BELLEVUE, WA – After more than two decades of trying to destroy the firearms rights of more than 80 million law-abiding American gun owners – and statistically failing to show any impact on violent crime – the Brady “Campaign Against Illegal Guns” being launched Thursday is yet another crusade whose ultimate goal is to trample the Second Amendment into dust.

That’s the reaction from Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).

“This isn’t a new campaign against illegal guns,” he stated, “it’s the same old campaign against all guns, and the American citizens who own them.

“Over the past several years,” he continued, “anti-gunners have been claiming credit for reduced crime when it has really been initiatives mounted by gun owners across the country that have stopped criminals cold and put them in prisons where they belong.

“Three Strikes and You’re Out laws put violent repeat offenders out of circulation,” he said, “and Hard Time for Armed Crime statutes have kept more thugs behind bars.

“Expansion of shall-issue concealed carry laws that are now on the books in 38 states have allowed law-abiding citizens the means to fight back,” Gottlieb continued. “While the gun control crowd has continued to push one failed policy after another – all designed to prevent American citizens from defending themselves, their families and their homes – it has been the tough legislation, mandatory sentencing guidelines and expansion of self-defense rights that has truly carried the day, and the Brady Bunch knows it.

“Through it all,” Gottlieb stated, “millions of law-abiding Americans have steadfastly endured attacks on their rights, and battled against social bigotry in the press, to fight for laws that make their neighborhoods safe, and send criminals skulking back into the shadows.

“We will continue working with progressive members of both parties on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures to promote sensible legislation that focuses on felons, not firearms,” he concluded. “The battle to regain our firearms rights is hardly over, but we will cut through the smokescreens thrown in our path by anti-gun extremists. Our goal is to return common sense to the law, so that rights prevail over rhetoric.”