NEWS RELEASE

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

CCRKBA CHALLENGES MAYORS TO ‘CLOSE GOVERNMENT GUN LOOPHOLE’

For Immediate Release: February 15, 2007

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today called on New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his colleagues in the “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” coalition to devote all their resources to closing the government gun loophole.

The Washington Post this week revealed that between February 2002 and September 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 160 missing firearms. That is in addition to the 352 missing guns the FBI reported lost or stolen in a similar audit in 2002. The newspaper reported that at least 18 of those guns later turned up in connection with criminal investigations, and several had been used in armed robberies.

“Bloomberg and his buddies have been railing about all of the illegal guns they want to take off the streets,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Here’s an opportunity for them to put their energy into an effort that will not infringe in the least on the individual citizen’s right to keep and bear arms.

“The FBI’s missing guns are only the tip of the iceberg,” Gottlieb continued. “In 2003, we know that an audit by the General Accounting Office revealed that some 18 different federal agencies had reported more than 800 guns missing, and that included 19 submachine guns, 541 handguns and assorted rifles and shotguns. And let’s not forget guns lost by, or stolen from, local police agencies, including the 9mm Glock pistol carelessly left by Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske in his parked car on a downtown Seattle street more than two years ago.

“Don’t tell us about some mythical gun show loophole that needs closing,” he observed. “We obviously have a far more serious problem of theft and loss of firearms in our own law enforcement community, and until that problem is solved, Bloomberg and his anti-gun soul mates on Capitol Hill and in mayor’s offices around the country need to leave law-abiding citizens alone.”

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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