blueprint for Democrats to Promote Responsibility and Win the Gun Vote.”

“Without inviting any true gun rights organizations to the table this weekend,” Gottlieb stated, “the DLC continues to wrap itself in rhetoric. It’s camouflage, and hunters know about camouflage. Camo is designed to conceal something from view, and in this case, what Democrats are trying to conceal is the same old gun control agenda they’ve had all along, by re-packaging it as something else.”

CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron added, “Their own pollster, Mark Penn, who worked for Bill Clinton, has advised Democrats to change their message from ‘gun control’ to ‘gun safety.’ It may sound more appealing, but it’s got the same old smell.

“By meeting with AGS,” Waldron continued, “Democrats are trying to convince voters, and especially gun owners, that they are pro-gun. Look at the AGS record, and you find this organization has supported every gun control measure to come down the legislative pike since it was founded. They’re not a gun rights organization. They’re not even a gun safety organization. They’re a gun control group, the proverbial wolf disguised in sheep’s clothing.”

“Until the Democrats sit down with true gun rights organizations and leaders,” Gottlieb said, “their pronouncements about being pro-gun rights carry as much weight with gun owners as trying to establish what the definition of ‘is’ is.”

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States. The Citizens Committee can be reached by phone at 425.454.4911, on the internet at www.ccrkba.org or by email to www@ccrkba.org .

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