NEWS RELEASE

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

CCRKBA LAUDS WISCONSIN SENATE VOTE ON CCW, URGES GUN OWNERS TO CALL ASSEMBLY

For Immediate Release: December 7, 2005

BELLEVUE, WA – Following Tuesday's 23-10 vote by the Wisconsin State Senate to pass concealed carry legislation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is urging Badger State gun owners to call the State Assembly in support of a common sense personal protection law.

"Wisconsin residents have just as much right to defend themselves as do the citizens in 46 other states," said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron. "Yet anti-gun Gov. Jim Doyle, who is once again promising to veto this modest legislation, is treating them like second-class citizens who cannot be trusted with their own safety. It makes me wonder why he expects Wisconsin citizens to trust him in the governor's office.

"It appears that the Assembly will take up this matter next week, and Wisconsin gun owners and other supporters of self-defense rights need to make their feelings known," Waldron continued.

Waldron was critical of published comments that suggest Gov. Doyle and the lone dissenting Republican, Sen. Luther Olsen of Ripon, just do not think Wisconsin citizens need to carry firearms for personal protection.

"They can think what they want," Waldron said. "But that doesn't give them the right to say that nobody else has any right, particularly when it comes to making a choice about how best to protect themselves and their families. That's really what this is all about, the right of Wisconsin citizens, as spelled out in the state constitution, versus the personal prejudice that some people, including Doyle, have against firearms.

"The record in every other state with a right-to-carry law discredits all the hysterical rhetoric that opponents of personal protection have been spreading," Waldron noted. "The dire predictions about Wild West shootouts, about threats to innocent bystanders and especially children have all been debunked by years of performance. The time for Wisconsin citizens to enjoy the same personal security as the overwhelming majority of their fellow Americans is long overdue. Jim Doyle has no right to delay that any longer."

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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