CCRKBA BLASTS DALEY’S ‘NEW LOW,’ FOR BLAMING FORT HOOD MASSACRE ON GUNS
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.”

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) is one of the nation’s premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.

< Please e-mail, distribute, and circulate to friends and family >
Copyright © 2009 Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, All Rights Reserved.
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
James Madison Building
12500 N.E. Tenth Place
Bellevue, WA 98005Voice: 425-454-4911
Toll Free: 800-426-4302
FAX: 425-451-3959
email: InformationRequest@ccrkba.org

May 5, 2009For more information contact:
Ted Novin
tnovin@nssf.org
Office: 203-426-1320
Cell: 202-253-1860

Firearms and Ammunition Excise Taxes
Up 31 Percent in 4th Quarter
NEWTOWN, Conn. — During a time period of great economic uncertainty, firearm and ammunition sales have continued to increase throughout the country.
According to the most recent Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax Collection Report, released earlier today by the Department of the Treasury, firearm and ammunition manufacturers paid more than $98.1 million in the fourth calendar quarter of 2008, up 31.3% over the same time period reported in 2007.
Manufacturers of firearms and ammunition pay a federal excise tax — a major source of wildlife conservation funding –on all firearms and ammunition manufactured (11% on long guns and ammunition and 10% on handguns).
The report, which covers the time period of October 1, 2008, through December 31, 2008, shows that $27.6 million was collected for pistols and revolvers, $35.0 million for long guns and $35.5 million for ammunition. Compared to the same quarter in 2007, collections were up 70.1% for handguns, 11.4% for long guns and 31.1% for ammunition.
These figures close out the 2008 calendar year. In 2008, a total of $345.2 million was collected in excise taxes, up 13.9% from the $303.2 million collected in calendar year 2007.
“Demand for firearms and ammunition is clear,” said NSSF President Steve Sanetti. “Since the November elections we’ve seen an increase in firearm ownership coupled with an unprecedented level of attendance at firearm safety courses nationwide. Americans are buying firearms, and they’re taking the proper precautions to ensure that they exercise their individual Second Amendment rights safely and responsibly.”
 
View Full-Size Chart
Translation to Sales:
Using the latest collections as an indication of sales, a projection of $917.5 million was generated in the fourth quarter (calendar year) of 2008. Please keep in mind that although excise taxes are one of the best indicators of industry performance, they only report what the manufacturers paid in taxes and do NOT reflect retail mark-up and final retail sales. Furthermore, these figures are based solely on U.S. civilian sales and do not include sales to military, police and other governmental agencies.
Pistols and revolvers: $27,649,109.11 / .10 = $276,491,091.10 = $276.5 million for handguns
Long guns: $35,021,474.66 / .11 = $318,377,042.36 = $318.4 million for long guns
Ammunition: $35,488,061.46 / .11 = $322,618,740.55 = $322.6 million for ammunition
Total estimation for the quarter: $917.5 million
Using the same methodology, a projection of $3.22 billion dollars was generated in calendar year 2008, up 15% from the $2.8 billion projected for calendar year 2007.
Pistol and Revolvers: $907.1 million
Long guns: $1.15 billion
Ammunition: $1.16 billion
“These numbers speak to a much greater story,” said NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane. “America’s gun owners have serious concerns about the country’s current political make-up. Lawmakers should recognize this and understand that these gun owners are not merely consumers buying a product, but voters reacting to a very real threat.”

The NRA is offering FREE trial memberships for new members! Please go to www.nra.org/bonus to sign up! Help preserve the rights to own guns for our future generations!

NEWS RELEASE
OBAMA EFFORT TO END ARMED PILOTS PROGRAM AN OUTRAGE, SAYS CCRKBA
BELLEVUE, WA – A revelation by the Washington Times that President Barack Obama is trying to quietly end the armed pilot program, making air travel more vulnerable to terrorist attack, should outrage travelers, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“The Washington Times nailed it,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who proposed arming pilots just hours after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and championed the armed pilot program. “What Obama is doing is risking public safety, as the newspaper put it, ‘in the name of an anti-gun ideology’.”

The newspaper reported in its Tuesday edition that President Obama is “quietly ending the federal firearms program” by diverting some $2 million from the training program to hire “supervisory” staff, whose job, it appears, will be to harass armed pilots through unnecessary field inspections.

“How dare the president, or anybody in his administration, take measures to erode the safety of air travelers,” Gottlieb questioned. “The armed pilot program provides a guaranteed level of security to the public. There may or may not be an air marshal aboard every airplane, but there is definitely a pilot in the cockpit.

“We trust commercial airline pilots with $500 million aircraft,” he continued. “We can certainly trust them with $500 pistols to defend those planes, and the lives of their passengers.

“Certain individuals have never liked the armed pilot program,” Gottlieb acknowledged. “These anti-gun, anti-self-defense bureaucrats seem more interested in their own power, and protecting their little empires, than they are in protecting the public. And now, Obama is catering to their anti-gun bigotry.”

Call the White House at (202) 456-1111, or send a comment by visiting www.whitehouse.gov/contact.

February 26, 2009For more information contact:
Bill Brassard
203-426-1320

Semi-Automatic Rifle Ban
Would Reduce Jobs, Not Crime
Firearms Industry Reminds Congress
to Respect Second Amendment Rights
NEWTOWN, Conn. — Responding to Attorney General Eric Holder’s comment yesterday that the Obama Administration will attempt to reinstate a ban against semi-automatic rifles, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reminded Congress and all Americans that such a ban would cause jobs to be lost in a difficult economy, have no effect on reducing crime and would deprive millions of law-abiding sportsmen and gun owners of their Constitutional right to own the firearm of their choice.
 Video:
Attorney General’s Remarks at Wednesday’s
Press Conference

Holder made his comments in connection with criminals supplying illegal guns from the United States to drug dealers in Mexico.
“The problem of criminals breaking the law to acquire firearms and illegally smuggling them across the border is not remedied by legislation that would violate the rights of Americans to own semi-automatic firearms,” said Steve Sanetti, president of NSSF, the trade association of the firearms industry.
“These types of firearms, which are erroneously called ‘assault weapons,’ are used by millions of Americans for hunting, sporting and personal defense purposes,” Sanetti added. “We can only conclude that certain officials are waiting for any politically advantageous excuse to announce the intention to seek a new ban on sporting rifles, a ban that would break the president’s campaign promise to gun owners that ‘I’m not going to take away your guns.’”
The industry and firearms owners were understandably outraged by Holder’s comments yesterday, and today even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed away from the idea of a new gun ban. “On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now,” said Pelosi, surprisingly taking the position of pro-gun advocates.
Holder’s use of the inaccurate term “assault weapons” is one that is deliberately used by gun-ban advocates to create confusion between legally sold, semi-automatic rifles and look-a-like, fully automatic military versions. While the civilian version of these rifles may resemble their military counterparts, the civilian rifle fires only one round with each pull of the trigger. Additionally, these rifles fire ammunition calibers no more powerful than traditional-looking sporting arms. Civilian access to fully automatic machine guns has been severely restricted since 1934.
Studies show that the ban against sporting firearms, known as the Assault Weapons Ban, that was in place from 1994 to 2004 did not reduce crime. Furthermore, there has been no increase in crime involving these types of firearms since Congress allowed the ban to expire.
A ban on sporting firearms also would have a severe effect on jobs and the economy. Sales of semi-automatic rifles have been strong over the last several months — overall sales of firearms have increased as much as 42 percent — and have allowed companies in the firearms industry to withstand, to some extent, the downturn in the economy.
“These semi-automatic rifles are the most popular rifle in America today and they are largely behind the recent increase in firearms sales,” said Sanetti. “This is a bright spot in our economy and has helped save jobs in our industry.”
Since the election last November gun owners have feared the Obama Administration would seek legislation that would infringe on their Second Amendment rights. “It appears gun owners’ fears were well-founded given Attorney General Holder’s comment that the Obama Administration will seek new restrictions on gun owners. A new gun ban would fly in the face of last year’s Supreme Court decision in the Heller case that reaffirmed the Second Amendment right of all Americans to keep and bear arms,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.
For more information, visit:
http://nssf.org/media/FactSheets/Semi-Auto_Background.cfm

Have you ever been involved with the Friends of NRA? We have sponsored our local event each year for the last six or seven. This is a wonderful way to help foster youth in the shooting sports and a good way to help our future generations keep our gun rights safer. 

Our local banquet will be in April and we will be there along with our children who will also be helping this wonderful cause. Consider taking a deeper look into what the NRA can do for you and don’t forget to look up your local Friends of NRA committee.  They can sure use your help right now!