BELLEVUE, WA — The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in their San Francisco residence, and offered sincere hopes for a swift and complete recovery for Mr. Pelosi.

“News reports say the suspect assaulted Mr. Pelosi with a hammer, which should preclude any effort by Speaker Pelosi’s Democrat colleagues to exploit this horrible incident for the purpose of advancing their extremist gun control agenda,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This is the kind of violent crime against which average citizens, including Speaker Pelosi’s constituents, must be prepared to defend themselves on a daily basis in an environment where the far left has pushed ‘defund-the-police’ efforts and adopted policies which have allowed dangerous individuals to roam our streets and neighborhoods.

“Tens of millions of law-abiding citizens have chosen to exercise their constitutionally-protected Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms to defend themselves and their loved ones against such depravity,” he continued. “While the authorities have not yet established a motive for this attack, the incident underscores the fact that no citizen, regardless their place of residence or financial status, is immune from violent crime.

“It is cases like this which demonstrate the foolishness of efforts to restrict the rights of honest citizens to own and even carry firearms for their personal protection,” Gottlieb said. “When someone—including Mr. Pelosi—is attacked in their own home, or in a public place, even on a sidewalk, by someone wielding a hammer or other potentially deadly weapon, that person has an absolute right to defend himself or herself. In a situation like this, a gun beats a hammer every time.”