BELLEVUE, WA — The devastating revelation that a sheriff’s deputy stood outside while students were being murdered inside a Florida high school shows that the government failed massively, and efforts to blame gun rights for the tragedy are dishonest and insane, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

“Since last week’s horror in Parkland,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “the country has learned that the authorities had multiple warnings about the shooting suspect and repeatedly failed to act. The gun-free school zones law failed. And yet anti-gunners want to blame firearms and penalize law-abiding gun owners.

“Honest citizens and the Second Amendment are through being the national whipping boy for these abysmal failures,” he stated. “For years, we have endured the efforts of anti-gun elitists and their political lap dogs to erode our rights and hold honest gun owners responsible for crimes they didn’t commit. We have been slandered, marginalized and demonized.

“The feel-good fakery of gun control and gun-free zones has been exposed in the aftermath of the Parkland tragedy,” he said. “Enough is enough.

“Treating good people like criminals and creating victim disarmament zones such as schools, shopping malls, theaters and office buildings must cease,” he added. “The simple truth is that criminals and crazy people do not obey gun control laws.

“The time has come to scrap these irresponsible policies,” Gottlieb said. “Instead of stripping young Americans of their Second Amendment rights, we must give teachers and administrators a fighting chance, especially if armed authorities hesitate. Instead of treating gun owners as second class citizens we should allow them the option of being first responders.

“We must restore the common sense of self-defense,” he said. “We trust young adults with the vote and the protection of our nation, so we should trust them with the right to keep and bear arms as private citizens. It’s time to reverse course and stop this lethal march toward a mythical Utopia. Fantasy world solutions do not stop real world threats. Years of gun control extremism have left us with nothing but tears, sorrow and lost lives.”