NEWS RELEASE

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

CCRKBA SAYS BEST WAY TO STOP SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IS ABOLISH 'GUN FREE ZONES'

For Immediate Release: October 17, 2007

BELLEVUE, WA - While anti-gun organizations are demanding that Congress quickly pass new legislation in response to the Virginia Tech massacre, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms suggests another approach: Abolish the concept of "gun free zones."

"Every tragic school shooting, and attacks such as those at Salt Lake City's Trolley Square, Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and the Tacoma Mall had one common denominator," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "They all happened in so-called ‘gun-free zones'."

Last spring's attack at Virginia Tech occurred months after the university proudly lobbied the Virginia Assembly to continue prohibiting legally-licensed students and faculty from carrying defensive handguns on campus. Thirty-two students and instructors died when Cho Sueng- Hui went on a rampage that might have been stopped short by an armed student or instructor.

"You can pass all the laws you want," Gottlieb continued, "but the only proven way to stop shootings in ‘gun-free zones' is an armed response. We saw that at the Appalachian Law School, at Pearl High School in Mississippi, and at Trolley Square. Each one of those shootings was interrupted by an armed citizen, who essentially acted successfully not because of a law, but in spite of the law.

"There have been numerous studies on gun control laws, and from all of those efforts, there is no conclusive evidence that any of those laws prevented a crime," he said. "There is ample evidence that the gun free zone approach has been a dismal failure, particularly as it applies to public schools and college campuses.

"If Congress is truly sincere about preventing these kinds of tragedies," Gottlieb concluded, "then it should make abolition of gun free zones a priority. Remove the term from the American lexicon, because in translation, all these areas really have become victim disarmament zones and risk-free environments for criminals and lunatics."

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 InformationRequest@ccrkba.org.

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