NEWS RELEASE

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

CCRKBA BLASTS VA GOV. KAINE FOR USING VIRGINIA TECH CRIME TO ATTACK GUN SHOWS

For Immediate Release: January 9, 2008

BELLEVUE, WA – Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has fallen back on one of the oldest, and most shoddy, tactics in the gun grabber playbook by using the Virginia Tech tragedy to launch an attack on gun shows, when the crime had nothing to do with gun shows, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Neither of the guns used by Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho was purchased at a gun show,” noted CCRKBA Legislative Liaison Joe Waldron. “Attacking some mythical ‘gun show loophole’ will do nothing to prevent criminals from getting their hands on guns illegally, because it has been shown statistically that criminals rarely get firearms at such shows.”

Waldron was alluding to a study done for the Department of Justice that found less than one percent (0.7 %) of criminals imprisoned for using guns in crimes got their firearms from gun shows. The overwhelming majority get firearms from family, associates or on the street. However, Gov, Kaine wants to require background checks on all firearms transactions at gun shows, including private sales that are exempt under current federal statute.

“Virginia Tech was a tragedy of monstrous proportions,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “but there was absolutely no connection with gun shows. Cho purchased both of the guns he used from a federally licensed retail gun shop, he successfully passed a mandatory background check.

“Gov. Kaine already took action by ordering the State Police in Virginia to deny firearm purchases to people like Cho, who had been ordered by a court to seek outpatient mental health treatment,” Gottlieb recalled. “It is disappointing, to say the very least, that the governor has grabbed a cheap headline by suggesting, even remotely, that adding restrictive regulations to gun show operations will somehow keep people like Cho from obtaining a firearm and committing a crime.

“We agree with Republican State Del. William R. Janis, who said this new proposal by Gov. Kaine is ‘a largely meaningless gesture’,” Gottlieb said. “But that’s the nature of most gun control schemes. They are empty gestures aimed more at demonizing guns and honest gun owners than they are at preventing or solving actual crimes, and extremist gun control advocates know it.

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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