Government Sets Poor 'Gun Control' Example, Says Gun Rights Leader

8/6/2002

From: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, 425-454-7012; http://www.saf.org/

BELLEVUE, Wash., Aug. 6 -- The following was released today by the Second Amendment Foundation:

"How can you expect the federal government to 'control' illegal guns when it can't even keep track of its own firearms?"

That's the question being asked by Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, after an internal Justice Department report disclosed that the FBI and other federal agencies had "lost" an estimated 775 firearms. Some of those guns later turned up at crime scenes, or were in the possession of criminals. One was even found on the body of a murder victim.

"For years," Gottlieb marveled, "members of Congress and anti-gunners in the federal bureaucracy have been dreaming up laws and regulations to take guns away from law-abiding Americans. Now it turns out, they should have been devoting some of that energy to keeping track of their own guns. Maybe anti-gunners on Capitol Hill should re-direct their attention to keeping the government's guns off the street, instead of working overtime to take guns out of the hands of honest citizens."

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has insisted that it has accounted for most of the missing guns, saying they were "somewhere."

"That's very reassuring," Gottlieb observed. "We know those guns are 'somewhere,' but we just don't know exactly where. The taxpayers should feel so much better about that."

Gottlieb also noted that the Justice Department report said about 200 laptop computers, some containing sensitive information, were also missing.

"This is just great," Gottlieb fumed. "While grandmothers and teenage girls are being wand-raped at airports, congressmen and bureaucrats are rushing to create 'national identification cards' for every American, children get kicked out of school under zero-tolerance rules for playing cops-and-robbers, and honest gun owners are continually treated like second-class citizens, the FBI, INS and other agencies are carelessly losing guns and national secrets.

"This revelation," Gottlieb continued, "is a warning siren that it's time common sense returned to government. Until Congress and the federal bureaucracy can clean up their own mess, they should stop treating citizens like criminals. Perhaps instead of cooking up laws to require citizens to lock up their guns, maybe they should keep better track of their own."

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, Conn.; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners. Current projects include several concealed carry lawsuits, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.