BELLEVUE, WA – A scandal involving members of Sen. Charles Schumer’s staff – working for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee – who fraudulently obtained credit information on Maryland’s Republican lieutenant governor, demonstrates why the anti-gun senator’s invasive gun control schemes cannot be trusted, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said today.

The scandal has been quietly unfolding for weeks, but the mainstream press has largely ignored the story. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb believes that biased news organizations are once again giving a gun control extremist what amounts to a “free pass” over an outrage that hardly surprises gun owners.

“Schumer has denied any knowledge about the activities of his research director Katie Barge and staffer Laura Weiner, who reportedly used the Social Security number of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in an attempt to find something politically damaging to him,” Gottlieb said. “Mr. Schumer should be held to the same standard of accountability for the acts of his underlings as was President Richard Nixon more than 30 years ago, for the Watergate plumber’s scandal. That Barge and Weiner have quit is irrelevant.

“The more important issue,” Gottlieb continued, “is that this story reveals how irresponsible Schumer’s people would be with the kind of information the senator has wanted to amass on gun owners over the years through his invasive gun control schemes. Schumer has backed all kinds of intrusive legislation that would require law-abiding Americans to surrender their privacy just to exercise a Constitutionally-protected civil right.

“Thanks to the Maryland scandal,” Gottlieb observed, “American gun owners now realize what Schumer’s minions could, and would, do with such details on gun-owning citizens. We now have good reason to be suspicious of any gun control mandates that include disclosure of a person’s Social Security number and other personal information on purchase forms to be used ostensibly just to clear the National Instant Check System; the kind of information Schumer wants the government to retain.

“Americans have every right to be concerned,” Gottlieb concluded, “that anti-gunners of Schumer’s ilk, including those on his payroll, would use whatever means available to dig up dirt on gun owners, just to find some reason why they should not be allowed to own firearms. Schumer has yet to apologize for the conduct of his subordinates, but then again, self-righteous demagogues usually don’t.”