BELLEVUE, WA-New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, in public debate over passage of S.659/S.1805, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, today lied about the role that a Tacoma, WA gun shop played in the acquisition of a rifle by convicted Beltway snipers John Allan Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).
Speaking to the Senate, Sen. Lautenberg asserted that the Bull’s Eye Shooters Supply “sold” the Bushmaster rifle used in the October 2002 murder spree.
“That’s not true, and Sen. Lautenberg knows it,” said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron. “Why he would deliberately introduce a prevarication into serious floor debate about this legislation is a mystery. Sen. Lautenberg surely knows that the rifle was shoplifted from the store by Malvo. There is no evidence that the rifle was sold to anyone, and attempting to give truth to such an easily-exposed lie should be beneath the dignity of a United States senator.”
Sen. Lautenberg, one of Capitol Hill’s most vehement advocates of restrictive firearms laws, also erroneously asserted that the license to operate the Tacoma gun store was easily transferred from former owner Brian Borgelt to the current proprietor.
“Senator Lautenberg, who helped draft and put into law many of our current gun statutes, knows full well that it is legally impossible to transfer a federal firearms license,” Waldron stated. “A new owner of any retail firearms dealership must apply for, and be granted, his or her own license.
“Why is Sen. Lautenberg including such canards in his remarks,” Waldron questioned. “If he cannot present his case on its merits, without trying to color his arguments with falsehoods, what merit should we give to his overall statement? Of course, this is not the first time Sen. Lautenberg has taken liberties with the facts in his typical anti-gun rights rhetoric. But the fact that Frank Lautenberg can’t stick to the truth should be remembered in the future, and give everyone cause to wonder just what else he has lied about during his long campaign to destroy the firearms industry and the citizens’ rights to keep and bear arms.”