BELLEVUE, WA – Anti–gun Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has reached a new low in his attempt to blame the Fort Hood massacre on firearms, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Mayor Daley is deplorably capitalizing on the outrage at Fort Hood to push his gun prohibition agenda,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This is the height of moral bankruptcy from a man whose administration was sued Wednesday morning by the Chicago inspector general over apparent interference with an investigation into possible wrongdoing by current and former city employees.”

On Monday, Daley reacted to the Fort Hood shooting by telling reporters, “Unfortunately, America loves Guns. We love guns to a point where that, uh, we see devastation on a daily basis. You don’t blame a group.”

“You don’t blame guns, either,” Gottlieb fired back. “You hold the perpetrator responsible for his crime, not the instruments he used. Would Daley blame cars for the highway carnage created by drunk drivers?

“Perhaps the real culprit here,” he continued, “is former President Bill Clinton. The Washington Times revealed this morning that after he took office in 1993, the Army, under Clinton, instituted a ban on the carrying of firearms by military personnel on their bases. As a result, soldiers have been disarmed and left vulnerable to this kind of attack. Using Daley’s logic, he should blame Clinton for the Fort Hood massacre. That makes more sense than blaming guns.

“Daley has an agenda,” Gottlieb observed, “that he shares with other anti–gun extremists. They will exploit any tragedy to pursue their goal of public disarmament and destruction of the Second Amendment. Whether it is the assassination of a Seattle police officer, the murder of 13 people at Fort Hood, or the horrible body count of crime victims that has piled up in Chicago under Daley’s regime, they will dance through the blood toward the nearest sympathetic microphone to push their cause.

“America must ignore the ravings of anti–gun fanatics,” he concluded, “who are so blinded by a hatred for individual liberty and personal protection that they cannot see how foolish and petty they have become.”