Bar Rampage Shows Failure of Anti-Gun Laws

CNSNews Tue. 6/18/02

(CNSNews.com) – A weekend shooting rampage at a bar and restaurant on
Manhattan’s East Side is a clear demonstration that New York state’s gun
control laws have failed to protect the public, says a gun rights group.

Joe Waldron, Executive Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right
to Keep and Bear Arms, called the racially-motivated shooting of three
people by alleged gunman Steven Johnson a “failure of gun control.”

Johnson, who is black, reportedly invaded the bar, intent on killing as
many white people as he could before police killed him. Police call the
phenomenon “suicide by cop.”

“New York has some of the most draconian gun laws on the books,” Waldron
observed, “and every one of them was promoted by their sponsors as a
measure to prevent this kind of rampage. But all these gun laws have
done is disarm law-abiding citizens, making them easy prey for criminals
and maniacs who will always managed to get a gun, no matter how many
laws are passed to keep firearms out of the hands of honest people.”

In a press release, Waldron called Johnson’s act an “outrage” that might
not have happened if even one customer in the bar had been legally
armed.

Waldron said the shooting should “galvanize New Yorkers to demand repeal
of restrictive gun laws that leave them at the non-existent mercy of
urban terrorists and madmen.”