News Release
Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE 10th Place
Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 454-7012 • FAX (425) 451-3959 • www.saf.org

For Immediate Release: August 7, 2002
Contact: Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-7012

IN MICHIGAN'S 15TH DISTRICT:
CONSTITUTION 1 - SARAH BRADY 0

BELLEVUE, WA - Voters in Michigan's strongly Democratic 15th Congressional District have chosen the Bill of Rights over a "Bill of Goods" as they soundly rejected Congresswoman Lynn Rivers, who campaigned on gun control and recruited the nation's leading anti-gun activists to stump for her.

"Lynn Rivers brought in Sarah Brady and other celebrity anti-gunners to sell 15th District voters a bogus 'bill of goods' by making gun control a central issue of her campaign," said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. "But even hardcore Democrats in Michigan's most Democratic region chose the Bill of Rights instead, and gave veteran pro-gun Congressman John Dingell a decisive primary victory."

Over the past two years, since losing the White House, Democratic strategists have urged the party to soften its position on gun control. Rivers obviously ignored that advice, along with recent Zogby poll results showing that 75 percent of American citizens believe the Second Amendment protects their individual right to keep and bear arms.

Instead of backing away from guns, she invited Brady and several gun control proponents to descend upon Michigan during the primary campaign, pulling no punches in their attempts to portray the moderate Dingell as a gun fanatic.

"It appears Michigan voters are smart enough to tell who the real fanatics are," Gottlieb observed. "Sarah Brady simply could not sell her extremist message on gun control to Democrats in Detroit and Ann Arbor. Lynn Rivers was not the only loser in this primary race, and the whole country recognizes that. The gun control issue is even a bigger loser. Democrats, and likewise Republicans, should keep that in mind."

Gottlieb noted that Dingell hardly mentioned his solid pro-gun record during the campaign. The Rivers camp made guns an issue.

"Lynn Rivers and a vocal minority of gun control outsiders tried to turn the election into a referendum on gun rights," Gottlieb noted. "They tried to woo voters with their Utopian gun control message. In the end, Michigan's 15th District Democrats chose civil rights over a siren's song. This is yet one more case where the Constitution wins and Sarah Brady loses."

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners. Current projects include several concealed carry lawsuits, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.